14 DAY TRIAL // Chinese mobile phone maker Xiaomi, one of the most successful vendors in the country, is gearing up to assault the international market with its smartphones, after selling them for a long period of time in China alone.
The company has already shown signs that it planned an expansion to more markets worldwide with the launch of its devices in Taiwan and Hong Kong only several months ago, and it seems that it is ready to make the big step and go international.
For that, it recently nabbed Google’s VP for Android Hugo Barra, who has already confirmed the move, adding that he’d be joining the Chinese vendor in a matter of weeks.
His new role is a new one for the mobile phone maker, as he’ll serve as Vice President of Global Business, in an attempt to help Xiaomi become as big overseas as it is in its homeland market.
“I'm really looking forward to this new challenge, and am particularly excited about the opportunity to continue to help drive the Android ecosystem,” Barra said in a post on Google+.
“Xiaomi welcomes Hugo Barra and looks forward to him being a part of our ever-growing and talented team,” the Chinese maker said in a tweet.
Xiaomi is a fast-growing phone maker, which has managed to make a splash with each and every device it brought to the market, including its latest smartphone, the Xiaomi Hongmi.
For those out of the loop, we should note that Xiaomi managed to sell out the first batch of 100,000 units of this smartphone in less than two minutes after putting it up for sale earlier this month, and that it received around 7.45 million pre-orders for it before that.
The company’s Xiaomi Mi series of handsets has proved equally successful in China, and the upcoming Mi3, rumored to go official in early September, should have a similar fate.
As The Next Web notes, the handset vendor is forecasting overall sales of 20 million devices by the end of this year, with 7.03 million devices sold in the first half of the year alone. The company is currently valued at $10 billion (€7.51 billion).
Xiaomi’s handsets proved incredibly successful in China mainly due to their low price tags and pretty decent hardware configurations, but also due to the MIUI interface.
With Hugo Barra joining its ranks, Xiaomi will be able to further improve its customized software and make it suitable for more markets out there, which should drive its success globally, especially in developing markets, where affordable yet powerful devices are most sought for.
Google also confirmed Barra's departure, but did not offer details on the matter. According to AllThingsD, a Google spokesperson said the following: “We wish Hugo Barra the best. We’ll miss him at Google and we’re excited that he is staying within the Android ecosystem.”