14 DAY TRIAL // Well, this is certainly no surprise. Popular Chinese smartphone marker Xiaomi is looking to take up another product category, after it successfully entered the tablet ecosystem.
Why do we say successful? Following the MiPad’s launch in China, Xiaomi managed to sell the initial 50K tablet batch in just under 4 minutes.
So given the fact the company has already conquered the smartphone ecosystem (at least in China) and is on its way to making a splash in the tablet world too, Xiaomi is looking for challenges somewhere else.
And since wearables are the topic du-jour, it’s no wonder that Xiaomi wants to conquer this space, as well. According to the folks at GizChina, the company will soon be offering some fierce competition to the likes of FitBit, Jawbone and others.
For the time being, it appears Xiaomi is looking to go into the smart band business and not the smartwatch one. How do we know this?
Well, it turns out that company’s CEO has been spotted wearing a mystery smart band, which it is believed to be Xiaomi’s first wearable devices. The rumor goes on to say that, like the company’s many products, this too will be a super affordable device that could be marketed for as little as $32 / €24 in China.
On top of that, Xiaomi is said to be prepping the software that will be used to analyze and collect the data and communicate with the smartband, on top of everything.
The report even mentions a name for the wearable. In league with different products coming from the company, the fitness band will probably be baptized the MiBand. At the moment, we’re not exactly sure what functionalities, sensors and apps we’ll see arrive with the wearable, but more information will probably leak out soon.
Since Xiaomi has been said to be looking to enter the competitive US market with some smartphone products, we can assume the MiBand will be brought along, especially since American customers are slowly starting to develop a taste for wearables. But that’s just a theory, at the moment.
Xiaomi has just successfully released its first tablet product, the MiPad tablet, and it appears the company is ready to take up some new challenges. It would be interesting to see whether the company will eventually come up with a smartwatch product, one that will be disruptive enough price-wise to tear into the competition and their excessively expensive products.