Xiaomi Mi 5 (Photo : YouTube)
The battle to retain the title of China’s top phone company is tough as Huawei continuously challenges Xiaomi. To keep that post, Xiaomi launched its flagship device, the Mi 5, and announced the opening of 300 stores across China.
Huawei did not hide its aim to challenge Xiaomi’s dominance of the phone market in the Asian giant and previously said that by end of 2015, it would topple its rival. But Huawei failed to keep its threat as Xiaomi shipped 2 million more gadgets last year, reported Technology News China.
To let Huawei know that it is not threatened, Xiaomi CEO and co-founder Lei Jun said on Wednesday, “We are sorry other vendors are disappointed.”
The Mi 5, which sells for 1,999 yuan ($306) to 2,699 yuan, features a 16-megapixel back shooter, ceramic back, fingerprint sensor, 128-gigabyte storage and powerful processor. While some of the specs of Huawei’s flagship device, Mate 8, are similar to Mi 5, it is priced higher at 3,199 yuan.
Xiaomi officially unveiled the Mi 5 ay MWC 2016. It is powered by the Snapdragon 820 chip, similar to what is inside the Samsung Galaxy S7 and LG G5, but at half the tag price of the two South Korean phones, pointed out Phone Arena.
Beginning March 1, Mi 5 would be available in mainland China then India. But it would not be sold in the US because its online store there sells only mobile accessories and power banks and Xiaomi lacks the needed patents. But Lei said the smartphone giant is expanding its patent pool and has 3,600 patent applications the past years.
The battle for a larger slice of the Chinese phone market has become fiercer over the years despite China being the world’s largest consumer market with its population of more than 1.3 billion people. High penetration rate has resulted in slow growth of the smartphone market in China.
