Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi's production to reach 40 m

Xiaomi is a prominent smartphone manufacturer in China and is known for offering low cost smartphones. Last year, the company sold 18.7 million units which were effectively 160% from the year before sale. In the year 2014, the company is planning to double the number of mobile handsets sold. In 2014, the company is aiming to export minimum 40 million smartphones. On Thursday, an internal email was sent where the CEO of the company Lei Jun stated that the income in the year 2013 touched 31.6 billion yuan or US$5.18 billion. This was approximately 150% above the last year’s figure. MIUI users which are an operating system based on Android also surpassed 300 million figure in the latter half of December in the month of 2013. The demand for these smartphones increased at an exponential rate and the company faced a lot of pressure in meeting this demand.

Booking Xiaomi handset

Booking a handset from Xiaomi proved to be quite challenging for many Chinses consumers as the phone maker claimed to sell 10 K handsets within just 60 seconds and 36 minutes in the month of December when the company promoted its products in Taiwan and Hong Kong respectively. Primary goal of the company in the year 2014 is to augment its capacity for production as per Lei’s mail. The mail also reflected company’s commitment to ship minimum 40 million handsets within a year’s time. Doubt was expressed by market commentators regarding this highly ambitious plan that could help in shipping realizing 40 million units saying that it was a huge number. The commentators also noted that G2 handset by LG could sell only 30 million handsets globally. According to them, telecom operators of China have been launching 4G networks all around the country. Right now, 3G services are being promoted by the devices from Xiaomi which might be excluded from the market.

Apple buying Xiaomi?

According to a story published in the Sunday newspaper, “Why Apple should buy China’s Xiaomi” elaborated on Apple’s and Google’s experience that may help this Chinese company in building a bigger brand thereby challenging Apple in Chinese market. The price of the same indicates towards advantages associated with Xiaomi. A chance of Xiaomi acquisition was suggested in the story. This move may help Apple in the elimination of strong rivals in the fastest growing and largest market of the world. This will in turn help Apple Company enter cost effective smartphone market in rural area of China besides Southeast Asia.

All in all, consumers preferring low cost smartphones are waiting for Xiaomi smartphones to reach them with bated breath. The company has capabilities and just a firm step towards positive direction can help them meet this ambitious plan.