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by Rika Nathania

Amazing success story from China's smartphone: XiaoMi

By 11:45 PM , , , , , , , , ,

Xiaomi Corp., a private company that sells smarphones in China, has been a popular topic nowadays. Starting to grow from its original country (China), they slowly gain popularity in Asian country (such as Indonesia and Singapore).

A most popular question is "why the price is so cheap while the quality is good?".
Mi phone, could be compared with other popular brand name phones, such as Samsung or Apple. Even, Xiaomi has ranked third after Samsung and Apple, followed by Lenovo and LG.



Mi phone sometimes often called by people as China's iPhone, due to similar design on some Xiaomi's features. The company was accused of copying Apple's philosophy and mindset. However, Xiaomi argues that they maintained different set of principles. Further, their phone are using Google's Android operating system and this sets Xiaomi apart.

Some of you might now wondering about its design and price comparison with other phones. A picture below shows the comparison between Xiaomi Mi4 and Samsung Galaxy note 3 neo.




The price for Samsung galaxy note 3 neo is about AUD 480, while Xiami Mi 4 is approximately AUD 350. Considering the quality and price of Mi 4, most people (especially with tight budget) would prefer Mi4. Additionally, compared to Apple's iPhone 6, the price of Mi4 is only half. 

Back to the question I mentioned on first paragraph (why the price is so cheap while the quality is good?), a quick answer is:
The company choose to keep down both costs and margins, instead to concentrate on the product.

Xiaomi Corp. heavily relied their marketing through marketing buzz and social networking services. A unique thing is Xiaomi does not own a single physical store. Therefore, they sell all their products through its Website. Sometimes, limited availability flash sales were made to ensure supply does not exceeds demand and create a free marketing buzz on its product.

Further, Xiaomi also listening closely to customer feedback. Therefore, they create company user forums. Once a suggestion from the forum is picked up by the product managers, they quickly transferred it to engineers. Finally. their quality could be improved in terms of software or hardware. This process is often called by Xiaomi as "design as you build".

Another positive thing of Xiao mi Corp. is that they are transparent, the company listed the manufacturers and model numbers in spec sheet. This additional information made their customer happy about its service and also let them know about its material (so they could know whether the item is good).


What do you think of Xiaomi phone? Have you heard about this phone or considered to buy one?


Reference:
Amadeo, R. (2014). Xiaomi Mi4 review: China's iPhone killer is unoriginal but amazing. Retrieved on May 14, 2015, from http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/08/xiaomi-mi4-review-chinas-iphone-killer-is-unoriginal-but-amazing/
Bershidsky, L. (2014). Xiaomi's Killer App? Its Business Model. Retrieved on May 14, 2015, from http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-11-06/xiaomi-s-killer-app-its-business-model
Spence, E. (2015). Apple iPhone 6 vs Xiaomi Mi4 Review: Tim Cook's clone wars. Retrieved on May 13, 2015, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/ewanspence/2015/02/26/apple-iphone-6-vs-xiaomi-mi-4-review/.
Wikipedia. (2015). Xiaomi. Retrieved on May 13, 2015, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiaomi.


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10 comments

  1. Using a Xiaomi Note 4G myself and I agree with it being good for its cheap price! It's half the price compared to my old samsung galaxy s3 mini (price when first released), but wayyy better in terms of specs. Although there are issues with it being somewhat incompatible with my home wifi (only my home, elsewhere is fine. turning on VPN counters the problem though), this minor downside is hardly anything to complain about for a phone at this price.
    Able to handle mid-casual gaming without lag, long battery life, awesome front camera (for selfies!) and the list of good points goes on. I only wish they had the option to increase internal memory space, but for those not intending to download big/many apps, it is sufficient.

    Nice to see a blog post about this underrated phone! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for sharing your experience!
      Actually I don't own Xiaomi phone, but my brother has it and so far he never complained about it's features or content. Also, my friends who bought this phone tend to recommend Xiaomi.
      If they have more memory options like Apple has (e.g. 16 Gb, 32 GB), I'm really sure more people will start to consider buying this phone.

      Delete
  2. Replies
    1. Do you mean by Oneplus One phone?
      Even though this brand can be considered new, but it's also getting more popularities in the market. However, I think they might need more marketing strategies in order to create brand awareness of this new invention from China.
      From what I saw from people opinion, they says it's a good quality phone with cheap price. Some people might still consider to buy Xiaomi though, since they've been established longer than Oneplus one, so it has more certainty in durability.
      However, this might chance in the future..

      Delete
  3. Last week, Microsoft announced that they will bring windows 10 OS to Xiaomi phones. I as a xiaomi user is worried because of this issue, as so many people knows, windows OS don't have as much application as Android OS. As you stated in your post, "Xiaomi also listening closely to customer feedback", do you think Xiaomi will listen to their user if their user demanded to bring back Android OS as the built in OS of Xiaomi phones and break the deal with Microsoft? However if they kept their deal with Microsoft and still using Windows OS, do you think they could maintain their exponential growth rate by only relying on marketing buzz and social networking services for their marketing because they probably will get bad review on the social networking services?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm sure many people are worried about this too. However, there's 2 statements from both parties.
      Xiaomi says that they haven't make a partnership with Microsoft, While Microsoft clearly announce about their partnership with Xiaomi.
      Since the fact is still controversial, It's a good idea for customers to send feedback to Xiaomi. I'm sure they will take a good choice after considering their customer perspective and the growth of their company.

      In case the deal is true, I'm sure they will convince their users about a good change and if their reputation fall, it might be a good idea if they start from the social media.

      Delete
  4. Thankyou so much for this post! I'v been making comparison between xiaomi and samsung lately. Although I ended up buying samsung, this may be a good future reference for people. China stuffs are not always bad! Xiaomi is so underrated because of it's cheap price and people's stereotype about china products

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes I'm agree with your opinion. People will need to judge objectively about China brands, since more China products is actually has good qualities.
      However, since social media have a huge impact on people's perspective, when there's more articles and reviews telling its positive sides, I'm sure more people will be more open minded to try new things and buy Xiaomi.

      Delete
  5. I'm agree with that as well, as a condition if Xiaomi always try their best in developing new products which will attract people, like what they always do until now.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I actually planned on purchasing one of Xiaomi's products, but I'm still waiting for more user reviews before making my decision (I had a rather unpleasant experience with minor smartphone brand, sadly). As for the customer feedback and company forums, I really hope that they are working nicely in reality since I believe that one of the ways to attract and maintain customers aside from marketing is by providing a satisfying after-sales service :)

    ReplyDelete