Xiaomi to enter US market later this year with online store

[Shawn Knight]

Chinese mobile device and accessory maker Xiaomi is planning to enter the US market. The red-hot startup will launch an online store stateside in the coming months although many of the products that earned the company recognition – and the title of China’s largest smartphone company – won’t be in the lineup.

Xiaomi’s US store will initially sell smartphone and tablet accessories, earphones, smartbands and the like. The company’s coveted smartphones and tablets on which its success was built won’t be offered when the store launches for a couple of different reasons.

The smartphone landscape in the US is quite different than it is in China. Carrier subsidies and sales would all but eliminate Xiaomi’s cost structure. The company would also need time to modify their MIUI Android-based operating system for individual markets.

Former Google executive Hugo Barra, who now serves as the vice president for international markets at Xiaomi, explained that the company would need to obtain various certifications before it could sell handsets in the US. What’s more, they’d need to set up customer support lines and because of the carrier-dominated landscape, Xiaomi would need to strike up deals in order to be competitive.

Xiaomi finished 2014 as the world’s most valuable tech startup with a valuation of $45 billion after raising $1.1 billion in funding, topping Uber’s $41 billion valuation on $1.2 billion in funding.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/59743-xiaomi-enter-us-market-later-year-online-store.html

 

[p51d007]

One of the reasons it is hard for independent device makers to enter the market is carrier subsidies. The lack of economic education for the average American consumer, they "think" they are getting a great deal, by purchasing a device for "only 199/299/399" that retails for 500/600/700 or more, under a 2 year contract, loaded with bloat, stripped features etc. But when you run the numbers for purchasing a phone full retail, from an online retailer, and going with an MVNO that uses the same towers, you can save 1,000.00 OR MORE in that same 24 month period. That's what I did, saving over 80 dollars PER MONTH. The carriers pretty much have the USA market sewn up, and you can bet they pay off the right politicians to keep it that way.

 

[gamoniac]

One of the reasons it is hard for independent device makers to enter the market is carrier subsidies. The lack of economic education for the average American consumer, they "think" they are getting a great deal, by purchasing a device for "only 199/299/399" that retails for 500/600/700 or more, under a 2 year contract, loaded with bloat, stripped features etc. But when you run the numbers for purchasing a phone full retail, from an online retailer, and going with an MVNO that uses the same towers, you can save 1,000.00 OR MORE in that same 24 month period. That's what I did, saving over 80 dollars PER MONTH. The carriers pretty much have the USA market sewn up, and you can bet they pay off the right politicians to keep it that way.

Thanks for the tips. I started looking into it and found this link http://www.bestmvno.com
Any recommendations, and I guess you experience with MVNO has been pretty satisfactory?

 

[p51d007]

Thanks for the tips. I started looking into it and found this link http://www.bestmvno.com
Any recommendations, and I guess you experience with MVNO has been pretty satisfactory?

For me, using an MVNO has been a very positive experience. For me, straight talk is who I use. Their coverage (using at&t towers), I continue to have the same coverage that I had on at&t under contract. The difference is I don't pay a higher rate, and another nice thing, at the bottom of most carrier contract bills, you are saddled with a lot of taxes/fees. With an MVNO, at least with the one I'm on, the 49.95 charge, that's all you pay.