Xiaomi becomes the world's third-most valuable public smartphone company following $50...

[Polycount]

Apple and Samsung may still be the top dogs in the smartphone market, but it seems an unlikely competitor is quickly catching up. Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi launched its official IPO today in Hong Kong, and it's settled in at roughly 16.80HK$ per share, which is about $2.14.

With a total valuation of roughly $50 billion, the company is right behind Samsung and Apple as the third most valuable public smartphone maker out there. Naturally, the stock market fluctuates pretty regularly, so it's not clear how long Xiaomi will maintain their spot on the corporate ladder.

That said, Xiaomi's devices are certainly nothing to scoff at. The company's phones may not be quite as mainstream or powerful as Samsung or Apple's counterparts, but they usually cost significantly less while retaining an impressive level of quality.

For a mere $400 as of writing, Xiaomi's Mi Mix 2 offers an almost bezel-free experience with 6GB of RAM, a Snapdragon 835 processor, and a 6" screen.

As interesting as it is to see Xiaomi's IPO result in such a high valuation, there is an important bit of context to keep in mind here. Unlike Apple and Samsung, both of which have global presences, Xiaomi primarily sticks to Asian markets with their smartphones.

Indeed, if you wanted to pick up one of Xiaomi's latest phones right now, you wouldn't even be able to do so through the company's official website; you'd have to rely on third-party websites like Amazon.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/75421-xiaomi-becomes-world-third-most-valuable-public-smartphone.html

 

[lazer]

Might be 3rd most valuable company, but not 3rd best smart phone. It is way behind in quality!

 

[Puiu]

Might be 3rd most valuable company, but not 3rd best smart phone. It is way behind in quality!

Said nobody that actually bought a phone from them.

 

[hexDb]

Might be 3rd most valuable company, but not 3rd best smart phone. It is way behind in quality!

sounds you never bought any device from them. or you somehow unluckily had bad experience. I have used their several devices. I am active as a developer in XDA community. @readers, As per my experience their every device is worth every penny you spend. no compromise in quality of components yet best price in the market.

@lazer Nice assumption. Keep it up! it is great for you to buy same components at higher price. Because higher you pay higher the quality as assumed usually.

 

[winjer]

Might be 3rd most valuable company, but not 3rd best smart phone. It is way behind in quality!

Clearly you never had a Xiaomi phone.
The build quality is very good, especially considering the price.

 

[OutlawCecil]

I bought a family member a Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 Global Edition (5.5-inch 3GB RAM 32GB ROM) for $156 as a christmas gift. She refused to replace her oooold phone because new ones are too expensive. I was impressed with what I got for the money and overall performance was also amazing. I personally use (and love) a OnePlus 3T but gotta say I was highly impressed with Xiaomi, so... go them!

 

[lazer]

Said nobody that actually bought a phone from them.

right, I did not buy one since my good friend did and told me about his taking it in for repairs. Latest repair that when he puts the speaker to his ear, it cuts out the sound. Don't recall the earlier complaints that he had, but he has multiple complaints.

I have a LG and had two Samsungs. I liked them and did not have any problem except that I dropped the Samsung and it broke....

 

[Puiu]

right, I did not buy one since my good friend did and told me about his taking it in for repairs. Latest repair that when he puts the speaker to his ear, it cuts out the sound. Don't recall the earlier complaints that he had, but he has multiple complaints.

I have a LG and had two Samsungs. I liked them and did not have any problem except that I dropped the Samsung and it broke....

if I were to buy something based on the opinion of one person that bought 1 product I would probably end up buying the most useless crap ever.
In my family alone we've used multiple Xiaomi devices, not just phones, but as far as phones go I have experience will their entire line: from the cheaper redmi and redmi note products to the expensive Mi flagships (from multiple years). There are no phone brands that can compete with the build quality at those prices even from major brands like Samsung, Huawei, LG, Sony, etc (heck Samsung phones that aren't "flagships" are mostly just ripoffs).

 

[lazer]

You SAY that you had good experience with your Xiaomis and I had good experiences with my LG and Samsungs. so when it come to buying another I don't really have a tech background in phones and don't know much, however I trust my friend's opinion (I know him for over 35 years) over some one whom I do not know (and COULD be working for Xiaomi). So I will stay on the safe side...

 

[OutlawCecil]

right, I did not buy one since my good friend did and told me about his taking it in for repairs.

This is why Apple makes money... If you plan to break your expensive stuff or are prone to it, please, by all means go with an Apple Product (and pay much more) since they have multiple repair options.

If you actually take care of your electronics, going off-brand is an awesome way to save money but you SHOULDN'T have a mindset of repairing it if it does break. Cheaper products are very often not repairable and are considered disposable. How many times can you drop and replace a $150 phone before it adds up to the cost of your $1000 iPhone? Lets do the math...

Side note, I've NEVER significantly dropped and broken my phones. Some people drop them ALL THE TIME. It's all about how clumsy and/or careless you are.

 

[lazer]

This is why Apple makes money... If you plan to break your expensive stuff or are prone to it, please, by all means go with an Apple Product (and pay much more) since they have multiple repair options.

If you actually take care of your electronics, going off-brand is an awesome way to save money but you SHOULDN'T have a mindset of repairing it if it does break. Cheaper products are very often not repairable and are considered disposable. How many times can you drop and replace a $150 phone before it adds up to the cost of your $1000 iPhone? Lets do the math...

Side note, I've NEVER significantly dropped and broken my phones. Some people drop them ALL THE TIME. It's all about how clumsy and/or careless you are.

You seem to assume to much to be for real. I dropped my Samsung only once (YES, only once) One of my sons dropped his iPhone too and it broke too. and he had to buy another.

You think you know it all; therefore does it follow logically that you know it all?

 

[Puiu]

You SAY that you had good experience with your Xiaomis and I had good experiences with my LG and Samsungs. so when it come to buying another I don't really have a tech background in phones and don't know much, however I trust my friend's opinion (I know him for over 35 years) over some one whom I do not know (and COULD be working for Xiaomi). So I will stay on the safe side...

If you trust your friend then that's great, but you sounded like you knew what you were talking about in your first comment.
Your "it's way behind in quality" line is not exactly indicative of your experience as you've described it. I also don't don't recommend people to buy Chinese phones unless I know for a fact that they can at least know how to change settings on a regular phone

Just compare the LG K10, Samsung Galaxy J5 Prime and Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (or any phones around this price point - I've used local prices) and you'll immediately understand why people buy them. Specs wise you might not find anything close even at close to double the price.

I paid about 100 euros for an Redmi Note 4 (Snapdragon 625, 3GB RAM, Sony 12MP camera, 32GB) when I bought it.

As for repairs, in Europe at least, it's not hard to find replacement parts and shops that can repair them if you, like me , accidentally drop it and crack the screen.

Playing it safe is not bad when you don't know much about phones or just don't care about getting the best bang for your buck. It can also take me a lot of hours of research on what, where and when to buy one (for example the note 4 has a version that uses a different SOC not a snapdragon one - similar performance with the CPU being slightly better and the GPU slightly worse, but the GPS is not as good and the battery life is also worse).

 

[OutlawCecil]

You seem to assume to much to be for real. I dropped my Samsung only once (YES, only once) One of my sons dropped his iPhone too and it broke too. and he had to buy another.

You think you know it all; therefore does it follow logically that you know it all?

Honestly I don't even know what you are trying to say here. Did you think I meant 100% of branded phones are repairable? That wasn't my point at all. I was merely saying branded phones are more designed for repairs and off-brands are throw-aways.

 

[hexDb]

Honestly I don't even know what you are trying to say here. Did you think I meant 100% of branded phones are repairable? That wasn't my point at all. I was merely saying branded phones are more designed for repairs and off-brands are throw-aways.

I disagree with both points that Branded phones are more designed for repair and off-brands are throw away.

Lets take branded phones. manufacturers of branded devices always try their best that parts are not easily available in the market so the customer has to go to brand's service center hence keeping up the after sale profits. Apple is leading in this strategy. they try to customize most or usually replaced outsourced components so it is not available in the market for repair to normal repair shops. Lets take an example if Apple Buys PMIC from Toshiba or texas instruments, it always order custom design of earlier available IC like changing pins to different place. but still the same function. this is just an example. other example you might be aware of error 53 on iphones even after genuine repairs phones were messed up.

now xiaomi cannot be considered off-brand. but of other Chinese or off-brand almost all of them use generic chips or components which are easily available even lot of them are swap-able between brands. I have seen single screen replacement works on multiple devices. same applies to other components as well. usually people throw away those phones because those are cheap not because are difficult to repair. as per my experience most of the cases off-brand may be easily repaired than branded ones. but both are repairable. Now apple has started making its own chips like PMIC to stop aftermarket repair. it may become more difficult in future to repair branded devices.