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Xiaomi's phones have conquered China – now it's aiming for the rest of the world
- ogdenyogly 12y agoAny article that begins with a narrative is manipulative tripe and not worth reading.
- chatmasta 12y agoWhen did capturing the reader's attention become "manipulative tripe?" The goal of any piece of writing is to persuade and convince. Opening with an engaging anecdote is a time-tested tool for bringing readers into a piece. Writers have been doing this for centuries. Would you rather the author reduce the article to a list of bullet points?
- blueskin_ 12y agoAlso grammatical mistakes like "an historic".
- naterator 12y agoThat's not a clear-cut mistake, and in my opinion totally forgivable. http://www.betterwritingskills.com/tip-w005.html http://www.betterwritingskills.com/tip-w005.html
- blueskin_ 12y agoMost people, including Americans, pronounce historic as historic, not 'istoric.
- dspillett 12y agoNorthern UK here. "An' istoric" is very common in informal speech, even in the south but more so in these parts, but I wouldn't expect to see it written that way.
- vidyesh 12y agoThanks for the link. I didn't knew why I always used 'an hour' instead of 'a hour' but that's what I was taught. The link explains a lot. People keep correcting me for typing 'an hour' instead of 'a hour'.
- terranstyler 12y agoSo it seems when writing in English for a French audience that using more often "an" would lend "an helping hand" to understanding (by supporting the internal voice)
- blueskin_ 12y agoOnly if it is literally pronounced as 'istoric. AFAIK there are no accents that do that other than maybe a few northern areas of the UK. http://grammarpartyblog.com/2011/01/10/an-historical-event-i-don%E2%80%99t-think-so/ http://grammarpartyblog.com/2011/01/10/an-historical-event-i...
- est 12y ago> Now It's Aiming for the Rest of the World More like getting sued in the rest of the world.
- hkmurakami 12y agoSamsung seems to be doing just fine ;)
- ksec 12y agoIf Samsung == Copy, Xiami == Rip Off.
- vidyesh 12y agoThere is a reason why Samsung manages to pull that off. [1] Price-fixing and counter-suing strategy. They always have been using the same disruptive method in every industry they are in. By the time the verdict is out they have mass produced and sold it with huge profits lined up to pay a settlement fee. 1. http://www.vanityfair.com/business/2014/06/apple-samsung-smartphone-patent-war.print http://www.vanityfair.com/business/2014/06/apple-samsung-sma...
- 1stop 12y agoWhy would they get sued?
- mcintyre1994 12y agoSome of Apple's patents they've used against other manufacturers are parts of Android, I believe all android manufacturers are paying Microsoft royalties per device too. Xiaomi will need to negotiate deals or risk being sued as they expand their reach.
- 1stop 12y agoNot sure companies (Apple/Microsoft) are willing to sue a Chinese company as quickly as a Korean one. Given how the Chinese government could intervene (i.e shut them out of china).
- blueskin_ 12y agoI hope they come up with a name that's easy to pronounce if they do. I also doubt they will do well in the rest of the world for the same reason Huawei aren't - lack of trustability.
- vvvv 12y agoBased on my circle, Huawei is not insignificant and getting traction. Cheap and reliable is a good way to start.
- pjc50 12y agoI have a Huawei Ascend P1 LTE. It's certainly cheap. I wouldn't describe it as reliable; it was very prone to locking up if you disabled and later re-enabled the wifi. They released an OTA firmware update which mostly fixed this, but now the screen is starting to blister in a few places.
- 1stop 12y agoHuawei are after business contracts. Xiaomi (Show (as in shower) me) are after consumer market. I think they will have better success
- icebraining 12y agoXiaomi (Show (as in shower) me) That's how Hugo Barra described it, but listening to the pronunciation of "Xiao", it doesn't sound exactly right - you lose the sound of the 'i'. Happily, reading it as a Portuguese word sounds exactly like the Chinese seem to pronounce it.
- 1stop 12y agoDepends on which part of china. Xi is typicial a Si (like italian) mixed with a soft sh (like shoosh). Northerners emphasis the "sh" more southerners emphasis the "Si". I believe the 'correct' should be somewhere in between.
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- airjd 12y agoXiaomi is cheap. But I hate Android, if they change the OS, maybe I will buy one.
- ibloging 12y agoI like their domain, very short, haha.
- ooOOoo 12y agoFrom CNET: "Xiaomi's Redmi offers exceptional value for its low price, and blows all other budget handsets out of the water. If you're looking for a cheap Android smartphone without having to compromise performance, look no further." http://www.cnet.com/products/xiaomi-redmi/ http://www.cnet.com/products/xiaomi-redmi/
- nicpottier 12y agoI don't know, I'd much rather have a Moto E for $129 than that phone for $135. Looks seriously chunky and vanilla Android is far nicer. Will give them a nod on the 720p display though.
- ferongr 12y agoThe Moto E SOC has two relatively slow A7 cores and a slow graphics chip though. Something to keep in mind.
- e2daipi 12y agoHow about the upgrade[1]? The Redmi/hongmi/redrice 1s has a 1.6GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400, rather than the 1.5GHz MediaTek MT6589T [1] http://www.ishoppstore.com/en/quad-core/4697-xiaomi-red-rice-1s-hongmi-redmi-1gb-ram-8gb-rom-qualcomm-snapdragon-400-quad-core-16ghz-0617689706460.html http://www.ishoppstore.com/en/quad-core/4697-xiaomi-red-rice...
- kayoone 12y agoFeels like i have read the exact same thing half a year ago and half a year before that. We have seen countless times that what works in asia doesn't always work in the rest of the world and vice versa. Last i heard was that iPhones sell very well in China though :)
- 1stop 12y agoThe sell very well if you forget there are a billion people. They sell really badly if you take that into account.
- nemasu 12y agoGreat! I'm all for more cheap high-spec Android phones! I would buy one.
- netcan 12y agoYou say that like its a promise that keeps going unfulfilled. I think these is an update that Xiami is is pretty much on track to do what they keep saying it's going to do and putting some more clarity on the how. EG take Xiaomi beyond China and into Brazil, Mexico, Russia, Turkey, India, and five countries in Southeast Asia. It's a status update.
- joosters 12y agoWhen did Businessweek's website start requesting your browser location when you visit it?
- blueskin_ 12y agoabout:config geo.enabled = false Problem solved.
- PeterWhittaker 12y agoThank you.
- tim333 12y agoFirst time I've seen that too. I said no.
- redact207 12y agoMy girlfriend got one of these the other day in Singapore. The cash vs tech spec ratio on the thing is much better than the premium handsets and she seems quite smitten for picking up a good deal. The reason they sell out so quickly is the local phone stores buy them in bulk the minute they're released and add a $20 premium on each set.
- jestinjoy1 12y agoOnline only selling mode is proving to be a good one. In India Motorola tried that with an exclusive deal with online retailer Flipkart for Moto G and it was an instant hit. More on quality less on Stores and Ad. In international market it would be tough to compete with phone with Android OS.
- sdegutis 12y agoLooks like a solid option, I love it when companies ditch non-integral aspects of their budget to improve functionality or form of their product. That's also why I shop at Aldi, because you get lower prices with the same quality products, at the cost of having to put a quarter into the cart, bag your own items, and even bring your own bags (or use empty boxes). That said, I've been ditching smart phones lately in favor of dumb phones. Not only is life too short to be attached to a gadget all day long, but you can't beat the price (roughly $7 a month for an emergency mobile phone).
- hyp0 12y agoYes, and whoever creates the most value will (and should) win. tangent: I've noticed ALDI products are often the same quality - and the same price - as the "generic/home/no name" brands of regular supermarkets. But in nicer packaging. Basically, generic brands are high enough quality these days, but people will pay more for shiny. (I can feel this in myself). To out-ALDI ALDI, you'd sell generic brands in generic packaging.
- ohwp 12y agoI've bought a Huawaei and am very pleased with it (only the camera is crap). In the past I tried different Chinese brands but they were all crap. It seems they worked hard to change that. Huawei and Xiaomi both get great reviews for there low cost phones. Btw: Xiaomi means something as 'grain of rice'. Meaning that small things still can be big.