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Xiaomi's first tablet offers powerful gaming on the cheap (video)
Just over two years ago, Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun told this author that he wasn't sure about making a tablet, but today he confessed that he's been quietly developing one this whole time. What we have here is the conveniently named Mi Pad, which was just unveiled in Beijing with super attractive price points: CN¥1,499 (about $240) for the 16GB version, and CN¥1,699 (about $270) for the 64GB flavor. To be honest, we saw this coming when MIUI was released for the Nexus 7 back in March, but what surprised us was that this new slate happens to be the first to feature the powerful Tegra K1 SoC. This follows Xiaomi and NVIDIA's earlier collaboration on the Tegra 4 variant of the MI3 smartphone.
Xiaomi plans to expand sales to 10 new markets, but the US isn't one of them
Looking forward to the day you can buy a Xiaomi smartphone in the US? Keep waiting. The company's founder announced the first ten countries in Xiaomi's international expansion today, and the United States didn't make the cut. A shame, perhaps, for fans of the company's affordable, well-specced handsets, but not much of a surprise -- Xiaomi's aversion to traditional sales and marketing puts it at odds with what American consumers have come to expect. Right now, the company's products are only available in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore, but CEO Lei Jun says it will start selling devices in India, Brazil, Russia, Turkey, Mexico and in several east asian countries and emerging markets later this year. The company's also simplifying its image a little, dropping "Xiao" from its webpage URL. The newly christened Mi.com should play well in the new markets: not only does it match the MI branding the company uses on its MI2 and MI3 smartphones, but it's easier to remember, market and -- for international customers -- pronounce.
Xiaomi confirms 5.5-inch, octa-core Redmi Note phone with teaser
The leaked Redmi phone we saw a couple of days ago is coming sooner than we expected, and it now bears an interesting name: Redmi Note. Does it mean we'll be getting a stylus with this Chinese phone? No idea, as Xiaomi's midnight teaser -- pictured above -- doesn't reveal much, other than confirming the 5.5-inch screen (the leak indicates a 720p resolution) and the octa-core processor (1.4GHz or 1.7GHz). What's missing is the unsubsidized price, but it should sit somewhere between the current Redmi's CN¥699 (about $110) and the MI2a's CN¥1,499 ($240) -- so maybe CN¥999 ($160) at most. Folks in China will be able to pre-order at local time 8pm on March 19th using Tencent's Qzone app, which got the exclusive for the Redmi Note's debut sale. For those outside China, your usual gray market channels are standing by. Update: CEO Lei Jun has finally shared a product shot on Sina Weibo, as spotted by our friends over at The Next Web. We've got it after the break.
Xiaomi launches MIUI for tablets, new Nexus 7 gets first dibs (Update: WiFi version only)
While Xiaomi has yet to launch its very own tablet (the Eden Tab doesn't count), you can now get a first taste of its tablet-friendly MIUI Android ROM, which is available as an open beta for the 2013 edition Nexus 7. According to the company, this isn't merely a scaled up version of MIUI V5, as it has a "brand new architecture" with content -- including native apps, system menus and new screen animations -- optimized for both screen orientations. Interestingly, CEO Lei Jun added that tablet vendors can get in touch if they want to ship their devices with MIUI preloaded, which would be a first for non-Xiaomi hardware. Of course, this doesn't necessarily mean Lei's not making his own tablets in the near future; but as of now, there are no reliable rumors of such plan. If you have a new Nexus 7 lying around and don't mind giving MIUI a go, then head over to MIUI's website to grab the 278MB download. Update: Reader @KellicTiger pointed out that this ROM is only good for the WiFi version of the Nexus 7, as mentioned in the flashing guide. Bummer.
Xiaomi's next-gen budget phone shows up with octa-core chip, larger screen
Xiaomi's sub-$130 budget line, the Redmi (previously known as Hongmi aka "Red Rice"), has been credited for accelerating the company's expansion into Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore, with nearby countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand soon to be added to the list. While this is a recent development, the company's already prepping a follow-up model, according to four new listings on China's TENAA certification database. As you can see, this upcoming device is marked with red Android buttons on the front, which gives away its Redmi identity. It'll feature a 5.5-inch, 720p IPS display (a bump from the current 4.7-inch version), as well as Android 4.2.2, 1GB of RAM and an octa-core processor (our guess is MediaTek, again) coming in two versions: 1.4GHz and 1.7GHz.
Xiaomi shipped over 15 million MI2 series phones, lowers MI2s to $210 in China
While Xiaomi's been pushing its budget Redmi Android phone into Singapore recently, it's also managed to reach a new shipment record for its mid-tier MI2 series, which includes the MI2, MI2s and MI2a. According to the company's announcement, it has now shipped over 15 million of these devices, which is a notable jump from the 9.19 million figure announced at the MI3 launch back in September. To celebrate this occasion, Xiaomi has reduced the price of the 16GB, 8-megapixel MI2s in China from CN¥1,699 (about $280) to just CN¥1,299 (about $210). The 32GB version with a 13-megapixel camera remains at CN¥1,799 ($290), which is just less than the 16GB, CN¥1,999 ($330) MI3. All of these are still very attractive prices of their specs, of course. In response to this price drop, Meizu swiftly announced that its 16GB MX2 RE (refurbished edition) is now also priced at CN¥1,299, whereas the MX2 enhanced edition is now at CN¥1,599 ($260). It's unclear how long this bloody fight will last for, but here's hoping that these price drops will be applied outside China as well.
IDC: Samsung dominated Greater China smartphone shipments again in Q4 2013
According to the latest IDC figures provided to Engadget, Samsung continued to perform well in Greater China -- as in mainland China and Taiwan combined -- in terms of smartphone shipments. In mainland China last quarter, the Korean giant topped the chart with a 19 percent market share, followed by Lenovo at 13 percent and Coolpad at 11 percent. IDC's Senior Research Manager Melissa Chau pointed out that compared to a year ago, the top three vendors remained in the same positions, but ZTE has since slipped from fourth place to out of top five, thus letting Huawei and Apple move up one place. Chau added that Apple's shipment was also boosted by the full rollout of the iPhone 5s and 5c to its other channels in China since late Q3. While Xiaomi is nowhere to be seen in mainland China's top five, it's managed to nab 3 percent of the Taiwanese market to secure fifth place last quarter. This is no doubt thanks to the recent launch of the Redmi, aka Hongmi, budget phone there, with help from local carrier Far EasTone. But Chau cautioned that it's still early days for Xiaomi, for it "just barely edged out LG" in Taiwan, plus it's a long way behind HTC in fourth place. What's more worrying is that Acer isn't even in the top six in its hometown, which is just one of the many signs showing how it desperately needed the restructuring. With the full rollout of TD-LTE plus Lenovo bringing Motorola back into mainland China, it'll be interesting to see how the landscape changes again a year from now. Update: The Taiwan pie chart has been updated to rectify an error in the "Others" segment.
Xiaomi to set up 18 stores in China by end of year, but not for selling phones or TVs
Even though Xiaomi's been doing quite well in mainland China and Taiwan, you still won't be able to find its products in brick-and-mortar stores, except for those of partner carriers and scalpers. This is why we got a bit giddy when we heard the company is now in the process of setting up 18 stores across China. But there's a catch: you won't be able to buy any Xiaomi Phones or Xiaomi TVs in them. Instead, you'll only find accessories there, including the Xiaomi Box, phone cases, batteries, cables, RC toys, clothes and even dolls of the Xiaomi bunny mascot.
Xiaomi unveils new Android-powered 5-inch MI3, 47-inch smart TV in China
We've had early previews thanks to leaks, but Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi -- more recently known as the new home of former Google exec Hugo Barra -- just took the wraps off of a new flagship Android phone and smart TV. The MI3 candy bar phone is available with either a 1.8GHz Tegra 4 processor or Snapdragon 800 CPU (the more powerful MSM8974AB variant), with the former heading to China Mobile's TD-SCDMA network, while the latter landing on China Unicom's WCDMA network and China Telecom's CDMA2000 network. Both flavors sport a 5-inch 1080p IPS LCD built by Sharp or LG with "ultra sensitive touch" that works even when the user has wet hands or has gloves on.
Xiaomi Phone 3 makes early appearance on online store ahead of launch
As this author was fiddling with his Xiaomi Phone 2S (or MI2S) in bed ahead of Xiaomi's big event tomorrow, he spotted something odd: a thumbnail of an unfamiliar device -- next to the entry-level Red Rice aka Hongmi -- in the company's online store app. Since it's a high-resolution image, we're able to zoom into our screenshot (full version after the break) to see this Lumia-like design but with a flatter back. The long flash strip also suggests that this could be a beefed-up dual-LED flash module. Other than that, there's not much else that we can pick up here. Given the clock on this mysterious phone matches the 2pm start time of tomorrow's event, we're pretty certain that this is Xiaomi's third-gen flagship device, the MI3; and it'll likely be announced alongside the Xiaomi TV. We also recall seeing the same back cover leaked way back in February, and the side-by-side shot with the MI2 (embedded after the break) is pointing to a 5-inch screen for this new phone. Judging by the pattern so far, we bet it'll use Qualcomm's beastly Snapdragon 800 SoC to follow the 600 on the MI2S. Ultimately, it'll be all about the price, which is likely to be no more than CN¥1,999 or about US$330 off contract. While the above product thumbnail appears to be stuck in the cache on our MI2S, the same spot is occupied by the proper MI2S image in the same app on our MI2A. Talk about perfect timing, eh? Now, if you'll excuse us, we have some sleep to catch up on -- we don't want to scare Hugo Barra with our panda eyes.
Daily Roundup: Peripheral Vision, GameStop's digital strategy, Lab grown human brains, and more!
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
Android VP Hugo Barra leaves Google, joins Chinese phone maker Xiaomi (updated)
Barely a month after he was showing off Google's new Nexus 7 tablet Hugo Barra is departing to join Xiaomi, according to AllThingsD. Part of Google since March 2008, as the Vice President of product management for Android he's been a regular face to anyone that's watched Google I/O events and Nexus product launches over the past few years. With his exit Barra follows Android creator Andy Rubin, who stepped away from the Android team three months earlier. It's a huge score for Xiaomi, a company that goes from strength to strength in China, with smartphones that run on a heavily customized (and customizable) Android ROM. The company's also dabbled in smart TV boxes, which could make for a very familiar role for a former Googler. According to Xiaomi, he will be in charge of steering the company's global expansion starting in October. Update: We have received a statement from Google that confirms Hugo Barra's departure: "We wish Hugo Barra the best. We'll miss him at Google and we're excited that he is staying within the Android ecosystem." Update 2: Barra's taken to Google+ to announce that he will indeed be joining Xiaomi as VP Global in a few weeks. We've added his blog post after the break and have updated the post to reflect the confirmation. Xiaomi has also confirmed the appointment.
Xiaomi unveils Red Rice smartphone in China: $130 for 720p and a quad-core CPU
Xiaomi's talk about doubling smartphone sales over last year sounded a tad ambitious, but it turns out it had a secret weapon. The company just announced the Red Rice smartphone, a pretty decently spec'd model priced at a mere 799 yuan ($130). For that pittance, Chinese buyers will get quite a bit: a quad-core MediaTek CPU, 4.7-inch 720p screen (312 ppi) with Gorilla Glass 2, 1GB RAM, 4GB storage, China Mobile's TD-SCDMA 3G, dual-sim / dual standby capability, an 8-megapixel rear camera and Xiaomi's MIUI-flavored Android. Though it's lacking the WCDMA-3G used by other Chinese networks, China Mobile's 70 percent market share should give Xiaomi more than enough users to hit its targets, especially at that price.
Xiaomi announces $2.16 billion revenue in 1H 2013, beating the entire 2012
In a Chinese press release we just received, phone maker Xiaomi has just announced that it generated a revenue of CN¥13.27 billion or about $2.16 billion in the first half of 2013. This easily exceeds the company's CN¥12.6 billion or $2.05 billion revenue from the entirety of 2012, so things are already looking good ahead of the annual event on August 16th, when multiple products are expected to be launched -- including a TV that got leaked last month. CEO Lei Jun said that this is partly thanks to the 7.03 million Xiaomi Phones his company sold within the same period, and the release also praised the popularity of the Xiaomi Box plus various other accessories, such as the new in-ear headphones launched recently. In addition to that, Xiaomi now has 20 million users from around the world as of end of June, 14.22 million of which come from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The latter two became part of Xiaomi's larger scope in April this year, with Hong Kong using the classic online retail model, and Taiwan doing the same but also selling devices through a partnership with local carrier Far Eastone. Despite the surprising good announcements, Lei reminds his team at today's celebration party to "forget about the results, they're not the most important," and that "only making products that make users scream can bring in long-term value." The real challenge now is to tap into the more exotic markets, and Xiaomi has previously expressed great interest in Europe. Good luck with that, Lei!
Leaked packaging suggests Xiaomi is working on a 47-inch TV (update: TV chassis!)
China's Xiaomi has certainly made a name for itself in the smartphone market, but let's not forget that it has other plans as well. For one, there's the Xiaomi Box, which is the company's first foray into the video content world. And according to the above leak, the next step from there appears to be a 47-inch 1080p TV, which is simply branded as "Xiaomi TV" in Chinese (model number L47M1-AA). Like the Xiaomi Box, this TV will apparently feature built-in WiFi and "MiLink" (Airplay, DLNA plus Miracast), as well as audio certification from Dolby and DTS. More after the break. Update: Well well well, this guy sure has some good contacts. He's now posted a couple of alleged photos of the TV chassis, which has a massive Xiaomi logo bang in the middle. We've got one of the shots after the break.
The Daily Roundup for 04.15.2013
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
Xiaomi president Lin Bin aims to ship 15 million superphones in 2013, expand sales beyond Asia
Lin Bin, co-founder and president of Xiaomi Corporation, has only been in the business of selling high-spec Android phones for three years. But yet, here he is, talking on stage at D:Dive Into Mobile about just how successful his outfit has become. "No sales, no marketing, no retail -- we price our phones at the bill-of-materials," said Lin. That probably sounds like a recipe for disaster in the United States, but it's working exceptionally well in Asia. Lin stated that Xiaomi has reached a clip of around $2 billion in revenue on 1.7 million phones, and in 2013 it's hoping to ship 15 million handsets. For those who've been paying attention, you'd know that Xiaomi is hawking unsubsidized superphones -- packing the latest and greatest components -- for well under $400. And they're selling out within minutes. "Last year, when we announced the Mi2, for 3-4 months we'd have hundreds of thousands of units available, and they'd be gone within two or three minutes after we posted availability online. We're working hard on distribution -- China is big, and we're aiming to get phones into hands in just three days after purchase." %Gallery-185703%
Xiaomi Phone 2S and 2A announced with MIUI v5, the former entering Hong Kong and Taiwan
After selling 7.19 million phones in China last year, Xiaomi is now one step closer to world domination with a new device that'll take it to new territories: the Xiaomi Phone 2S (or MI-2S). As the name and look (pictured left) suggest, this is pretty much the same device as the 4.3-inch Xiaomi Phone 2, except it comes with Qualcomm's newer Snapdragon 600 quad-core chip clocked at 1.7GHz, plus a beefed up camera of 13-megapixel resolution (with F2.2 aperture) on the 32GB model. The 16GB 2S, on the other hand, gets the same old 8-megapixel F2.0 imager. The rest of the hardware is the same old: 2GB RAM, 2,000mAH removable battery, 720p IPS display, dual-mic noise cancellation, 2-megapixel front-facing camera and WCDMA 850/1900/2100MHz radio (there's also a CDMA version for China Telecom). Unlike the previous launch, the 16GB flavor of this phone is already in stock on the day of announcement and is ready for purchase in China today for ¥1,999 or about $320 unsubsidized. Actually, strike that -- apparently the first lot of 200,000 units promptly sold out (likely thanks to scalpers). Luckily, Xiaomi is finally tapping into the Hong Kong market via its xiaomi.hk website starting April 23rd, so chances are genuine buyers in Hong Kong won't have to compete against the machines from mainland China; and Taiwan customers will also be able to buy a 2S from either local carrier Far Eastone towards the end of this month, or from xiaomi.tw starting next month. No word on the availability of the 32GB model just yet, but it's already priced at ¥2,299 or about $370 unsubsidized. %Gallery-185086% %Gallery-185084%
Xiaomi M2S with Snapdragon 600 revealed in curtailed China Telecom listing
China Telecom looks to be getting a supercharged flavor of the small-ish but powerful Xiaomi Phone 2, if an inadvertent listing for a Xiaomi M2s proves accurate. MyDrivers.com grabbed some screenshots before it was pulled, revealing the same 4.3-inch, 720p resolution screen and other specs but with a 1.7GHz quad-core APQ8064 CPU -- likely a Snapdragon 600, a nice jump from the already powerful S4 Pro in other Xiaomi Phone 2 variants. The carrier may have jumped the gun ahead of an April 9th Xiaomi event, but the $370 or so phone looks to be good news for users there who don't want downmarket specs with a downsized screen -- as seems to be the trend lately.
Xiaomi Box launches in a three-city trial on March 19th at a lower price
The Xiaomi Box has had an arduous road to travel before it could go on sale: Chinese regulations reportedly kept it in limbo until local broadcaster iCNTV stepped in this January to get the ball rolling once again. The end is in sight now that a limited trial is set to start on March 19th. Changsha, Hangzhou and Shanghai will get about 10,000 total units of the Android media hub, whose price is dropping from the originally chosen ¥399 ($64) to an extra-frugal ¥299 ($48). The price slash could well make the set-top box that much more alluring, especially when it's still poised to give both Android and iOS users some media sharing love. Could you please hurry up your release plans, Xiaomi?
