As LeEco remains financially uncertain, in spite of finally getting some financing, we sure need more transparency from the rest of the big Chinese device makers. Luckily Xiaomi opened up a bit about its strategy, courtesy of the recent statements from Xiaomi’s Hugo Barra. He claimed that “Xiaomi could sell 10 billion smartphones and not make a profit”, but also detailed the matter in further statements.
The quote above comes as Xiaomi’s smartphone sales and share kept dropping over the past quarters, starting with Q3 last year. Xiaomi isn’t counting on phone sales to make bank, but rather on other revenue sources. They’re all about smart home apparently, plus services and software. The whole ecosystem that Xiaomi proposes is the real money maker.
Air purifiers and rice cookers are right now a bigger focus for the company compared to the smartphones, for example. Smart home devices are expected to double up their sales this year, reaching $1.5 billion in worth. CES 2017 could see many such devices going towards the US market, where more billions could be made. In the meantime Xiaomi continues to expand into the Indian market and also has Europe in its sights for the future.
I find it kind of strange to see former Google man Hugo Barra making the claims above, since Xiaomi’s latest phones, like the Mi MIX are pretty cool and that goes to show that “not doing it for profit” may spur some interesting results.
