I must admit that Xiaomi’s belligerence has surprised me. Although I obviously understand the context and that the blood is not going to reach the river, it is not at all common to hear statements of this type, so it is worth paying attention to them and, above all, giving a reasonable period of time from when are produced, to check if the declaration of war is pure rhetoric or, on the contrary, we see the company take clear steps in that direction.
Apple is constantly faced withto competition from a multitude of technology companies that want to achieve the status that the company currently has in the high-end segment of the smartphone market. But it seems, at least from his words, that the one that has taken this competition most seriously is Xiaomi. And it is that according to what we can read in the South China Morning Post, the CEO of Xiaomi, Lei Jun, published on the Weibo microblogging platform on Tuesday, stating: «[Nuestro objetivo] is to compete completely with Apple in [términos de] product and experience, and become the biggest high-end brand in China. in the next three years«.
Up to this point, it is reasonably common, but the strong point of the Xiaomi CEO’s statements comes chen he states that this confrontation is «a war of life and death«. And from what it seems, the company is not going to fall short in its plans, because to the 10,000 retail stores it already has in China, it intends to add another 20,000 between 2022 and 2025. And yes, obviously the enormous extension of the country makes that this number makes sense, that is, that it is proportional to the extension of China, but economically, it supposes a simply spectacular investment.
But Xiaomi’s plans do not stop at opening a huge number of new outlets. To compete with Apple, the company must also make a significant investment in research, an aspect that they have not neglected either, with the announcement of a research and development plan that, over five years, It will have a budget of 16,000 million dollars..
In the global sales data for 2021, according to the IDC consultancy, the highest drawer of the podium was occupied by Samsung, followed by Apple and by Xiaomi, and at some point the Chinese company has come very close to the figures of those from Cupertino, so from this perspective the bet makes sense.
With the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra, the technology company has already shown that it is capable of scaling performance to the highest part of the high-end range. However, he will still have to take more steps forward if he intends to face “life or death” against those from Cupertino, and even more so if they decide to respond to the declaration of war. It will be most interesting to see how this declaration of war evolves.
