Xiaomi is a major player in the Chinese mobile market, and it recently expanded to India. The company is known for offering premium Android devices at affordable prices. Because of its popularity, a lot of folks wonder when Xiaomi will offer its devices in the US, if it ever will. Now Xiaomi’s Hugo Barra has touched on the matter.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Barra says that Xiaomi does plan to begin selling phones in the US someday. Exactly when, though, is a mystery. He says that a US launch is “no less than a year plus…potentially much more than a year.” That’s because a US launch would require things like after sales service, customer support, and hardware localization, Barra explains.
The Xiaomi exec also touched on intellectual property. Some have suggested that Xiaomi isn’t launching in the US yet is because its products could become targets for IP lawsuits. Barra explains that Xiaomi is doing things like working to secure patent licenses around the globe as well as build its own patent portfolio before launching stateside.
Xiaomi makes some nice Android phones that offer good design, construction, and specs at affordable prices. That combination is what makes the devices so attractive to those of us outside of the markets that Xiaomi sells in (as well as the fact that we just can’t get those devices). It’s good to hear that Xiaomi does plan to eventually sell its phones in the US, but it sounds like it’ll be quite a while before anyone in the US can stroll over to Xiaomi’s online shop and just buy a phone like it’s nothing. We’ll just have to settle for the company’s power banks, headphones, and fitness tracker for now.
To watch the entire (brief) interview with Hugo Barra, direct your browser here.
