Often Xiaomi is referred to as the Apple of China. It has only been around for four years yet it has cemented itself as a major player in China’s burgeoning smartphone market. Xiaomi’s strategy is to flood the market with highly competitively priced smartphones, and it seems to be working. The company has announced that in the first three months of 2014 it has sold 11 million smartphones. That’s astonishing, given that it only sold 18.7 million units in all of 2013.
Last year’s 18.7 million unit sales were in itself a 160 percent growth from 2012. Xiaomi has spectacularly grown its market share from the get go, and the company now sets its sights even higher. It aims to sell as many as 60 million smartphones in 2014, and judging by its performance in the first quarter, that may very well be possible. Its latest smartphone, the Redmi Note, sold over 100,000 units in just half an hour, so it certainly has popularity in the Chinese market.
Xiaomi is also keen to take on the global smartphone market. It poached former Android executive Hugo Barra to spearhead its international expansion. The company aims to launch its smartphones in Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia and later on in Europe this year. Its evident why its targeting emerging markets first, given its arsenal of low cost devices, it may have a strong chance competing against rivals in these markets.
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