• What does Xiaomi produce? Xiaomi company: a history of unique development

    Today every modern person who is at least somewhat interested in technological innovations has heard about Xiaomi. The Western world is familiar with Xiaomi mainly through its smartphones, but in Asia (mainly China) this company is known as a manufacturer of a huge variety of products. Today we will try to bring more clarity to this issue and talk about all the current areas of Xiaomi’s business.

    Origin

    First, a little history. Xiaomi is a relatively young brand, it was founded in April 2010. The origins of the company were:

    • Lei Jun is a businessman, programmer and the main founder of Xiaomi, who previously worked for many American IT giants in various positions;
    • Bin Lin, the current president of the company, was initially involved in localizing products for the Chinese market
    • Liu De – Head of Industrial Design Department
    • Li Wanqiang – software and official website designer, now heads the department e-commerce;
    • Guangping Zhou – director of the smartphone division;
    • Wong Jianzi - responsible for the production of routers and operation cloud service Mi Cloud;
    • Feng Hong, the head of the department developing the proprietary MIUI firmware, previously worked at Google for many years in senior positions;
    • Chuan Wang is the development director of Mi TV and Mi Box.

    During the first 3 months from its inception, Xiaomi was searching for sources of funding and developing MIUI: at that time, alternative software for Android was the main and only direction of the company's work.

    Since Xiaomi did not have its own smartphones at that time, the system was intended for devices from other manufacturers, the first being the Nexus One running Android 2.2 Froyo. MIUI 0.8 was distributed in open beta test format. Six months later, the second version was released, changes in it concerned visual design, but not functionality. After another iteration of MIUI, when a user base of 500,000 people was recruited, smartphone production was launched, and on August 16, 2011, Xiaomi Mi 1, also known as Xiaomi Phone and Mi-One, was announced at a special event. The main advantage of the device was the battery capacity, which was 1.5-2 times larger than that of its competitors (1930 mAh versus 1400-1500 mAh for most devices of that time). The rest of the characteristics were no worse, and at the rate of “30 rubles. for 1$” price tag of 310 dollars for flagship smartphone turned into 10,000 rubles for Russian buyers.

    In January 2012, Xiaomi Mi 2 was released, breaking all sales records: the first batch of 50,000 copies was sold out in just 3 minutes! In April of the same year, a presentation of two modifications of Mi 2 took place - the more affordable Mi 2A and the more powerful Mi 2S; in 9 months, these three models sold 10 million units, finally securing Xiaomi success in the mobile market. The next important step was the announcement of a 47-inch TV in September 2013 and the appointment of former Google employee Hugo Barr as vice president. It was he who was the official representative of the company and presented new devices.

    In subsequent years, Xiaomi expanded its product line (for example, laptops, tablets and electric bicycles appeared among the most significant ones), improved already mastered technologies and entered new markets - by the way, in 2016 the first Xiaomi store in Russia was opened.

    Incredible range of products

    So, let's return to the main question of this article - what exactly does Xiaomi produce, and what products are the most interesting for the average buyer?

    The computer accessories market is oversaturated with noname companies selling outright junk. Fortunately, this does not concern Xiaomi. Its range includes wireless mouse Xiaomi Portable Mouse. The device has a minimalist design, connects to a PC via Bluetooth 4.1 or Wi-Fi, can work with two synchronized devices at once and costs 1,500 rubles.

    In addition to the mouse, the Chinese portfolio includes the Mi Keyboard White keyboard. Its design uses large number aluminum due to which the device weighs as much as 940 grams. This adds stability to the keyboard and gives the impression of a reliable device that will last for many years. The key markings are applied with high-quality paint that will not be erased even with the most active gaming or typing. Mi Keyboard White does not require any drivers to connect to a computer.

    Household supplies

    At the start of sales in 2015, these smart scales cost only $15, which allowed them to become mega-popular. For this amount the scales could be connected to mobile application MiFit on a smartphone, display weight on a built-in backlit display and were made of quality materials (glass and polycarbonate). In domestic stores, Smart Scales cost 1,800 rubles due to expensive delivery due to high weight and size parameters.

    Surely many of you have heard about the Mi Notebook series, designed to compete with Apple MacBook. Chinese laptops have the same names: Pro and Air, but they are several times cheaper - while the products of an American company ask for at least several thousand dollars for younger models, then the cost of the top-end metal Mi Notebook Pro 15.6 barely exceeds $1000.

    TVs

    One of the main areas of the company's business is television. In addition to its own online services for the local television market, Xiaomi is known for its affordable, high-quality LCD panels.

    • Mi TV

    This is a line of the most budget 4K TVs, distinguished by excellent equipment: a 55-, 60- or 70-inch matrix with a resolution of 3840 × 2160, a viewing angle of 178 o and a response time of 7 ms is installed here. Due to the unstable exchange rate of the ruble, prices change all the time, but in foreign countries trading platforms the cost of the basic 55-inch model does not reach $900.

    Photo and video equipment

    In 2014, Xiaomi entered a new market for filming equipment by founding its subsidiary Yi. Since then, several quite interesting devices with excellent price/quality ratio.

    This model was Xiaomi's first attempt to create a professional camera. Yi-M1 received a 20-megapixel matrix, 3” touch screen and the ability to change lenses. The cost of the device is noticeably lower than that of competitors with similar characteristics - 34 thousand rubles, including the lens.

    The company has achieved its greatest success as a manufacturer of filming equipment in the action camera market. The Mijia and Mi Action Camera 4K series have become bestsellers thanks to excellent quality assembly and, as always, affordable price tags.

    Xiaomi decided to take a risk and thoroughly tackle the still rare cameras for virtual reality. The Chinese presented both a small amateur VR camera, the Yi 360, and a professional solution, the huge HALO 360 VR, weighing 3.5 kg and costing more than one and a half million rubles.

    Tablets

    Along with smartphones, the company's main business is tablets, or rather the Mi Pad line, which recently expanded to its fourth generation. Traditionally for Xiaomi, its tablets stand out from competitors due to their flagship characteristics and price budget models from AAA brands. Thus, the fresh Mi Pad 4 is equipped with a FullHD screen, 4 GB of RAM, 64 GB storage and eight-core processor from Qualcomm, while the cost of the device in China is $170.

    Xiaomi is a leading manufacturer of electric bicycles, unicycles, Segways, electric scooters, hoverboards, and also produces a huge variety of accessories for customizing all these vehicles.

    Made in China

    These were all high-tech devices that any geek knows about. Let's take a look at Xiaomi products that are common in China, but practically unknown in the rest of the world. Of course, most of these things can be connected to a smartphone to control and display certain information.

    Xiaomi releases water filters...

    ...and testers for checking the purity of drinking water

    The company's portfolio includes smart Yeelight lamps; color and brightness can be adjusted through the application

    Xiaomi will help protect your home with such an infrared video surveillance camera. It records in 720p, has 4x zoom, and connects to your mobile device via Wi-Fi and controlled via app

    There are Xiaomi children's toys, mainly various construction sets and robots controlled from a smartphone

    The company has a whole range of practical backpacks in its arsenal, differing only in design (however, they have the same color - black) and size

    Xiaomi even produces various useful little things: for example, this Mi Portable Keychain with a figurine of the company symbol - the Mi Bunny rabbit

    One of the few Xiaomi products without smart functions is regular cookware. You can furnish your kitchen with frying pans, glasses, mugs, pots, cutting boards, spoons, forks and other cutlery from your favorite company

    Oddly enough, there are no Xiaomi suitcases additional functionality, these are simply high-quality polycarbonate products for transporting luggage

    One line

    It’s impossible to talk about everything that the ubiquitous Xiaomi produces in one article, but if we don’t consider each product separately, we can say that in addition to everything described above, this Chinese company produces stationery, accessories for smartphones, wallets, clothing, soft toys, systems smart home, routers, carpentry tools, bed linen, thermometers, power banks, fitness bracelets and is involved in the development of real electric vehicles.

    Xiaomi Tech was founded by seven partners on June 6, 2010, and on August 16, 2010, Xiaomi officially launched the first MIUI firmware based on Android.

    The company's first smartphone, Mi1, was announced in August 2011. It came with a built-in MIUI firmware based on Android, combining corporate styles Samsung TouchWiz And Apple iOS. There was also a version of the device with pure Android. In August 2012, Xiaomi announced the Mi2 smartphone. It had a processor Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro APQ8064, 1.5 GHz quad-core Krait chip with 2 GB RAM and GPU Adreno 320. On September 24, 2013, the company announced the sale of more than 10 million Mi2 devices within 11 months. Some Xiaomi devices are produced at Foxconn factories, where they produce Apple iPhone and iPad.

    On September 5, 2013, CEO Lei Jun announced plans to launch a 47-inch 3D TV running Android OS, which will be assembled at Wistron Corporation's plant in Taiwan. Also in September 2013, Xiaomi announced the Mi3 smartphone on Snapdragon processor 800 (MSM8974AB) and a version based on NVIDIA’s Tegra 4 chipset. On September 25, 2013, Xiaomi announced plans to open its first flagship store in Beijing. In October 2013 Xiaomi became fifth mobile brand in China.

    The symbol of Xiaomi is a hare wearing a hat with earflaps with a red star and a red pioneer tie around his neck. In 2014, Xiaomi first announced international expansion with the opening of its first store in Singapore. The company's immediate plans include entering the markets of Malaysia and India. It was announced on March 17, 2014 Redmi Note(also known as HongMi Note). RedMi Note is equipped with a 5.5-inch HD IPS display with OGS technology and eight-core processor from .

    In April 2014, the company announced the start of expansion into the international markets of 10 countries, including Russia. One of the former Google employees, Hugo Barra, was appointed responsible for this.

    In November 2014, the head of Xiaomi announced a plan to become the No. 1 company in the smartphone market.

    Company activities

    The company's activities began with the development of Android MIUI firmware.

    In 2011, its own was released own phone- the first device with initially pre-installed MIUI, competitive technical characteristics and low price.

    In 2012, a second smartphone was released, with more advanced characteristics, and an improved version of Mi-One Plus was also released.

    Xiaomi Mi 3 was introduced in September 2013. The company's first TV, Xiaomi MiTV, was also presented.

    According to the results of the first quarter of 2014, the company took 3rd place in terms of smartphone sales in the Chinese market (11%), ahead of Apple (10%). In the world, the company ranks 6th (3.8%), but shows a steady growth trend.

    On May 15, 2014, Jun presented 2 products at a press conference - the long-awaited MiPad tablet and the 4K sequel to the MiTV 2 TV.

    On July 22, 2014, during the annual conference, the company announced the next generation of smartphones called Xiaomi Mi4, and also announced the release of the sixth version of firmware based on Android OS - MIUI. During the conference the first " smart bracelet» MiBand.

    In the 3rd quarter of 2014, Xiaomi, according to IHS iSuppli, for the first time in its history reached third place in the world in smartphone sales. In 2015, Xiaomi released its first action camera, Yi, which is positioned as a competitor to GoPro.

    Interesting facts about Xiaomi

    • Billionaire Lei Jun, the company's co-founder and current CEO, is called the Chinese Jobs. He owns more than 30% of Xiaomi Tech shares.
    • In 2012, Xiaomi Tech had zero profitability of its mobile business, that is, smartphones were sold at cost. In the future, it was planned to make money on services that are integrated into the shell. Investors welcomed the company's development model. In 2013, the mobile division's monthly revenues increased to 20 million yuan (or $3.27 million), representing less than 1% of the company's total revenues.
    • To reduce operating costs, the company advertises its products through microblogs, social media and meetings of enthusiastic like-minded people. Nevertheless, in 2013, two of their own “offline” stores were opened in Beijing, where you can purchase the company’s products.
    • The phones produced by the company are so popular in China that they have become victims of Chinese counterfeiters. Sales of its smartphones, which the company carries out from its website, last only a few minutes. Sales volumes in the home market are also impressive. Xiaomi claims 20 million fans who download up to 5 million apps daily from the company's online store. Plans for 2015 include selling 100 million smartphones.
    • According to some estimates, the company's value in 2012 was about $4 billion. By mid-2013, the company's value had increased to $10 billion.
    • The Xiaomi Tech team includes a former significant Google employee. Hugo Barra serves as vice president and will help establish access to foreign markets.
    • One of the company's shareholders is the Russian venture fund Digital Sky Technologies.
    • The company's engineers make corrections and improvements to the software MIUI shell almost weekly.

    Everything you wanted to know about the word Xiaomi: what it means, how to pronounce it...

    We recently found out that our brand is called more than twenty in different ways. Xiaomi, Shiomi, Xiaomi - and these are just some of the options used! Let's figure out how to pronounce Xiaomi correctly?

    Let's start with the fact that the most obvious reading - Xiaomi - is incorrect. In the generally accepted transcription system Chinese language The Latin letter X is used for sounds that have nothing to do with “x”. In fact, in various regions of China the name Xiaomi pronounced either as Xiaomi, or as Shaomi(with a very soft “sh”). But generally accepted correct name brand at the international level is Xiaomi, with an emphasis on the last “i”. However, such words with an emphasis on the last syllable are difficult for a Russian person, and the variant with an emphasis on the “o” in the middle has already taken root in colloquial speech. Indeed, it is more convenient to pronounce the brand name in Russian speech this way - so we will assume that this option can also be used.

    So, we found out how to read Xiaomi correctly. What does this word mean? Translated from Chinese, it means “Little grain of rice” or “Grain of rice”. I wonder why? There is no short answer to this question. First, you need to understand the importance of rice to the Chinese. Rice is the basis of their diet, a truly iconic cereal for the nation, the meaning of which can probably be compared with what bread means to us in Russia. We may not eat as much bread today, but its symbolic meaning for us is enormous. “Bread is the head of everything,” “Bread and salt,” and many other popular expressions reflect the importance and respect for bread. This is approximately the same role that rice plays in Chinese culture. A rice field requires a lot of careful care, painstaking work, and a huge number of people are employed in working on rice plantations. But this work is the foundation of the well-being of China and its people.

    So, the first explanation for the “little grain of rice” is that you need to work hard to lay a solid foundation. In addition, there was obviously a hint that smartphones and other technology today are as popular and necessary for every person as rice, which is on the Chinese table every day.

    In addition, explanations of the meaning of the “little grain of rice” often refer to the meaning rice acquired during the Sino-Japanese War in the mid-20th century, when China won with “rice and arms.” And finally, the head of the company, Lei Jun himself, said that the name of the brand also echoes the Buddhist concept, in which XIAO means a single huge grain of rice, which is the size of a mountain!

    And finally, we note that there is a special meaning hidden in the Mi logo: it also contains a multi-level meaning. On the one hand, this is an abbreviation of the phrase Mobile Internet (mobile internet), but there is one more meaning - Mission impossible(mission impossible). This is because Xiaomi faced constant challenges that only a true winner could overcome!

    Not long ago, the first video from the series “Brand History” was released on our channel. Then it was about Huawei. Today we will learn about an equally famous company, Xiaomi. Let's find out where she started and how she went to success.

    The biggest difficulty and controversy regarding the company was the correct pronunciation of its name. Many people pronounce the name differently, but the most correct option is Xiaomi, with the emphasis on the last syllable. But, taking into account the peculiarities of the Russian language and our pronunciation, pronunciation with an emphasis on the letter “O” is allowed. You can see more detailed arguments in favor of this or that pronunciation in the video above.

    Having figured out how to pronounce the name correctly, you can talk about the history of the company. Xiaomi was registered on April 6, 2010. Its headquarters are located in Beijing, and a key role in the creation of the company was played by Lei Jun, who previously worked at Kingstone from 1992 to 2000, where, in the best tradition of such stories, he went from a simple engineer to the CEO of the company . He has always shown an interest in startups and has made several successful attempts to create his own projects. Among them are the video service yy.com and the online store Vancl.com. Thanks to the success of these projects, Lei was already a billionaire by the time he founded Xiaomi.

    At the time the company was founded, Google's operating system was not even two years old, which is why it had many flaws and was not stable. Therefore, to work on his own product, Lei Jun gathered the most promising or already established specialists in the field of electronics. These included representatives of local divisions of Google and Microsoft. All of them were fans of electronics and therefore could work with full dedication to the result, and their experience with Google and Android only increased the importance of these specialists.

    On initial stage The company's investors included various Chinese and Singaporean venture capital funds, as well as a processor manufacturer.

    On August 16, 2010, Xiaomi released the first version of its MIUI firmware on Android based. The name of the firmware consists of two parts “MI” and “UI”, where the first part, according to the creators, means Mobile Internet (mobile Internet) and Mission Impossible (mission impossible). The second means User Interface ( user interface). You can also come across a version of the origin of the name that finds a connection with the words “Me, You, I” and explains this coincidence as an attempt by Xiaomi to emphasize the friendliness of the firmware to the end user.

    Firmware versions are divided into two types. Stable versions, which are released approximately once a month, and developer versions, released once a week. It is worth noting that Xiaomi manual never planned to tie the firmware to its devices, but was ready to give third-party manufacturers the opportunity to use it in their devices. Thus, the number of phones on which you can install different versions MIUI numbers in the hundreds.

    Due to disagreement Google With the Chinese government, the company’s services are blocked in mainland China, but they work perfectly outside of it. Available to users Google Play, mail, maps and other company services. Global versions MIUI is certified by Google.

    Less than a year later, in 2011, the company released the first smartphone under the Xiaomi brand. It was Xiaomi model MI1. The model was also known as Xiaomi Phone. It was equipped with a display from Sharp with a diagonal of 4 inches and a resolution of 854 by 480 pixels, dual-core Qualcomm processor Snapdragon S3 with a frequency of 1.5 GHz, Adreno 220 graphics, one gigabyte of RAM, four gigabytes of internal memory and a 1930 mAh battery. The 8-megapixel camera of the smartphone could shoot video in FullHD at a frequency of 30 frames per second. The interface of the new product was reminiscent of iOS, which was impossible not to notice, but thanks to the fresh MIUI, based on Android 4.2, its functionality was higher. By the way, many people liked this similarity, but many actively criticized it.


    The cost of the first Xiaomi smartphone was about $300. This was a fairly low price for its time, and it was achieved due to the lack of offline sales and savings on some minor things. For example, packaging materials. Also, the chosen sales method was very suitable for the current situation. The company collected pre-orders for smartphones and ordered production at the largest factories, without having its own production. The lack of in-house production allowed us to fully concentrate on development, and working on pre-orders made it possible to reduce the risk of not selling out the batch to zero. And these risks also had to be included in the price. Since there were none, the price could be safely reduced, because production and delivery had already been paid for by customers who had pre-ordered.

    Largely due to the low price, the demand for the phone was high, but it was also similar to the iPhone, which was very popular in China at that time, and was much cheaper. And the fact that it is our own, native, Chinese, only spurred demand.

    A year later, in August 2012, Xiaomi Mi2 was released. The phone was powered by Qualcomm's 1.5 GHz quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro, had 2 GB of RAM and an Adreno 320 GPU. On September 24, 2013, Xiaomi announced that 10 million Xiaomi Mi2 had been sold in the past 11 months. Mi2 smartphones gained great popularity and were therefore sold by resellers in Australia, Europe, New Zealand, the UK and the USA. Official deliveries outside of China began a little later.

    In 2013, Hugo Barra joined the company as vice president, having previously worked at Google for five years as a press officer for the Android division. He was forced to leave Google by a conflict with Sergei Brin, which arose after Hugo brought his girlfriend to work at the company, to whom Sergei began to pay too much attention.

    The arrival of Hugo Barr in Xiaomi is associated rapid growth popularity of the company and expansion of the geography of its presence. However, looking ahead, I will say that in 2017 he will leave the company.

    September 5, 2013 general manager Xiaomi Lei Jun has announced plans to launch an Android Smart TV with a 47-inch 3D interface, which will be manufactured by Taiwan's Wistron Corporation. The company explained the choice of the manufacturer by the fact that he worked with Sony.

    On the same day, the release of the Xiaomi Mi3 smartphone was announced. The new product was equipped with Snapdragon 800 with a frequency of 2.3 GHz, Adreno 330, 2 GB of RAM, 16 or 64 GB of internal memory and a 3050 mAh battery. A special pride of the new product is the 5-inch FullHD display. Sales began in October of the same year. Naturally, Mi3 became the company's best-selling model in 2013. The smartphone is a flagship device, and in the first three minutes from the start of sales, 200,000 units were sold. A total of 18.7 million were sold in 2013 Xiaomi smartphones and another 26.1 million at the beginning of 2014.

    In 2014, Xiaomi announces plans to expand beyond China, with Singapore being the first country chosen. A division was created specifically for this purpose to control the launch of products and the company’s activities in the region. The start of sales of smartphones took place in early March 2014. Singapore was followed by Malaysia, the Philippines and India, with plans to expand to Indonesia, Thailand, Russia, Turkey, Brazil and Mexico.

    On March 17, 2014, the RedMi Note phablet was introduced, which was known as HongMi Note in some regional markets. It was produced in two versions, the main differences of which were 1 GB of RAM and 8 GB of internal memory for the first and exactly twice as much for each indicator for the second.

    Other events in 2014 include the purchase of the mi.com domain for a record $3.6 million. And also that in November the company announced plans to invest about one billion dollars in creating its own television content.

    According to market research agency IDC, in 2014 Xiaomi took third place in the ranking of the largest smartphone manufacturers, displacing Huawei, which I talked about in the last issue.

    In 2015, Xiaomi announced that it would introduce its devices on two of India's largest e-commerce sites as well as offline stores. For the first time in the company's history. On April 24, Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun and Vice President Hugo Barra announced Xiaomi Mi4i, which became the company's first smartphone that was supposed to go on sale in India before China. The Mi Band tracker was also announced.

    On June 30, 2015 the company announces the start of local production RedMi smartphone 2 in Brazil. This marks the first time in its history that smartphones are not assembled in China or sold in Asia. In turn, this indicates the company’s big plans to expand the geography of its presence.

    In 2016, more and more new smartphones from the company continue to be released, including Mi5, Mi5S and two new smartphones for the company. 6.4-inch Mi Max and frameless Mi Mix, which caused a lot of noise with its appearance. The phone does not even have a speaker, but works on the principle of bone conduction. But 91.3% of the front panel area is occupied by the screen, all of this is packaged in a fully ceramic body with excellent characteristics, among which are the Snapdragon 821, a 16-megapixel camera, a 6.4-inch display with a resolution of 2040 by 1080 pixels, and 4400 mAh battery.

    The more important thing is not whether the smartphone sells or not, but that it is the first product of its kind to reach the shelves. Let's see if other manufacturers pick up this idea.

    It should be mentioned that the company produces not only smartphones. The list of devices in the Xiaomi range is much wider. Surely you know many of them, but there are also some that most of you have not even heard of.

    Under the Xiaomi brand, action cameras, surveillance cameras, tools, routers, headphones, lamps, blood pressure monitors, clothes, backpacks, wires, set-top boxes, hoverboards, laptops, tablets, external batteries, fitness trackers, air fresheners, quadcopters. And this is not a complete list of Xiaomi products. This is largely possible due to the company’s chosen approach to business. Not all of these products were developed by company specialists. Many are the result of co-production or collaboration, where Xiaomi puts its logo on another manufacturer's products and both benefit from it. Xiaomi receives a reward for helping with distribution and a bonus in the form of popularizing the brand through more frequent mentions, and its partners greatly increase sales, as buyers trust the promoted brand.

    The company basically started from scratch, but now its income is $20 billion, and Lei Jun, according to Forbes magazine, ranks 23rd in the ranking of the richest people in the world. The company employs about 8,000 people. Mainly in mainland China, Malaysia, India and Singapore.

    This is where the story about the history of Xiaomi has come to an end, but the story was not very long yet. A lot more interesting things await you ahead, including the answer to the question of how, having constant problems, still find money to produce and sell phones that are very inexpensive for their characteristics.

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