[Epoch Times News on January 8, 2022](Interviews and reports by Epoch Times reporters Wen Ni and Liang Xin) Recently, Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi has repeatedly declared that it will be “the world‘s No. 1 in three years”. In this regard, senior IT professionals said that Xiaomi is a 100% assembled machine brand, and its strength is far inferior to Samsung and Apple. Moreover, Xiaomi is helping the Chinese Communist Party to review and monitor users and is likely to follow in Huawei’s footsteps.
On the evening of December 28, 2021, Xiaomi held a 12-series new product launch. The company’s founder, chairman and CEO Lei Jun reiterated the goal of “No. Officially benchmarked with Apple.
A week before, Lei Jun declared on Chinese social media Weibo: “Xiaomi’s high-end mobile phones have officially started to benchmark against Apple and learn from Apple.”
Xiaomi’s recent ambitions are related to its performance in the second quarter of last year. In July last year, market research agency Canalys announced that Xiaomi’s smartphone market share in the second quarter was 17%, surpassing Apple (14%) and ranking second in the world, second only to Samsung (19%).
Afterwards, Lei Jun highlighted his goal of “No. 1 in the world in three years” on a large screen in his 2021 speech on August 10.
However, Apple’s then vice president Bruce Sewell immediately said: “It is easy to say. It is much more difficult to do.” (It is easy to say. It is much more difficult to do.)
The analysis company Counterpoint suggested that the increase in Xiaomi sales may not last long. Samsung was hit by the epidemic in the second quarter, and there were problems such as shortages, but it is expected to recover soon, and Apple is in a transitional period between new and old models in the second quarter. Production is relatively sluggish, which is why the above result appears.
Sure enough, in the third quarter of 2021, Apple regained its second place in the world with a 15% market share, Xiaomi’s market share dropped to 14%, ranking third again, and Samsung rose to 23%.
In terms of overall sales and shipments, Xiaomi still has a big gap between Apple and Samsung. According to data from the global network statistics website Statcounter, as of July 1, 2021, Samsung and Apple’s overall market share were 27.3% and 26.9%, respectively, accounting for more than half of the global mobile phone market, while Xiaomi’s accounted for only 10.9%. Behind the two leading mobile phone manufacturers.
IT expert: Xiaomi is just an assembly machine brand
After Xiaomi’s slogan of “the world‘s first in three years” was issued, it has aroused widespread discussion in the industry and public opinion. Zhang Jian, a senior IT professional in North America, said in an interview with Epoch Times on January 5 that Apple is a well-deserved rare brand in the world from the perspective of Apple’s size, technology and customer stickiness. Xiaomi wants to surpass Apple within three years. It’s simply “idiotic dreams”.
“Xiaomi is a 100% assembled mobile phone brand,” Zhang Jian told reporters. “If you take Xiaomi’s mobile phone apart, you will find that all its spare parts can be found in the Chinese mobile phone market. You only need to have relevant With manual operation capabilities, you can use these spare parts to assemble a Mi mobile phone.”
“Tianjun Political Economy” researcher Lu Xiuyuan also told The Epoch Times that mobile phone manufacturers need to have the three major capabilities of product development, branding and channel sales, and Xiaomi has at most channel sales capabilities.
“To put it bluntly, Xiaomi is only an assembler manufacturer. From the perspective of market share, if Xiaomi dumps in poor areas such as Africa, it will soon increase its market share, but such a number does not make much sense.”
Xiaomi may follow in Huawei’s footsteps
Since Xiaomi’s sales in the second quarter of 2021 briefly surpassed Apple and set the world‘s second record, “Huawei No. 2” has become synonymous with Xiaomi. From the perspective of prospects and destiny, senior IT professionals also believe that Xiaomi is likely to be supported by the CCP as “Huawei No. 2”, following in Huawei’s footsteps.
Huawei is China’s first global technology giant. It surpassed Ericsson in 2012 to become the world‘s largest telecommunications equipment manufacturer, and in 2018 it surpassed Apple to become the world‘s second largest smartphone manufacturer. In the second quarter of 2020, Huawei surpassed Samsung for a while, setting the world‘s number one sales record.
However, in the second half of 2020, the U.S. sanctions escalated and began to completely block Huawei, causing Huawei’s mobile phone market share to fall from the second in the world to the top five. Xiaomi and Apple became the biggest beneficiaries. The former swallowed most of Huawei’s low-end market. Share, the latter dominates the high-end market.
The United States blocked Huawei out of national security considerations. In addition to the well-known CCP military background, the British Parliament’s 2020 survey found that in the past three years, the CCP government provided Huawei with about 75 billion US dollars in funding to help Huawei sell its hardware at “ridiculously low prices.”
As Xiaomi moves into the international market, its security risks have also begun to arouse the attention of the international community. On September 21 last year, the National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) of Lithuania discovered that Xiaomi mobile phones would automatically censor and block words such as “Tibet Freedom”, “Long Live Taiwan Independence” or “Democracy Movement”. Although this function can be turned off manually, it can still be turned on remotely.
This discovery means that Xiaomi is helping the CCP to censor and block “sensitive information”, and the CCP’s shadow has begun to emerge behind Xiaomi.
Although Xiaomi immediately denied it in a statement, Zhang Jian said, “From the day it was launched, it will leave a back door for the CCP’s national security or surveillance department, otherwise it will not be able to go public. How could the CCP allow everyone to be monitored, and How about people who use Xiaomi phones to avoid surveillance?”
Speaking of the rise and decline of Huawei, Zhang Jian said that Huawei once declared high-profile that its mobile phones had reached 100% domestic production. At that time, China’s “little pinks” were cheering and believing that China’s high technology could crush the world. As a result, after the US sanctions, Huawei immediately began to lose ground, because it used almost all foreign high-tech products.
“Xiaomi is the same,” Zhang Jian said, “We have now seen that the connection between Xiaomi and the CCP is inseparable. Xiaomi mobile phones are unparalleled in the world because of their copycat skills, and their prices are very competitive and attractive. It will naturally attract people who are not wealthy and don’t care about personal privacy being leaked.”
“However, once Xiaomi’rises’ like Huawei, it is bound to be closely watched by the United States and subject to U.S. sanctions. In this case, Xiaomi will also follow in Huawei’s footsteps and become the’Huawei second’.” He said.
When asked “Whether Xiaomi will become the target of the CCP’s support”, Zhang Jian said that instead of saying that the CCP wants to support Xiaomi to become Huawei, it is better to say that Xiaomi will have to become “Huawei No. 2” because for the CCP As long as one giant technology company falls, it is bound to support another puppet, and all technology companies in China are controlled by the CCP.
Editor in charge: Lian Shuhua#
.