Xiaomi history. Xiaomi smartphones: brand history, lineup, product reviews

Xiaomi (manufacturing country - China) was founded not so long ago, in 2010. And only in the current, 2018, it became public. Today, its products enjoy impressive popularity, especially phones.

And now I would like to tell in detail about the history of this company, as well as how it has achieved such success.

About the founder

So, Xiaomi's country of origin is China. The largest company was founded by Lei Jun, an IT specialist.

Lei Jun grew up in the small town of Wuhan where he studied at the local programming institute. Inspired by the life of Steve Jobs, he decided that he would create his own company. Even then, he set himself the goal of producing products that would be no worse than top brands.

Lei Jun gained experience in porting offers while working at Kingsoft. It helped him later. He also invested in various Internet projects, which gave him a good profit. In total, he invested in 20 startups. Among them are Vancl online clothing store and Lakala payment service.

It should be noted that it was Lei Jun who created the Joyo website, which sells media files and books. In 2004, he decided to sell his store to Amazon for $75 million, and in 2011 he left the post of CEO of Kingsoft.

Partners

In 2010, Lei Jun, with seven partners, opened a company that is today one of the most famous in the field of technology. And here's who became his partners:

• Bin Ling is a former chief engineer at Google and Microsoft.
• Guangping Zhou - headed the Chinese division of Motorolla.
• Andy Rubin is a former technology engineer at Apple and is now the lead developer of the Android OS.
• Jiangzhi Guang is a former employee of Microsoft China.
• Hugo Barra is a former Google employee who later became vice president of Android OS development.
• Gong Feng - previously led Google China.

registration legal entity fell on April 6th. But prior to that, for several months, Bing Ling and Lei Jun discussed mobile trends.

Every weekend, from morning to night, they reviewed their ideas, shared their thoughts on what the ideal phone's operating system should be. Bing Ling himself said - they had a passion for practical daring ideas and good software.

First developments

The pilot product created by the company was MIUI firmware based on Android system. Its feature was the combination of Apple iOS and Samsung TouchWiz styles.

This firmware significantly improved the functionality of the system, and also added whole line interesting features and chips, which led to its further demand.

Interestingly, such an unusual abbreviation is an abbreviation of such pronouns: “Me”, “You, and “I”, which translates as “I, you, I”.

This is not a random name choice! Already the first version of the OS turned out to be very user-friendly and friendly. But, more importantly, it worked flawlessly and stably. Not surprisingly, 3 years after the release, the audience of this operating system exceeded the 30 million mark.

First smartphone

It was announced on August 18, 2011. We are talking about Xiaomi Mi 1, which was released, of course, on the new Android 4.1 MIUI OS for that time. The phone also became known as Xiaomi Phone.

Its features can be listed as follows:

• 2-core processor with a frequency of 1.5 GHz.
• 1930 mAh battery.
• Accounting for 3G traffic.
• A transflective LCD developed by the Japanese electronics manufacturer Sharp. This screen retains decent image quality even in very bright sunlight.
• Dual system partition, thanks to which you can install 2 firmware versions.
• Video accelerator Adreno 220.
• An 8MP camera that could record videos at 1080p/30fps.

The main feature of the first Xiaomi phone (manufacturing country - China) was its modest price. The relative cheapness was determined by the company's decision to save on packaging materials, advertising and offline sales.

Of course, this phone has become popular. A well-planned pre-sale advertising campaign, an affordable price, high performance - all this led to high demand even at the first stages of product sales.

Xiaomi Mi 1S

This is an updated version of the first smartphone released in 2012 in the manufacturing country. Xiaomi, as many then thought, decided to imitate Samsung by adding the letter “S” to the name, because even at that time it Galaxy models were very popular.

Although, other connoisseurs of technology are inclined to the version that claims that the company just wanted to create a cheaper analogue. Sony Xperia S. This phone was extremely popular in the early 2010s. Yes, and the version is plausible: the same processor, a similar but slightly cheaper screen and a simpler camera, as well as a not so pretentious design.

Other features include:

• TFT capacitive touch screen.
• Android OS, v4.0.
• Front-camera at 2 MP.
• LED flash and autofocus.
• Dot WiFi access.
• Li-Ion battery at 1930 mAh.

Opening 2012

At the same time, another model was released in the manufacturing country - Xiaomi Mi2. It was decided to install a more advanced processor - a 4-core Snapdragon S4 Pro with two gigs random access memory.

And this development, as they say, "fired". Released in 2012 in the manufacturing country of Xiaomi, the phone quickly became popular. After all, all the top gadgets of that time, among which were Motorola Razr Maxx, Galaxy S3 and HTC One S, were equipped with only one gigabyte.

Another novelty was equipped with a 4.3-inch IPS display - cheap TFT was no longer in trend. It was even covered with Dragontrail glass.

And the photosensor was also on the level. The smartphone had an 8-pixel camera with f / 2.0 aperture, made using BSI technology. And it was better than those installed in LG and Samsung. The new Xiaomi already knew how to shoot in Full HD, and this set it apart from its competitors.

Line expansion

In 2013, Xiaomi (the country of origin of the brand is China) decided to start scaling. So there are two new ones:

• Advanced version of Mi 2S. Features: 13 megapixel camera and Snapdragon processor 600.
• Light version of Mi 2A. Features: wider screen, 1 gigabyte RAM.

A little later, they released the top version of the smartphone. And we are talking about Xiaomi Mi 3. Here are some of the characteristics of the phone at that time that really struck potential buyers:

• Full HD screen by 5 inches.
• Snapdragon 800 processor.
• 13 megapixel camera with dual LED flash and autofocus.
• Li-ion battery 3050 mAh

In many ways, the novelty released by Xiaomi in the manufacturing country and other countries was like the Sony Xperia Z1.

Most connoisseurs of mobile technology believed that a very young brand was trying to keep up with Sony. There were similarities in everything: in a square design, technical specifications, hardware platform, screen.

Tablet and Mi 4

Continuing to talk about the history of Xiaomi, it should be noted that by the beginning of 2014, connoisseurs modern gadgets have already been looking forward to the release of new devices from the company - tablets, to be more precise. At that time, the developers were hard at work on the next generation of the smartphone. Therefore, in August 2014, the first Xiaomi tablet.

It became a real event. The compact Xiaomi MiPad turned out to be a great alternative to the iPad mini. The developers have tried to improve its performance, so that it has become a godsend both for people looking for a tablet for work and for connoisseurs of games.

Also, a new smartphone was released - Mi 4. And this phone set an incredible record. Just 37 seconds after the official start of sales, smartphones simply ran out. No wonder - everyone wanted to buy a phone with increased performance, a thin profile and an impressive screen for only $320.

Further developments

It is also impossible not to mention Xiaomi Redmi. In the country of manufacture and other countries where this phone is very common, the phones of this series are very popular.

Why? because Redmi phones- these are high-quality, solid state employees on a stable platform. The first model quickly became popular, and therefore the company decided to upgrade. And it ended with the appearance of a whole line of Redmi Note.

Everything was good in these phones, the only thing missing was 4G support. But this nuance was corrected - at the end of 2014, the company released an improved new product with this option.

By the beginning of 2015, the company was already very popular in its home country of origin. Xiaomi Mi, budget Redmi, as well as Redmi Note from the middle segment were already familiar to everyone by that time. The only thing missing was a flagship gadget with a large screen. Actually, the development was not long in coming - Mi Note appeared.

The novelty was similar to Mi 4, but had a larger screen, better contrast and color reproduction, a top-end Snapdragon 810 processor and a 4 GB amount of RAM.

Last years

The fame of the company since 2010 has gained impressive proportions both abroad and in the home country of Xiaomi. Redmi 6A, Note 2, Mi Max and Mi Mix gadgets - what devices have been released by the company during this time!

And every year gadgets only become better and more modern. There were fingerprint scanners, more powerful batteries, good cameras with phase detection autofocus, developed according to modern technologies screens... And in less than 11 months of 2016, the company released about a dozen gadgets in the Redmi line and the same number of different devices in the Mi line!

How are things going on this moment? There were many new products for 2018 - Mi Note 3, Redmi 5A and S2, Mi Mix 2S, as well as a host of other gadgets. And in 2019, the release of the flagship is expected, which will offer everything that the Galaxy S10 has. True, it will cost 2 times cheaper.

Company strategy

Much has been said above, who is the manufacturer of Xiaomi smartphones, you also know the country in which they are produced. We also talked about how it all began and with what exactly. But how did a little-known, very young company, which began its development path at a time when there were already technological giants on the market, managed to surpass Samsung in sales in just 4 years?

It's all about strategy. For two years, the Chinese brand has been selling phones at a price that differed from the cost by only 20-30 dollars. The creators decided to make the main source of profit not smartphones, but the digital component.

Secret of success

In addition to the above, there are a number of other nuances:

• The corporation has its own store of games and applications, as well as additional functions for smartphones, which bring in many times more profit than selling phones. Xiaomi has also launched an online accessories store.
• Thanks to the presence of fans, the brand does not need to advertise itself. Enthusiastic users of social networks and bloggers make it on their own initiative. For example, 50,000 Mi 2 phones were sold on the Sina Weibo network.
• Each user receives an update to the latest firmware, regardless of which phone model he owns.
• The company is open for communication with ordinary users. And loyal fans of the brand are given the opportunity to buy new items out of turn.
• Lei Jun, being a billionaire, works at least 100 hours a week. And the result of this hard work is obvious - the growth of his company's shares is impressive.

Of course, these are not all the nuances that determine the success of the company. But even in the attitude of developers to their product and customers, it becomes clear why Xiaomi is the leader in sales of wearable electronics.

Similarity to Apple

Talking about whose company Xiaomi (manufacturing country - China) and what is its success story, it is worth noting that it is often compared with the American "apple" company, and its creator - with Steve Jobs.

There are similarities, but it should be taken not from the point of view of borrowing, but from the side of China's response to the arguments of the Americans. And here are some details about it:

• Lei Jun at all presentations appears in the same clothes as Steve Jobs before - in jeans and black golf. The billionaire retorts this remark: “Our smartphones have parts from the same manufacturers as in Apple phones».
• The only Xiaomi tablet resembles a kind of symbiosis of the multi-colored iPhone 5C and iPad mini. And this, by the way, is the first model with a screen whose aspect ratio is 4:3, not 16:9. Like the iPad mini, by the way.
• The emergence of the MIUI OS was perceived by many as the entry into the market of an iOS clone for owners of "Android" devices. This RAM was even jokingly called the elixir for turning an ordinary smartphone into an iPhone.
• The answer to the Apple TV set-top box was such a gadget as Mi Box. Outwardly, they are similar, only the device from Xiaomi is cheaper, more modern and more functional.
• The compact router Xiaomi Mi Router Mini is a bit like a computer mouse Apple Magic trackpad. The Chinese manufacturer simply refracted the design of a gadget from one category, creating a completely new device.
• Xiaomi, like Apple, has its own set-top box for its gadgets. If Apple has iPhone, iTunes, iPad, etc., then the Chinese manufacturer has Mi Box, MiPad, Mi Router, etc.
• A worthy answer to the famous Apple Macbook Air Xiaomi laptops have become. The company has released compact computers for a variety of purposes - for study, programming, "heavy" games, for freelancers, and even for watching movies while traveling.

Well, this is where I would like to finish the story about what Xiaomi's manufacturing country is, who are the founders of the company and what are its unique features.

Lately news feeds various online magazines and blogs about technology filled with news about the latest in the world of smartphones. In particular, we are talking about gadgets from China - for devices such as Meizu, Vivo and Xiaomi, there will be one manufacturer country. The owners of such companies staged a serious race in the global smartphone market, releasing more and more new models over and over again, the main advantage of which is more low price compared to such world-famous mastodons as Samsung or Apple. However, many are still deterred from buying by the fact that these cheaper products belong to Chinese brands. We will try to refute or confirm such conjectures in this article.

We noticed that even many regular users of Xiaomi products still do not know how to pronounce this name correctly. Three vowels in a row are especially unusual - it is very difficult to decide how to read and pronounce it, especially for a Russian person.

There are many variations - and Xiaomi, and Xiaomi, and Tsaomi, and even Haomi. Translated from Chinese into Russian, the brand name is read as "Xiaomi". The word consists of two parts - "Xiao" ("Xiao"), which means "small", and "Mi" ("Mi") - "rice". In a literary translation, the word sounds like "a grain of rice." As for writing, it is easiest for a Russian person to use the principle “as it is heard, so it is written”.

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Xiaomi: history

Xiaomi is a brand of a large company Xiaomi Keji, which was founded not so long ago - in 2010. Its founder and current owner is an IT specialist from China named Lei Jun, who opened a business together with his partners.

From the very beginning, the company began to develop an OS for smartphones called MIUI, a variation of the popular Android. Already after 1.5 years, Xiaomi released the first smartphone called Mi1, which was rather warmly received by the Chinese. A year later - Mi2, whose sales jumped right up to 11 million people, which is ten times more than the iPhone 1 and almost the same as the iPhone 3G of all time. In addition, Xiaomi is also assembled at Foxconn factories, like Apple.

In 2013, the Mi3 smartphone was announced, and in addition, several models of TVs and other devices were presented - production expanded. Around the same time, the founders of the brand announced its development strategy. The main point in it is saving on retail stores (there are not as many of them as other brands), as well as the minimum price due to the sale of smartphones almost at their cost and the sale of places in cloud storage, which is income from additional services. Thanks to this, the company easily ensured a high level of sales and their rapid growth in the shortest possible time.

Redmi line and other brand products

Already in 2014, the company released the famous line of Redmi smartphones, thereby significantly increasing the number of regular customers of the company. And if initially smartphones did not stand out in any way, except for the price, then with Redmi you could already get much more at the same price as the rest. Thanks to the fact that in 15-16 Xiaomi released devices of the 2nd and 3rd generations, the company's sales skyrocketed - over 100 million units were officially sold. For comparison, HTC and LG had less total sales over the same period.

In addition to smartphones, over time, the company began to produce many other products - power banks, fitness bracelets, laptops, TVs, cameras, quadrocopters, action cameras, lamps, tablets and even bicycles. And the cool thing is that the manufactured devices are becoming no less popular in the market than smartphones. The owner of Xiaomi has repeatedly stated his intention to become a top manufacturer of electronic products in the world. So, perhaps soon no one will have questions about what Xiaomi is and what it is.

Xiaomi user reviews

Xiaomi, like any other brand whose product contains both positive and negative sides, boasts a huge amount of feedback that has accumulated over the past years of its popularity. It's no secret that many people are distrustful of the products of Chinese brands and hardly decide to purchase such equipment, fearing that it will be unreliable or short-lived. We can highlight the main pros and cons of Xiaomi smartphones, and it's up to you to choose what to buy.

pros

1. Price. This is the first and, perhaps, the main criterion for choosing Xiaomi by many users. Even against the backdrop of a huge number of competitors in China, Xiaomi clearly wins in terms of cost. If we compare similar models from Xiaomi and other brands (the same Meizu, for example), then the first one provides a better and more powerful product, or it offers the same option, but at a lower price.

1. Own operating system. Any OS will have its drawbacks, but only those who have never used it will criticize MIUI. It, like IOS, is initially slightly unusual, but after a while you get so used to it that you won’t be able to use anything else simply because of its maximum convenience, versatility, as well as smoothness and ease of use. Even a person who is far from the world of gadgets will be able to understand this OS, due to its simplicity and intuitive interface. Also, many features, such as a fingerprint scanner or advanced smartphone security settings in MIUI were introduced even earlier than in classic Android. In addition, the Russian language is already installed in the Xiaomi gadget out of the box, as well as some Google services(for example, mail or Play market), and the speed of OS updates and bug fixes is good news - users do not have to wait long for firmware updates to their smartphone.
2. Specifications. Xiaomi, as a company that produces not only state employees, but also top gadgets, always adheres to a strict rule - if the smartphone being produced is a flagship, then there is no place for saving on hardware - it must be the best and at the same time the most affordable on the market. There should be absolutely no damage to the performance of a smartphone, and many flagships in the world of smartphones can envy the build quality even in budget models.

Minuses

1. operating system flaws. As we know, Xiaomi very often announces many phones - at least ten a year. Such a wide variety of software does not help the company to provide such high-quality technical support as it is implemented, for example, by Apple. As a result, there are many small claims against the manufacturer - either third-party applications are unstable, or the caller's photo is not displayed in full screen, or something else. Fortunately, there are practically no serious drawbacks in the operation of the OS, as evidenced by the minimum number of negative reviews about MIUI.
2. Minor flaws. Time after time, releasing new and new models in the Xiaomi gadget line, manufacturers do not always have the opportunity to make their product perfect. As a result, gadgets are good, but not perfect. For example, judging by dry numbers, the screen characteristics in the Redmi Note 3 Pro model are in no way inferior to the display in the IPhone 6S Plus, but in reality, the color reproduction, as well as brightness and contrast, are somewhat worse. The same questions arise about the camera - 16 megapixels in the Mi Max model give a result visually worse than 12 megapixels in the iPhone 6S, and in Samsung Galaxy J5 filming quality in the evening is much better compared to the camera of Redmi Note 3 Pro.

1. User support. Since the official representative office was opened already in 2016, then, therefore, before that, smartphones were “gray”. In fact, at the moment there are also a lot of such devices, especially when the sale goes from hand to hand. The fact that a “gray” smartphone is not terrible in itself, however, in the context of shortcomings, it can highlight the lack of any technical support for such devices from the manufacturer, as well as the lack of warranty and certified after-sales service. It turns out that instead of having the phone repaired by an authorized SC in the event of a breakdown, the seller of the phone will have to pay for the breakdown. Of course, no one will do this with great pleasure.

Conclusion

The history of the company does not last so many years, but during this time Xiaomi has tightly entered the market of gadgets and other devices and is successfully moving towards its goal. After all, some three years ago, no one knew what kind of company it was and what it produced. Xiaomi is actively working on opening official representative offices of the company in many Western countries and is very zealously promoting its brand, while receiving a considerable return on its work. So, in just 3 years, Xiaomi has become the fourth largest brand in China, and its MIUI operating system has become the most popular in the world. Good results, right?

Every company that introduces its products to the market has an undulating history. That is, if you build a schedule, you can see its ups and downs, it may be on the verge of failure or not leave the top of the pedestal for years. The brand, which will be discussed, was able to reach unprecedented heights in a matter of years. In 2010, the world learned about Xiaomi!

About Xiaomi CEO

The company's key figure, CEO Lei Zun, previously worked at Kingston for eight years. Here the man reached professional heights - he went from an ordinary engineer to the president of the enterprise. Thanks to his activities at Kingston, the future director of Xiaomi gained experience. Zun has always been interested in new technologies and actively invested in start-ups that he considered interesting. Thanks to this, he got into the list of millionaires much earlier than the “Grain of Rice” appeared (this is how Xiaomi translates into Russian). In April 2010, Lei Zun and seven other technology innovation enthusiasts registered a company called Xiaomi Tech.

The era of Xiaomi technology

In the year the company was founded, a new shell of the MIUI operating system was released, which turned out to be quite understandable and attractive to the consumer. Its main advantage is stability and trouble-free functionality.
The originality of Xiaomi lies in the fact that its first creation was not a mobile device, but an operating system for it. The first Xiaomi Mi One phone will be in the hands of users a year after the creation of the OS. In August, an affordable and productive device based on the Android OS with the MIUI shell from the Xiaomi brand was presented to the general public. Moreover, the powerful Snapdragon S4 processor, Adreno 320 graphics and a decent amount of 2 GB of memory used in the next smartphone overshadowed many others. mobile devices presented on the market.

Xiaomi has been able to achieve resounding success in a short time. Today, users have the opportunity to enjoy high-performance yet affordable devices. Thanks to Xiaomi products, the myth that products made in China are of poor quality has been dispelled!

The company's first smartphones became the hallmark of a young enterprise that was able to become a competitive player in the global market, causing such giant corporations as Apple and Samsung to worry.

Smartphone Xiaomi Mi3 - the owner of a 5-inch display with Full HD resolution, great camera at 13MP, a powerful processor, a decent design at a price of $300, made the end buyer leave the usual brands and look at Xiaomi products as an excellent replacement for expensive gadgets.

Feeling successful, Lei Jiong and a team of specialists continue to work on new devices. After the next Mi4 smartphone was released, in 2014 the world saw the first tablet from a Chinese manufacturer.

While critics blame the brand for plagiarism and using Apple's design ideas, a little less than 40 seconds after the start of sales, mobile Xiaomi devices Mi4 ended, because high performance, attractive design, excellent screen quality were offered for very little money.

The secret of the success of Xiaomi products

It is not easy to understand how a young Chinese company over several years of vigorous activity managed to bypass the Korean company Samsung and become a worthy competitor to the manufacturer of "apple" products. But in reality, the "Grain of Rice" did not come up with ingenious plans to "shove competitors in the bosom."

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The company's successful development strategy is as follows:

Affordable cost. The manufacturer does not rely only on the sale of equipment. As sources of profit, they use their own application store, sale of accessories, etc.;

Availability. The manufacturer always works for its consumers, and the most devoted fans have the opportunity to become owners of new products in the first place;

Competent PR management. Xiaomi products today do not need special PR, this function is performed by the user by posting information on numerous social networks and blogs;

High quality. For the production of equipment, the best materials and components are used, which makes smartphones, tablets and other products durable;

Control. The technique is subject to careful control at the production stage. Therefore, defective devices practically do not enter the market;

Regular technical support. Each of the company's devices receives timely firmware updates, which is a mandatory requirement of the modern buyer.

The history of any company can be described as a wave-like graph: each brand experiences ups and downs, may be on the verge of oblivion, or may not leave the pages of business magazines for years. The brand, which we will talk about today, managed to turn the technology market of everything four years. In 2010, a company was registered in China Xiaomi.

One head is good, but eight...

One of the key figures in the life of Xiomi and its CEO Lei Jun, eight years (1992 - 2000) worked in Kingston Technology Company, where he went from an ordinary engineer to the president of the company. It was thanks to his work at Kingston that the future founder of the “Grain of Rice” (this is how the name of Xiaomi is literally translated) gained experience in porting and working with applications.

Throughout his life, Lay was interested in various technology startups and tried to invest in really interesting projects in every possible way. Support for startups such as: online store Vancl.com, popular mobile browser UCWEB, video service yy.com and an online bookstore JOYO brought "business angel" Lei Jiong a really impressive profit. Lay was on the list of billionaires even before the founding of Xiaomi.

In April 2010, about 1.5 years have passed since the release of the first version of the mobile operating system Android. Calling it perfect would hardly turn the tongue and it was clear that the user wanted more. And while Google Developers slowly fixed bugs and errors in the program code, April 6, 2010 in China eight founding fans mobile technology, Internet and Android OS, led by Lei Jiong register a company xiaomi tech.

WITH program code and software development, each of the "eight that turned the world" was familiar firsthand:

• Gonk Feng- CEO of Google China
• Hugo Barra- Vice President for Android OS Development;
• Bin Lin– worked at Microsoft and Google (chief engineer);
• Andy Rubin- a native of Silicon Valley;
• Jiangzhi Guang- Worked at Microsoft China;
• Guangping Zhou- Head of Motorola division in China.

For several months, Lei Jun and Bing Ling discussed mobile trends for days.

Bin Ling: “Practically every weekend from early morning until late at night, Lay and I discussed our ideas and vision of what the operating system of a perfect smartphone should be. It was a real passion for good software and daring practical ideas. Despite this, I was still afraid to leave my job at Google. On January 12, 2010, Google announced its readiness to withdraw from the Chinese market - it was a real call to action"

The loud statement of the search giant Google was perceived as a challenge and as an alternative to the clumsy Android interface, the newly registered company Xiaomi Tech dares to give its answer.

MIUI: start

In 2010, the first version of the mobile MIUI operating system. At first glance, the abbreviation, difficult to read, is an abbreviation of English pronouns: Me, You, I - "I, you, I". And the choice of such a name is not accidental - already the first version of the MIUI OS turned out to be incredibly friendly and understandable to the end user. But its main feature is stable and trouble-free operation.

As a distribution strategy for the new OS, the founder of Xiaomi chose availability for any smartphones, without being tied to smartphones of our own production.

Word of mouth, forums and rave reviews from users on social networks led to the fact that three years later, the audience of the MIUI operating system exceeded the mark of 30 million.

The era of Xiaomi devices

The originality of Xiaomi is that its first product was not specific device, namely the operating system. In the hands of users the first material brainchild of the company in the form of a smartphone Xiaomi Mi One will only get summer 2011. On August 18, the announcement of an inexpensive but productive phone running the Android OS and the proprietary MIUI shell took place.

Xiaomi Mi One

Release date: August 18, 2011
Price: $310
OS: Android 4.1MIUI
Screen:
CPU: 2-core QS 1.5 GHz
RAM: 1 GB
Flash memory: 4 GB
Battery: 1930 mAh
Camera: 8 MP

Price in $310 , reliability, user-friendly interface and similarity with the popular, but inaccessible iPhone in China, make a real sensation in the consumer market of the Celestial Empire.

Exactly one year later, Lei Jiong pleases fans with the announcement new version smartphone - Xiaomi Mi Two.

Xiaomi Mi Two

Release date: August 16, 2012
Price:$315 (16 GB model)
OS: Android 4.4MIUI
Screen: 4.3" IPS 1280×720 (341 ppi)
CPU: 4-core QS 1.5 GHz
RAM: 2 GB
Flash memory: 16 GB
Battery: 2000/3000 mAh.
Camera: 8 MP

More powerful processor Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 (4-Core 1.5 GHz), graphics core Adreno 320 and 2 GB RAM managed to lay on the blades of all smartphones running the Android OS, announced in the first half of 2012.

A stunning success was not long in coming. Xiaomi Mi Two receives the status of “Great Chinese Smartphone” (Forbes), and in two years the company sells over 25 million devices.

Continuing the tradition of creating affordable smartphones With impressive features, Xiaomi Tech's top management decides to conquer India's specific market. In the land of the "gold ants" there are many brands that we are unlikely to ever hear about. Most smartphones are indeed accessible to the average consumer, but such accessibility usually comes at the expense of performance. The decisive role in saturating the Indian market with "sane" smartphones was taken over by Xiaomi, presenting the following smartphone model - Xiaomi Mi 3.

Xiaomi Mi 3

Release date: August 16, 2013
Price:$300 (16 GB model)
OS: Android 4.3 MIUI 5.0
Screen: 5" IPS 1920×1080 (441 ppi)
CPU: 4-core QS 2.3 GHz
RAM: 2 GB
Flash memory: 16, 32, 64GB
Battery: 3050 mAh
Camera: 13 MP

With the release of this smartphone model, the myth associated with the fact that “everything Chinese is of poor quality” has been dispelled. Total in 40 minutes from the shelves of the Indian online store Flipkart Xiaomi Mi 3 line has been sold out.

But record sales innovations are only one side of the coin. The Xiaomi Mi-3 smartphone has become a key model and hallmark of the young Chinese manufacturer, making it a serious player in the global market and causing a lot of headaches for the marketing strategy of such giants as Apple and Samsung. Worthy 5" Full HD screen, good 13 megapixel camera, productive quad-core processor with a frequency of 2.3 GHz and attractive design for humane $300 - all these characteristics really forced the buyer to reconsider their attitude towards "established brands" and look at the product of a young Chinese company without contempt points.

Having tasted the fruit of success, Xiaomi Tech, led by Lei Jun, has been working on the next generation of the smartphone for a year. Meanwhile, an exponentially growing number of Mi owners are waiting for a new class of devices from the company - tablets. Heated the market, in August 2014, along with a logical link in the evolution of smartphones Xiaomi Mi 4 Lei Jiong introduces the company's first tablet.

Did you want a Retina display running Android OS? Do you need a powerful productive tablet that can handle both office documents and games, but at the same time fits in the pocket of a doctor's coat? After all, are you looking for an iPad mini alternative? The tablet was the answer to all these requests. Xiaomi MiPad.

The novelty opens a new page in the history of the Chinese brand, and a few months later an updated smartphone breaks into the market Xiaomi Mi 4 who set a new record in the life of the company.

Xiaomi Mi 4

Release date: July 22, 2014
Price:$320 (16 GB model)
OS: Android 4.4 MIUI 5.0
Screen: 5" IPS 1920×1080 (441 ppi)
CPU: 4-Core QS 2.5 GHz
RAM: 3 GB
Flash memory: 16, 32, 64GB
Battery: 3080 mAh
Camera: 13 MP

While critics and snobs reproached the young Chinese manufacturer for plagiarism and encroachment on Apple's design, in 37 seconds after the official start of sales of Xiaomi Mi 4, smartphones simply ended. Increased performance, a design diet (thinner than its predecessor) and an impressive screen were offered at an almost unchanged price tag in $320 .

To understand how a young and little-known company, which began its rapid development path in an ocean teeming with venerable business sharks, managed to bypass the South Korean giant Samsung in sales of smartphones in just 4 years ( 15 million devices sold in Q2 2014 from Xiaomi vs. 13.4 million Samsung in China) is not easy. But like all genius, the success of the "Grain of Rice" secret is quite simple.

Xiaomi's strategy is different from a number of "colleagues" in the mobile technology market. During the first two years after the release of the first Xiaomi Mi One smartphone, the Chinese brand sold smartphones at a price different from the cost of devices only 20-30 dollars. As the main source of profit, the administration chose not the hardware product itself, but the accompanying digital component.

• The price is almost equal to the cost price. Own application and game store, as well as additional optional features for smartphones, bring much more profit than direct sales of the terminals themselves. In the first quarter of this year, another source of profit was opened in the United States - the Xiaomi online accessories store.
• Availability. Xiaomi is always open to communication with the average user, and for those who have become a loyal fan of the brand, there is an opportunity to purchase new products in the forefront.
• User = PR manager. Theoretically, today Xiaomi does not need forced self-promotion of a new product that is being prepared for release. This work is done for her by dedicated users. social networks and microblogging services. This is confirmed by 50,000 Xiaomi Mi 2 smartphones sold online. Sina Weibo in just five minutes.
• Regular support. If we take into account the fact that at the beginning of the development of Xiaomi it was the operating system, then after four years of existence, Lei Jiong remained true to this landmark. Each user receives an update to the most current firmware, regardless of whether he is a developer or owner of an archaic device model.
• Diligence. The generally accepted 40-hour work week for the founder of the company, Lei Jiong, is rather nonsense. The 45-year-old billionaire still works no less than 100 hours per week. We can observe the result of such work in the rapid growth of Xiaomi shares.

Often, the Chinese brand Xiaomi is compared to the American company Apple, and its Lei Jun is called the Chinese Steve Jobs. It is hardly worth denying such similarity, but such similarity can be perceived not only from the point of view of direct borrowing, but from the side of the Chinese response to American arguments.

Oppo, Vivo, not just a lot, but a lot. Manufacturers from the Middle Kingdom played out in earnest, arranging strong competition in the world market. They outshine the products of the more famous ones with a low price. trademarks, but many are still skeptical of the label Made in China. To dispel (or confirm) the doubts of those who have not yet bought a phone from Chinese brands - Xiaomi or someone else - it does not matter, let's try in this article. It will be about the aforementioned company, although much of what has been said (for example, reviews) can be applied to other manufacturers from China.

Xiaomi - how to pronounce correctly?

Many who first encounter the company's products, or read about it in the news, do not know how to pronounce Xiaomi correctly. Well, it is unusual for a Russian person to see this X (which has no analogue in our alphabet at all), and even in the company of three vowels in a row - and nothing can be done. Therefore, a small educational program is needed on how to pronounce Xiaomi correctly, read this name.

Chinese differs from Russian, primarily in that each hieroglyph does not mean a single sound, but a whole syllable or a short word. For example, Xiaomi in the original is written as 小米. The first character means "small" and, in combination with a noun, indicates the size of the object, age, or origin (猫 - cat, 小猫 - kitten, since "little cat", "baby cat"). The hieroglyph 米 means "rice" in translation, and the combination 小米 means "small rice", "rice seed", in literary translation - "rice grain".

The pinyin standard is adopted for the transmission of hieroglyphs using the Latin alphabet in China. According to it, 小 is written as xiao, and 米 is written as mi. In order to transliterate pinyin into the Cyrillic alphabet, in the 19th century, a Russian priest, Fr. Palladius, who preached Christianity in China, invented the transliteration system, which is named after him. Linguists still use this standard. According to him, Xiao in Cyrillic is written as Xiao, and Mi is Mi. That is, correctly write Xiaomi in Russian - Xiaomi(all kinds of Xiaomi, Xiaomi, Jiaomi, Xaomi, Tsaomi, Haomi, Xiaomi, etc. - a mistake).

As for how to pronounce Xiaomi correctly, it’s a little more difficult. The Chinese language is not Russian, differing only in the dialects of the Kuban, the Volga region, the Moscow region, Siberia, where individual vowels can be pronounced a little differently. A Russian will understand a Bulgarian or a Pole faster than a Chinese from the southeast - a Chinese from the north of China. Therefore, the pronunciation of the characters 小米 varies from almost pure [s'aomi] to [sh'aomi] or even [shyaomi]. You can pronounce it according to the principle "as it is heard - it is written", but you can try to imitate the Chinese.

Xiaomi - brand history

Xiaomi is a brand of 小米科技 (Xiaomi Keji), founded in 2010. At its origins was a Chinese IT specialist and entrepreneur Lei Jun, who, together with partners, opened a new business. Initially, the company was engaged in the development of the MIUI operating system, a modification of Android, focused on creating an infrastructure similar to Apple. A year and a half later, in the fall of 2011, the company released its first smartphone Xiaomi Mi1, which received warm reviews from the Chinese. A year later, its heir Mi2 was introduced, which was bought by more than 11 million people in a year (10 times more than the first iPhone, the same number as the iPhone 3G in history). In addition to sales, the company is related to Apple by the fact that Xiaomi products are assembled by the same Foxconn.

In 2013, Xiaomi introduced the Mi3 model, and also announced their entry into the market of TVs and other devices. At the same time, the company's strategy was also announced, designed to ensure its high competitiveness. It is based on savings on related costs (for example, Xiaomi does not have a large retail network stores, like Apple or Samsung), the minimum markup (selling handsets almost at cost) and earnings on ancillary services (like a place in cloud storage). Thus, Xiaomi, whose brand has become famous outside of China, secured a rapid increase in sales.

In 2014, a budget series of Redmi smartphones was launched, which significantly expanded the company's audience. If Mi's flagship smartphones are "the same as others, but much cheaper," then the Redmi line is "for the same money, but much better." If the conventional Xiaomi Mi5 has the same capabilities as the HTC 10 or iPhone 6s, then something like the Redmi Note 3 is a device at the price of a budget employee, but with the characteristics of a solid middle class. Thanks to the release of the second and third generations of Redmi in 2015-2016, sales of devices in the series exceeded 100 million copies in the summer of 2016. This is more than LG and HTC for the same period combined.

In addition to smartphones, the company currently produces tablets, laptops, TVs, headphones, portable batteries, fitness trackers, routers, rice cookers, cameras, acoustics, bicycles and other equipment. Xiaomi's ambitions are very serious, the head has repeatedly announced plans to become the world's No. 1 smartphone manufacturer. Soon the question: "Xiaomi - what brand?" may disappear by itself, as they do not ask this about Samsung or Apple now.

Xiaomi smartphone reviews

Like any other Chinese brand phone, xiaomi reviews collect rather ambiguous. On the one hand, there is a temptingly low price, and on the other hand, distrust of Chinese brands, fueled by periodic reports of the incorrect operation of Xiaomi devices. To summarize, we can highlight the sides for which the company's products are praised, as well as the nuances that are criticized.

Benefits of Xiaomi

Xiaomi receives positive reviews mainly for the combination of price and features. But there are other points for which the manufacturer can be praised.

Price

The price of Xiaomi smartphones is something for which the Xiaomi brand receives only positive reviews. The cost of the devices is very competitive even against the backdrop of numerous Chinese competitors. We can highlight Meizu, Huawei, ZTE, Oppo, Vivo and others making similar products for comparison. Then it becomes clear that at an equal cost, Xiaomi strives to at least slightly surpass their rivals in terms of hardware. And sometimes even the named companies have products that are noticeably more expensive, with equal characteristics. Xiaomi's strategy in this regard gives the company an undeniable advantage.

Specifications

Xioami try not to compromise when creating their devices. If this is a flagship, then the processor in it should be the flagship, the fastest available on the market (like the Snapdragon 821 in the new Mi5S). If this is a Redmi series device, it must have a MediaTek flagship chip or a balanced mid-range chip from Qualcomm (comparable in capabilities). No "cut down" state employees, for the sake of ensuring great autonomy at the expense of performance. Much attention is also paid to the build quality, in this regard, state employees are not much inferior to flagships.

Own OS

Any system can be criticized for objective shortcomings, but only those who have not used it for a long time (at least a couple of weeks or a month) can be a MIUI hater (as well as fiercely hate Apple technology). The MIUI OS is a little unusual, but its interface is more attractive than the “naked” Android, the settings menu has been expanded and improved, working with customizing the interface for yourself (themes, shortcuts, splash screens) will not cause any difficulties even for a person far from the IT world / Many functions, such as fingerprint scanner support, memory clearing in the multitasking menu, advanced security settings, appear in MIUI earlier than in the original Android.

Russian language, Google services “out of the box” - all this is already in MIUI, no “shamanism” is needed to localize the interface and install PlayMarket. In addition, developers are pleased with operational updates that come out from once a week to once a month. Not as fast as Apple (which, if a bug is discovered, can release an update the very next day), but users do not have to turn on "Hachiko mode" as owners Chinese smartphones lesser known brands. If earlier it was possible to criticize Xiaomi for the slowness of updating the OS version, now they have accelerated. Most current devices have already received MIUI 8 on Android kernel 6, Active development of MIUI 9 with Android 7 inside.