Xiaomi Corp really wants to shed its down-market image. China\u2019s No. 2 smartphone maker is counting on its most expensive device yet to face off against Huawei Technologies Co and Apple Inc at home while carving out a bigger footprint in Europe.<\/p>\n
The Chinese smartphone maker on Thursday unveiled the MIX 3, the fourth generation of a series introduced in 2016.<\/p>\n
Xiaomi\u2019s latest effort to acquire a premium gloss features a bezel-less 6.4-inch screen, Qualcomm Inc. processors and slick ceramic body. It now sports front-facing cameras on a sliding structure nestled behind the screen, doing away with the notch popularized by the iPhone.<\/p>\n
The device will go on sale from November starting at 3,299 yuan ($475) and going all the way up to 4,999 yuan for a \u201cForbidden City\u201d special edition.<\/p>\n
It marks Chairman Lei Jun\u2019s effort to make greater headway into a more profitable premium market dominated by Apple, Samsung Electronics Co and – to an increasing extent – Chinese rival Huawei. That\u2019s where customers have deeper pockets to pay for services such as music and games that Xiaomi deems the future of its business.<\/p>\n
Beijing-based Xiaomi is trying to steal market share from Huawei, the leader in China — especially in the 3,000 yuan-plus market thanks to its P and Mate series gadgets. It also wants to build a bigger presence in Europe, a stepping stone to the US.<\/p>\n
Both are vital to sustaining its pace of revenue growth. Xiaomi disclosed Thursday that phone shipments for the year had surpassed 100 million units – overtaking 2017\u2019s total — but much of that would have come from cheaper models in India and elsewhere.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been focusing on our internal capabilities this year, in preparation for future competition,\u201d Lei told reporters and industry executives gathered within the Forbidden City, the centuries-old former imperial palace at the heart of Beijing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest brands are heavily invested in cameras and AI. It\u2019s those areas that will decide the top-tier vendors and smaller players.\u201d<\/p>\n
The MIX 3 will sport the usual AI-powered bells and whistles, such as auto-background blur for selfies. Xiaomi\u2019s marquee device also sports an AMOLED screen, Snapdragon 845 chipset and 24-megapixel front-facing dual camera.<\/p>\n
But it may have a ways to go to wrest interest from Apple\u2019s and Huawei\u2019s latest models — Lei on Thursday mostly pitted the MIX 3 against the older iPhone X and Huawei\u2019s P20.<\/p>\n
Regardless, Xiaomi needs the MIX 3 to be a hit. The smartphone vendor wrapped up a $5.4 billion initial public offering in July, only to find itself under intense scrutiny from investors over valuations comparable to higher-growth internet giants such as Facebook Inc.<\/p>\n
Pressured further by the uncertainty surrounding US-Chinese tensions, Xiaomi has lost roughly $13 billion or about a quarter of its market value since its debut.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s something worth looking out for even if the MIX range is not going to bring in meaningful revenue for a long time,\u201d said Nicole Peng, senior research director of Canalys.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is to showcase how much R&D capability Xiaomi has got in its pocket.\u201d<\/p>\n