Lei Jun (Photo : Reuters)
Xiaomi, Inc., China's largest smartphone manufacturer, will invade the United States' huge smartphone market by first selling headphones and other accessories online. It will begin by selling small items without the Mi logo.
The company also revealed its plan to build a manufacturing facility in Brazil to enable it to evade import tariffs when it finally launches into the Latin American market in the next few months. The manufacturing facility in Brazil will be Xaomi's first venture into offshore manufacturing.
Xiaomi is still considered a start-up company because it's only five years old. It has, however, already established itself as the fastest selling mobile brand, and is expanding by the minute through online sales.
Xaomi's Mi devices became very popular in China because of its affordable prices, and heavy user interaction in Sina Weibo, China's social media platform. Xaomi is now available in India.
Hugo Barra, Xaomi's global operations vice president, said the company will sell its phones in the U.S. this year.
The mobile industry is observing Xaomi's foray into the U.S., which is the number one mobile device market in the world and which is dominated by Apple along with with major telecom carriers.
Xaomi president and co-founder Lin Bin said his company is on the brink of launching its online sales site Mi.com, to sell mainly accessories partly as test products to the American market. But the second reason, most possibly the main reason, is that the U.S.' carrier sales and phone subsidy system will make the Xiaomi products expensive, eliminating Xaomi's price advantage.
Xiami's main strategy is to follow what they did in China, which is to cultivate a following through user interaction via social media.
