Xiaomi’s CEO, Lei Jun, has reiterated Xiaomi’s desire to launch its smartphones in the US, but he admitted that the company is still trying to figure out the strategy for such a move. He says that Xiaomi is still not ready to move to the US, and that the company is “carefully evaluating the best timeline” to do something like that, which is completely understandable considering that LeEco tried to do the same a while back, and the company is now facing huge debt and financial issues in general.
Now, Xiaomi is selling some of its non-smartphone devices in the country, such as the Mi Box, and by doing that, Xiaomi is learning more about the market and its consumers, says Lei Jun. The US market is considerably different from what Xiaomi is used to, so it’s not exactly surprising that the company is taking it one step at a time, as they don’t want to rush anything and make huge risks if it’s not necessary. Samsung and Apple are still the top two companies in the US, and it’s safe to say that the US market is dominated by those two companies, so it will not be easy to get in the mix, which is something a number of other companies already experienced. Samsung and Apple currently hold over 50 percent of the US smartphone market, at least according to the latest analysis, and even though it would be interesting to see how would Xiaomi fare in the US, chances are that something like that won’t happen that soon.
Now, Xiaomi is currently the fifth-largest smartphone manufacturer in the world, at least that was the case in the third quarter of this year. The company is doing a lot better this year, than it was a year ago, as it managed to double its shipments in the third quarter, and is currently striving in India, and that country is one of the main reasons why Xiaomi managed to grow so much on a global scale as well. Having said that, Lei Jun did not want to comment on a possible IPO, which is something that has been mentioned in the latest reports. Lei Jun also promised that Xiaomi will release a couple of products next year that will “steal customers’ hearts”, though he did not want to elaborate on that, of course.