Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi has been maturing in terms of its mobile devices over the last couple of years. It topped China’s charts, selling the most smartphones back in 2014, but the company has appeared to miss the mark last year. Xiaomi has reportedly missed its sales target by 12 percent, and in Q3 this year, its smartphone sales in China has declined by a whopping 45 percent. While many have speculated that Xiaomi will eventually suffer from the drop in smartphone sales, the company’s Vice President Hugo Barra suggests otherwise.
According to Hugo Barra, Xiaomi apparently does not make profits from selling smartphones. “We could sell 10 billion smartphones and we wouldn’t make a single dime in profits,” stated Barra. He claims that the company is basically giving smartphones to consumers without making any money, and that they prioritize recurring revenue streams over many years.
One may wonder where does Xiaomi get their money from. If you have heard of Xiaomi’s range of home appliances then that’s the answer for you. It turns out that Xiaomi has been focusing on its own home appliances for sales profits, with sales figures expected to double this year at $1.5 billion (RM6.67 billion). The company’s home appliances range from rice cookers, smart lamps, air purifiers and so on.
Xiaomi will be venturing into the US market next month in order to expand their sales coverage in the future. The company will be making its debut appearance at CES 2017 (Consumer Electronics Show) in January at Las Vegas. Xiaomi has been rumored to flaunt a couple of its new products and launch a mysterious new device at the trade show which is a little over a month away. What do you think?
Source: Reuters