That didn’t last long.
Just 24 hours after US Mobile made news for being the first US operator to sell Xiaomi and Meizu smartphones, the T-Mobile MVNO has yanked those devices from its online store. While US Mobile hasn’t issued a statement on the matter, Xiaomi has, saying that “US Mobile is not authorized to sell Xiaomi products in the U.S.” Xiaomi added that it has no plans to sell its smartphones through any authorized distributors in the US.
Meanwhile, PCMag has heard that T-Mobile wants the Xiaomi and US Mobile phones to be put through extra certification tests.
The news that US Mobile was selling Xiaomi and Meizu phones was notable because those devices have traditionally only been sold in China and select other Asian markets. US Mobile had been working with a company called Omni Electronics HK to sell and distribute the Xiaomi and Meizu phones, though, and it appears as though Xiaomi wasn’t cool with that.
The Xiaomi and Meizu phones being sold by US Mobile weren’t intended for sale in the US, and so they didn’t support US LTE networks. Even still, I’m sure that there were a few folks that were thinking about buying from US Mobile yesterday just to satisfy their curiosity about Xiaomi and Meizu hardware. Now those folks will have to wait until those devices come to the US in a more official capacity. Exactly when that’ll happen is anyone’s guess, but Xiaomi said in July 2015 that it was “no less than a year plus…potentially much more than a year” from selling its phones in the US.