It seems like Xiaomi won’t attend this year’s Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, which comes as quite a surprise. This information comes from TechCrunch, and the info was confirmed to the site by a spokesperson. This is quite a shocker considering that the company introduced their flagship for 2016 during the Mobile World Congress 2016 at the end of February, and many people assumed that the Xiaomi Mi 6 will land at this year’s MWC. Well, that won’t be the case it seems, as this information seems to be quite legitimate, read on.
Most of you probably already know that Hugo Barra decided to leave Xiaomi quite recently, the company’s now-former VP of Global did a lot of good for them, as he was with Xiaomi for 3.5 years, but he is now moving to Facebook in order to lead the company’s Oculus team, as was confirmed via Twitter by Hugo Barra himself. Now, Xiaomi actually admitted that they’ve expanded too fast, and by doing that, the company suggested that they’ll slow down a bit, so maybe this whole MWC information is not such a shocker after all. Xiaomi is essentially entering a transitional period after growing too fast, which Lei Jun confirmed quite recently. Xiaomi did not reveal how many smartphones they’ve sold last year, but they were unable to compete with Huawei, and a number of other companies also managed to outsell Xiaomi in 2016. It is also worth mentioning that Xiaomi was present at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) which was held earlier this year, Xiaomi opted to participate for the first time ever.
So, when will Xiaomi introduce the Xiaomi Mi 6? Well, if this information is accurate, and they won’t attend MWC 2017, then the company will probably host a standalone event during which they’ll introduce their new flagship. This event will probably take place in China, though Xiaomi might opt to hold an event in Europe and / or the US as well, though we’re not sure anymore considering they’re not attending MWC, which might suggest that the event will take place in China only. In any case, stay tuned, Xiaomi is actually expected to release the Mi 6 in the coming weeks.