Xiaomi adding laptop Mi Notebook to product line

Global Business

Xiaomi adding laptop Mi Notebook to product line

Smart-phone maker Xiaomi is adding one more gadget to its already swelling family line. This time, it’s a laptop as the company aims to integrate the information stored in all of its gadgets ranging from smart phones to bracelets.

CCTV’s Laura Lo reports.

Chinese smart phone maker Xiaomi has entered the PC market by launching its new laptop Xiao Mi air. The tech firm has also unveiled a new line of smartphones, the Redmi Pro. Xiaomi’s expansion into the PC world has sparked questions concerning the future of the company’s core smart-phone business after lackluster sales in the first half of this year. That, and Apple’s fall in iPhone sales the past two quarters beg the question, has growth in the Chinese smart-phone market peaked?

“Now your photos in your smart phones can be synchronized to a Xiaomi laptop,” said Lei Jun, Xiaomi’s founder and CEO. “It supports the Xiaomi bracelet too,” said Lei Jun, Xiaomi’s founder and CEO.

Xiaomi has also released their latest line of mobile phones, whose sales tallied above 100 million units in the past three years.

However, in less than 15 months Xiaomi has fallen from being the top seller in China last year to fifth place in the first quarter this year. That came due to increasing competition among local smart-phone brands. Analysts say the key to success in the Chinese market is to grasp fast-changing consumer trends.

“Xiaomi dropped from number one in 2015 to number five in the first quarter of this year,” says Kitty Fok, managing director of IDC China. “This is due to strong competition from local brands”

While Xiaomi and Apple have seen a giant slowdown in sales, the concern about Chinese market gets slowing comes out.

Fox expressed his opinion that he thinks the market has reached saturation. If the growth rate reaches 2 percent it’s already good. The Chinese market changes so fast that it’s almost unimaginable. Apple is still doing quite well in China, despite local competition.

At the same time, Huawei has replaced Xiaomi as the biggest player in the Chinese market. Fok said Huawei’s self-developed technologies, and engagement with the fast-changing consumer preferences has been essential to their success.

Xiaomi’s Redmi Pro does exactly that by using two lenses to form an SLR camera effect. Meanwhile, its rival Apple is could be a few steps ahead by quietly studying Chinese consumer behavior – such as its $1 million investment in taxi hailing app Didi Dache.