Only yesterday LeEco confirmed the appointment of Rob Chandhok as the new Chief of R&D at the company’s American division in order to take control of things as the company prepares to launch in the US and now the company has gone one step further and finally announced its US launch date as October 19th.
The invitation doesn’t mention anything specifically other than the date – October 19 – and the location – San Francisco – but it does preview a number of product categories in which the company participates, such as smartphones, virtual reality, connected bicycles and TV’s, among others. The company, which was previously known as Letv, was originally a streaming service in China, similar in many ways to Netflix, but over the past years the company has gradually expanded into the hardware sector and has even unveiled an electric self-driving car concept. As part of their US expansion, the company has confirmed plans to launch their popular streaming service in the country as well as its smartphones, with other hardware devices most likely following in the near future as well.
The company’s smartphones have a history of featuring some of the best hardware on the market and yet are ones which are priced comparatively very low. For instance, yesterday saw the company’s latest smartphone, the LeEco Le Pro 3, go on sale in China and it reportedly sold an incredible 500,000 units in less than a minute – highlighting just how popular the company has become in its homeland. Obviously, the company won’t be expecting to replicate this level of success in the US instantly, but with their launch event just around the corner, there is a high possibility that the company will release a high-end device in limited quantities alongside the Le Max 2, Le 2 and possibly even the Le Pro 2. With only a few weeks to go before the launch, more details may be revealed about what to expect from the event as the date nears, but one thing that is certain, the launch of LeEco’s devices in the US will most likely help other Chinese companies such as Xiaomi better prepare themselves for their eventual US launch.