14 DAY TRIAL // This week finally brought us the unveiling of a tablet has been in the rumor mill for some time, but failed to make an appearance. Popular Chinese technology company has just introduced its first tablet product, the MiPad.
The company is known for its heavily discounted smartphone prices which sell like hotcakes, and with its tablet Xiaomi is looking to challenge the dominion of the iPad. At least in China. And this could be just the beginning.
Why? Because this little and colorful tablet is truly a worthy iPad mini clone, running Android instead.
In terms of looks, we could also say Xioami borrowed some cues from the iPhone 5c when designing the plastic tablet which comes in six vivid colors.
Putting aside the aesthetic similarities, the 7.9-inch tablet is quite a little beast. It comes with a Sharp display which offers a Retina-like resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels (324 ppi).
Most importantly the MiPad is the first tablet to arrive with NVIDIA’s new Tegra K1 chip with 192-core Kepler GPU. The slate is fitted with 2GB of RAM and can be equipped with either 16GB/64GB of internal storage (expandable up to 128GB).
And as you’d expect from a device coming out of Xioami, the slate will sell for only $240 / €175 the 16GB version).
So taking into consideration this attractive combo of specifications and the extremely affordable price tag, the question arises? Should Apple be scared?
Consider the proof. Due to its high-end low-priced devices Xiaomi has managed to become one of the country’s leaders in terms of smartphone sales, almost overnight. Actually the company has been dubbed “the Apple of China.”
But tablets aren’t so popular in the country just yet, as the Chinese continue to be smartphone-obsessed. According to a report from Bloomberg, back in Q2 2013 Apple used to dominate the local tablet market with 28% share, but customers in China, which is Apple’s largest market outside the US, are turning to cheaper Android based tablets, instead.
In terms of smartphones, the four-year old startup has already managed to surpass Apple in the country. In August 2013 it was announced Xiaomi has managed to overtake the Cupertino tech giant by posting 5.0% marketshare compared to Apple’s 4.8%.
Xiaomi does have global ambitions, although its success has been achieved mostly in its home court, so far. But that’s ok since even so, the company managed to snatch the No. 10 position in the top 10 smartphone brands, by grabbing 3.5 percent of global shipments.
With the MiPad the company plans to roll it out to several other markets including Southeast Asia, India and Latin America.
As for the US, we might have to wait a while before Xiaomi officially launches a tablet (or this tablet), as the market is still extremely competitive. So Apple will probably continue to rule in terms of tablets in its home land. For now. Nevertheless, world-wide the tide might soon change, so be afraid Apple, be very afraid!