According to the CEO of popular smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi, the company is expected enter the U.S. this year and it also plans to go public in the same period.
Xiaomi Has Not Provided on Which Devices Will Initially Be Sold in the Region, Though Premium Handsets Should Be Its First Stop
Lei Jun is a serial entrepreneur and leads Xiaomi from the front. He stated that the company will begin selling phones in America within this year, during an annual legislature session of China.
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“We’ve always been considering entering the U.S. market. We plan to start entering the market by end 2018, or by early 2019.”
Needless to say, the company is all set to capture the North American market. The company was initiated in China and already sells to the Asian, African, and European markets. The company achieved spectacular results in India, beating Samsung as the top seller recently. Xiaomi recovered from a sales plunge in 2016, which was a result of fast growth and resumed the path to success in 2017.
The company has a lot of feathers in its cap even before entering the U.S. market. If it goes public during the second-half of this year, the IPO could be worth a $100 billion. The company did start selling accessories in Western markets including the U.S. some years ago but hasn’t introduced its phones so far, which is expected to cause the real form of trouble for companies like Apple and Samsung.
This is because Xiaomi’s phones are much cheaper than Apple and Samsung devices, but more importantly, these devices are centered around a premium experience for the user. The best-selling Redmi series begin at only $150 and the high-end Mi lineup costs more than $300. Some Xiaomi devices also come with custom chipsets, allowing the Chinese firm to reduce dependency on companies like Qualcomm and MediaTek.
Every sign is pushing Xiaomi to enter the U.S. because it also managed to sort out its patent related issues, meaning that it is safe and legally-bound to enter the U.S. The sale of accessories let it foster partnerships with retailers, but it is not known how things with carriers are or how amenable companies like ATT, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile will be in selling phones branded by a Chinese firm.
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Looks like we will find out when the announcement is official.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
