Xiaomi overtook both Apple and Samsung to become the top selling smartphone in China

[kdarling]

I want manufacturers from whom i buy products bathing in cash so they can make distruptive moves revolutionising the industry not penny-pinching and cutting corners.

That does sounds wonderful, however it doesn't reflect real life history.

Apple has long been infamous for spending only a tiny bit of its huge profits on R&D or purchasing IP. Heck, Samsung, Microsoft, Google and many others spend much, much more. Apple barely even cracks the top 50 in many lists.

Heck, Apple only spent about $150 million total on creating the iPhone, and around $100 million of that was just installing test facilities.

So, no sir, sorry. Apple did not need $100 billion... most of it sitting around overseas... in order to revolutionize anything. Nor do other companies.

Apple has something far better than money: the will to use disruptive technologies before others do.

But even small companies can do that, if they wish. Again, think back. When Apple started with the iPhone, its sales were a fraction of what Xiaomi and others are doing in their first year. It's not about how much you charge or make. It's about what you're willing to try.

I have absolutely no respect for manufacturers who compete solely based on price. I dont care about the price, only about quality and features. What do xiaomi and oneplus have to offer?

Besides affordable prices, they have something that China loves: owner input into design. They release new OS versions almost every week, based on user input. They have a constant, public dialog with their users, that is the total opposite of Apple's monolithic we-know-better-than-you approach.

 

[minimo3]

http://techcrunch.com/2014/07/02/xiaomi-1h14-phone-sales/?ncid=rss

Xiaomi outsold samsung again in china in April. They posted 271% increase in handset sales compared to 1H of 2013. And this is with distribution limited to just china and a few SE Asian countries. 23% of buyers came from samsung. A lady standing in line behind me had a Mi3. Sure looked a lot more luxe than a Galaxy S4/5.

 

[minimo3]

I've read that. But ask yourself this, can any meaningful r&d come out of thin margins? Can there be a healthy industry with razor-thin margins?

I want manufacturers from whom i buy products bathing in cash so they can make distruptive moves revolutionising the industry not penny-pinching and cutting corners. What can oneplus one do except put more downward pressure on the already very unhealthy smartphone industry in the perpetual race to the bottom?

I have absolutely no respect for manufacturers who compete solely based on price. I dont care about the price, only about quality and features. What do xiaomi and oneplus have to offer?

It makes absolutely no business sense to invest in R&D when the courts have shown that IP cannot be easily protected. Why invest millions of dollars and hundreds of engineers building software, just let google or cyanogen be your software engineering lab for free. Let Apple invest money developing stuff like capacitive touch or sapphire screens, or liquid metal. Just copy it or use the same vendors. Qualcomm does all the microprocessor, baseband, and SoC R&D, just buy their chips. Micron, Elipda, etc does the Flash and DRAM R&D for you, just buy their modules. Wait for Samsung to figure out what screen size people like then just buy the same size panels from Sharp, Chimei, Innolux. In most cases the first movers who invest time and money in coming up with the innovation often end up losing to the fast followers who come up with a good enough product at a lower price. This is exactly what is taking place now.

 

[Savor]

I just recently got my Xiaomi Mi 3 two days ago and I must say - Disappointing camera. Amazing battery life!

The camera is only thing I have been greatly disappointed with. For white, it shows greenish tones. Indoor shots come out quite dark and noisy. And the display is much warmer than my original HTC One. Whites look yellowish. The front facing cam is also vastly inferior to the One. M7 had a great balance in color and reproduction. Its main issue was purple tint in dark colors. And both Mi 3's external speaker and screen display takes a step back vs the One. Still good but not AS good as the M7.

I thought Mi 3 could correct two issues I had with the M7 in battery life and camera. It only corrected the former. But the batt life is amazing. Perhaps the best battery life I've experienced since the iPhone 4! I typically get 5-6 hrs SOT (screen on time) on the One. Maybe 3-5 hrs with gaming and maybe 6-7 if I was generally texting and watching videos. My first day with the Mi 3 gave me 7 hrs SOT with 15% left. I used WiFi mostly and my SOT is at 2 hrs and my batt percentage still says 81%. I can easily get 10 hr screen time on this thing. Unlike the One where batt drops abruptly under 40%, Mi 3 just keeps going on and on. It drains slower like the iPhones once under 20%. On HTC, it would drop 5% without any warning.

I give it 8.8/10. The M7 I still give 9.2/10. There is still a few quibbles I have with the Mi 3 with certain apps not working correctly like Du Battery, Wakelock Detector, and the Notification Toggle apps gets overridden or disappears with the default settings. Perhaps it is KitKat incompatibility. And my camera app did force close on me as a few times as well as a few other apps. Stability is still questionable. Also the apps generally open the same time between the One vs Mi 3. SD600 is no slouch.

But for $243 with fast WiFi ac and most amazing battery life I've experienced on a smartphone, it is a no-brainer purchase.

 

[flameproof]

I wouldn't buy a China phone under no circumstances. The Android system is made to suit China. Can't access playstore, most google functions removed. You get a crippled OS. Smarter Chinapeople buy their phones outside of China, or buy imports.

 

[spriter]

I wouldn't buy a China phone under no circumstances.

Your choice, your right.

The Android system is made to suit China.

Really? Is that Google's new mission statement?

Can't access playstore, most google functions removed.

The reason it's not there by default? Because there are local alternative App Stores, usually by way of the hardware manufacturers. Yes, there are some dubious pirate stores but only if you go looking for them.

You can quite easily install Google's Play Store on many devices and people do this whilst others are fine with their pre-installed App Store. One could argue there is greater choice given the competition between App Stores when compared to being force-fed the monopoly that is the Play Store.

You get a crippled OS. Smarter Chinapeople buy their phones outside of China, or buy imports.

In what way? Having bought and used phones there locally for years as well as in the West, I am yet to experience this 'crippling' and the need to buy an
import or pick something up before entering the country. I'd love to know what special secret features I've been missing out on all this time.

 

[Savor]

Actually I'm sorta regretting getting the Mi 3 after seeing the official Mi 4 dimensions. That was basically the dimensions I wanted similar to Nexus 5. Oh well. I can still sell this Mi 3 off for full price but who knows when this Mi 4 arrives in my country since the Mi 3 was released here last June 26th.

MIUI 5 is quite buggy and so is KitKat. My settings app closes alot and I went through a loop when I tried changing the font size that I had to reboot it. It willl also close if I press sim management under settings. I'm using Nova Prime as I prefer hiding apps than putting them in folders with MIUI. And Notifications Toggle, Wakelock Detector, and Du Battery Saver still doesn't work right to view accurate screen time usage. And I can't view my RAM usage either. Not a fan of GSAM Battery Monitor. I just linked a double tap on status bar (via All In One Gestures) with the default battery usage and made many apps TRUSTED under the security app as it keeps cleaning the cache. My AnTuTu scores are all over the place whether on high performance, balanced, or battery saving mode. I'm getting 19-23k AnTuTu scores when I used to get 31-33k before. I peaked at 35.5k just yesterday but then got 20k-23k this morning at whatever battery mode.

I still like this Mi 3 very much. About $80 cheaper than the 16 GB Mi 4. And I just discovered I can play a couple FM radio stations without a headset and while on airplane mode. Very cool. I can easily sell this but that 8-10 hr screen time usage is what prevents me from selling it. While the M7 would lose 15-20% batt life under WiFi every hour with abrupt drops under 30% that I have to completely disregard the last 20% altogether. The Mi 3 stays very consistent at drainage with generally 10-12% per screen time hour under most activities with the exception maybe with graphic intensive gaming. My low end is probably 5 hrs on the Mi 3 with 8 hrs as the median and over 10 hrs on a very good day. My M7 is anywhere from 3-7 hrs depending on what I do. Mi 3 is my 4th Android device but the first one to really give me very satisfying battery usage. It's a keeper for that reason alone.

 

[flameproof]

You can quite easily install Google's Play Store.................

You need to understand that nearly all google functions are blocked in China. An Android that is based on google will be totally crippled.

From my knowledge currently this google functions are blocked in China:

Search
Voice
Drive
Keep
Translate

For China visitors specially translate is painful as not everybody speaks English there. Bing, Baidu have translators too, but their mobile version lack Pinyin, means you see a Chinese character but don't know how it's pronounced.

Only google functions that is (still) working is gmail.

I strongly suggest all China visitors to install a VPN before visiting China.

BTW, Youtube, Facebook, Dropbox can't be accessed either.

 

[Savor]

I'm still finding the quirks of MIUI, but there quite a few things I like about it so far -

Wake screen using volume buttons.

Default Calculator, Music, and Notes app are quite nice.

FM radio app can play a couple popular stations without a headset and while on airplane mode.

Do Not Disturb (DND) mode - Silences all my calls and notifications in a specified schedule I prefer.

Themes - Even if I use a third party launcher like Nova Prime, I can still change the look of the lockscreen, dialer, messaging app background, boot animation, etc. Default MIUI launcher isn't required.

Security app is very useful.

Under the Security app, battery configuration profiles are great like Sleep and Marathon. I created my own profiles I call Day and Night. For Day (10am-10pm), I have brightness set at 35% and CPU at High Performance. For Night, brightness goes down to 20% and CPU at Battery Saving. I don't see much difference in battery life between High Performance vs Battery Saving, so I prefer the former as it feels smoother, opens games faster than my M7 under this setting, and my AnTuTu peaked over 36k last night under High Performance after getting 19-23k under Battery Saving. You can always have them show in the notification toggles under Conserve to switch from Battery Saving, Balance, and High Performance.

 

[jamezr]

You need to understand that nearly all google functions are blocked in China. An Android that is based on google will be totally crippled.

From my knowledge currently this google functions are blocked in China:

Search
Voice
Drive
Keep
Translate

For China visitors specially translate is painful as not everybody speaks English there. Bing, Baidu have translators too, but their mobile version lack Pinyin, means you see a Chinese character but don't know how it's pronounced.

Only google functions that is (still) working is gmail.

I strongly suggest all China visitors to install a VPN before visiting China.

BTW, Youtube, Facebook, Dropbox can't be accessed either.

Such a closed restrictive stance the government has over there. I wonder how how they would feel if the their products were restricted elsewhere outside of China......

 

[spriter]

You need to understand that nearly all google functions are blocked in China. An Android that is based on google will be totally crippled.

From my knowledge currently this google functions are blocked in China:

Search
Voice
Drive
Keep
Translate

For China visitors specially translate is painful as not everybody speaks English there. Bing, Baidu have translators too, but their mobile version lack Pinyin, means you see a Chinese character but don't know how it's pronounced.

Only google functions that is (still) working is gmail.

I strongly suggest all China visitors to install a VPN before visiting China.

BTW, Youtube, Facebook, Dropbox can't be accessed either.

Such a closed restrictive stance the government has over there. I wonder how how they would feel if the their products were restricted elsewhere outside of China......

Partly true but you guys make it sound much worse than it really is.

True, there is censorship of products which we all know about and a VPN is a no-brainer for visitors who want to use what they're used to. That's something you accept before you buy the plane ticket unless you live under a rock.

The other part is ensuring local companies have the chance to flourish rather than simply being dominated by foreign firms - supporting the local economy - something all countries do to some degree right? Think the noises Apple made about bringing back production of the MacPro to the US. There's a certain satisfaction and degree of pride and patriotism about the whole thing.

With that said, for every service listed as 'blocked', there's a multitude of local variants. And I've yet to meet a Chinese person who buys a phone and thinks "damn, I can't access Facebook or Twitter" - they simply prefer their native language on Weibo.

It's the same for everything else so this whole notion of selling crippled devices is flawed. They're simply tailored to the local market. No YouTube? Hello Youku, Sogu, and the list goes on. No Google Search and Maps? How about Baidu's equivalent in my own language? Yes, please! So why no Google by default on Chinese devices? Because it simply isn't needed!

Translation is an issue for foreigners as locals will simply write characters with their fingers and get a translation to another language rather than from Chinese (Hanzi) to Chinese (Pinyin). Again, targeted to the needs of the local market. Anyone who can't read Chinese and needs Pinyin and tones would be far wiser to use Pleco which is both free and fantastically more accurate than anything Google Translate comes up with.

TLDR: Western devices are tailored for Western users and likewise Chinese devices are tailored for Chinese users. No surprises here.

 

[flameproof]

TLDR: Western devices are tailored for Western users and likewise Chinese devices are tailored for Chinese users. No surprises here.

That statement is not correct. A Chinese devise with a crippled China OS wouldn't sell well in Hong Kong or Taiwan. They are all adapted to meet that local market. The Market in China is not about free choice and rather about getting around restrictions.

For the 'under the stone' comment. That Facebook and Youtube are blocked for ages is well known. Google is only blocked since June 2014. I wasn't aware that Dropbox was blocked.

Anyway, Xiaomi is already one of the better China brands. I would stay away from any no-name crap.