Xiaomi wants to rule the flagship smartphone market, and it sees Apple as the main competitor
He actually referred to it as “a war of life and death”, hinting at competing with Samsung and Apple in that space. Lei Jun emphasized Apple’s competition in that regard. He said “[We aim to] fully benchmark against Apple in [terms of] product and experience, and become China’s biggest high-end brand in the next three years”. Those are some huge plans by Xiaomi. Apple is huge in China, extremely popular. So, dethroning it in China is not a small feat by any means. Xiaomi does plans to do that in just three years, though. Xiaomi managed to become a huge player in the smartphone world over the years. Based on Counterpoint Research’s latest data, Xiaomi is firmly in third-placed when it comes to market share. Xiaomi is doing really well globally, but also in its home market. Its products managed to become extremely popular in China, India, and Europe, first and foremost. Some other markets can be added to that list, of course.
Xiaomi plans to invest around $15 billion in R&D in the next five years
Lei Jun also revealed that Xiaomi plans to invest 100 billion yuan ($15.71 billion) in research and development in the next five years. It plans to do that in order to compete in the high-end smartphone market. Xiaomi has a huge appetite for success, and that’s completely unsurprising. The company has been growing consistently, and really fast at the same time. It did great for itself, but dethroning Apple won’t be easy. Xiaomi may have set an unrealistic goal ahead of itself, but if there’s something we’ve learned over the year, is that you should never underestimate that company. So, it remains to be seen what will happen in the next three years.
