The branded superphone business is skyrocketing in China with news such as:
- GiONEE (金立), the emerging global competitor on the smartphone market [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, July 22, 2013]
- UPDATE Aug’13: Xiaomi $130 Hongmi superphone END MediaTek MT6589 quad-core Cortex-A7 SoC with HSPA+ and TD-SCDMA is available for Android smartphones and tablets of Q1 delivery [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, Dec 12, 2012; Aug 1, 2013]
- XiaoMi Mi3 No Longer Feature Tegra 4, Launch Delays To September [GSMinsider, July 28, 2013]: “NVIDIA unable to fulfil the terms from XiaoMi and the Chinese firm had decided to end the discussion. The Chinese source mentioned that XiaoMi turns to Qualcomm after the partnership with NVIDIA failed.”
- New funding round values Xiaomi at $10bn [Shanghaiist, July 28, 2013]
- Tencent Holdings to invest US$2 billion in Xiaomi, says paper [DIGITIMES, July 25, 2013]
China-based Tencent Holdings, which runs one of the largest web portals in China, QQ.com, reportedly plans to commit an investment of US$2 billion into China-based smartphone vendor Xiaomi Technology, according to a Chinese-language Economic Daily News (EDN) report.
Tencent is likely to complete the planned investment in Xiaomi through one of its investment arms in Russia, Digital Sky Technologies, said the paper, quoting media reports in Hong Kong and China.
Neither Tencent nor Xiaomi has confirmed the reports.
Xiaomi shipped 7.03 million smartphones, valued at US$1.32 billion, in the first half of 2013, the paper quoted Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun as saying.
- Xiaomi sells over 7 million smartphones in 1H13 [DIGITIMES, July 16, 2013]
Xiaomi Technology sold 7.03 million own-brand smartphones in the first half of 2013, close to the 7.19 million units sold in 2012, according to the company.
Xiaomi recorded revenues of CNY13.27 billion (US$2.14 billion) for the first half of 2013, more than the CNY12.65 billion posted for 2012, the company indicated.
Xiaomi launched smartphones initially in the China market in August 2011, and in Taiwan and Hong Kong in the first half of 2013. As sales of existing Xiaomi smartphones will continue and new-generation models will be launched in August, Xiaomi said it is confident of reaching its target shipments of 15 million smartphones for 2013.
In addition to smartphones, Xiaomi has launched Xiaomi connected set-top boxes (STBs) and is likely to launch large-size LCD TVs and tablets for own-brand sale in the second half of 2013, the company indicated. Xiaomi smartphones are produced by Taiwan-based ODMs Inventec Appliances and Foxconn International Holdings (FIH), while Inventec Appliances additionally undertakes ODM production of Xiaomi STBs. Xiaomi may have Taiwan-based ODM Wistron produce TVs, and FIH tablets.
Two and a half months ago we had even the news that Meitu Kiss Released. Will It Be Another Xiaomi? (built specifically for ladies) [TechNode blog in China, May 16, 2013] having the following lead:
We once introduced how the photography-focused Meitu Kiss phone came into being and it is backed by Cai Wensheng, a legendary figure in China’s tech industry. Today it is officially released, together with MeituAir, the cross-platform photo management software.
With Android 4.2, quad-core MT6589 processor and 4.5-inch 1280 x 720 display and 8 mega-pixel front & rear camera, it’s priced at 2199 yuan (US$357)
and conclusion:
The strategy sounds the same with Xiaomi’s — to gain users with comparatively good-value-for-money smartphones, build ecosystem with software and make profits from consumer-facing paid services and business-facing offerings. As Xiaomi is backed by Lei Jun, another classic figure in China’ s tech sector, it is speculated the two companies would be direct competitor in near future. Also the same with Lei Jun, Mr. Cai has invested a variety of tech companies, from gaming to Weibo content marketing agencies, that would help provide Meitu Kiss with content and services.
So it is quite actual to have a look at the domestic premium brand situation in China:
The 10 most talked about products in the domestic mobile phone market of China in April 2013 and their main parameters (source: http://www.tqun.com/article-16949-2.html):
For the top 3 most innovative brands I’ve extended the table of main parameters coming next as follows (the source is the same: http://www.tqun.com/article-16949-2.html):
and prepared a table showing similar parameters about the market leading models:
Then here is and appraisal of the strengths of the most innovative Chinese domestic brands as of May 15, 2013 :
小米 Xiaomi
魅族 Meizu
OPPO
Chinese domestic brand expansion into the global market: the AndroidGuruz initiative from India
1. 小米 Xiaomi
Lei Jun: Xiaomi is Here to Stay [mobiSights, May 7, 2013, image insert from the same day MIUI News]
Lei Jun, founder and CEO of Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi said he is determined to continue creating world-class phones, capable of competing with the global heavyweights at a fraction of the price.
“I admire giant companies like Huawei, Tencent, Sina and Alibaba, but I don’t want to create another Huawei, Tencent, Sina or Alibaba. My dream is to maintain my current company as a small one. (like a) small restaurant that people line up outside of to buy my products, and my friend will call me to reserve seats for them.” Jun said during a keynote address to the 2013 GMIC [Global Mobile Internet Conference] Beijing.
In late April, Xiaomi’s new smartphone, the Mi-2S 32GB sold out (200,000 units) in less than a minute after it went up for sale.
Lei went on to explain he bases Xiaomi’s business strategy on the examples set by two Chinese companies – Tong Ren Tang traditional medicine chain, which has a history of more than 300 years in China, and Hai Di Lao Hot Pot, which is famous for fast and friendly customer service.
Two of Tong Ren Tang’s business principles appeal to Lei Jun – its adherence to strict moral and quality baselines and its fair and reliable treatment of its employees.
Hai Di Lao’s exceptional customer service inspires Lei Jun, who said he wants his staff to communicate with their clients and customers as much as possible so that his company can pinpoint problems and get feedback from the users.
Despite criticism from many outside sources, Lei Jun said he will continue working towards perfecting Xiaomi’s business model and will keep striving towards the “perfect” smartphone.
The 3 years anniversary event:
[HD] 2013 Xiaomi Fans Carnival Full Official Presentation (Chinese & English Subtitles) [Xiaomi China YouTube channel, published April 19, recorded April 9, 2013]
[First some company history was presented. Then the MIUI V5 was introduced the design overview of which was also presented [19:30–22:05] by a prepared video you can see separately later under the title “Introducing Xiaomi MIUI V5 (HD)”. After that a series of key considerations implemented for proper MIUI functionality were presented just to demonstrate how complex had the 3 years long MIUI project been so far. … MIUI related endin
See also: Xiaomi’s Third Founding Anniversary in Numbers [TechNode blog in China, April 9, 2013] from which some worthwhile excerpts are:
Lei Jun, co-founder and CEO, revealed that the company made 12.65 billion yuan [$2B] in pre-tax sales in 2012 with a total of 7.19 million Xiaomi phones sold (1.37 million were sold through China Unicom while the rest sold online). Mr. Lei said earlier that the net profit could be about USD 200 million and their sales goal for 2013 was 15 million Xiaomi phones. ( the presentation in Chinese)
MIUI, a custom Android ROM built in Xiaomi phones and available for download, announced earlier that its users surpassed 15 million. According to today’s release, the app store within MIUI has 20 thousand apps, with daily downloads reaching 3.5 million and the total exceeding 500 million; the game center, launched in last September, has 10 thousand games, with a total of 60 million downloads and one million each day; the MIUI theme designs have been downloaded for a total of 600 times and 3.5 million daily. All the mentioned categories have become MIUI’s revenue sources and we heard that the monthly income had become considerable [¥ 10M = $1.6M] earlier this year.
The cloud storage service, released about half a year ago, now is holding 300 million photos, two billion text messages. 6 million photos and 13 million are uploaded onto it daily. As for the number of users, Mr. Lei said “one to two million”.
…
It’s no secret that Lei Jun and his team want to make an iPhone-style business to have as many users as possible buy Xiaomi phones and accessories, and consume software and digital content there. The difference must be they don’t plan to make high profits from selling hardware — it helps gain users — but count on the MIUI platform as source of long-tail income. As for the future, you can’t see a lack of investments or talent happen to the company. How far can it go? Behold.
Xiaomi Phone 2S and 2A announced with MIUI v5, the former entering Hong Kong and Taiwan [engadget, April 9, 2013]
After selling 7.19 million phones in China last year, Xiaomi is now one step closer to world domination with a new device that’ll take it to new territories: the Xiaomi Phone 2S (or Mi-2S). As the name and look suggest, this is pretty much the same device as the 4.3-inch Xiaomi Phone 2, except it comes with Qualcomm’s newer Snapdragon 600 quad-core chip clocked at 1.7GHz, plus a beefed up camera of 13-megapixel resolution (with F2.2 aperture) on the 32GB model. The 16GB 2S, on the other hand, gets the same old 8-megapixel F2.0 imager. The rest of the hardware is the same old: 2GB RAM, 2,000mAH removable battery, 720p IPS display, dual-mic noise cancellation, 2-megapixel front-facing camera and WCDMA 850/1900/2100MHz radio (there’s also a CDMA version for China Telecom).
Unlike the previous launch, the 16GB flavor of this phone is already in stock on the day of announcement and is ready for purchase in China today for ¥1,999 or about $320 unsubsidized. Actually, strike that — apparently the first lot of 200,000 units promptly sold out (likely thanks to scalpers). Luckily, Xiaomi is finally tapping into the Hong Kong market via its xiaomi.hk website starting April 23rd, so chances are genuine buyers in Hong Kong won’t have to compete against the machines from mainland China; and Taiwan customers will also be able to buy a 2S from either local carrier Far Eastone towards the end of this month, or from xiaomi.tw starting next month. No word on the availability of the 32GB model just yet, but it’s already priced at ¥2,299 or about $370 unsubsidized.
The familiar-looking phone on the right is the Xiaomi Phone 2A. Much like how the original Xiaomi Phone got a “Youth Edition” fork, the 2A serves as a budget variant of the Xiaomi Phone 2, which is why the CPU’s been “downgraded” from the quad-core APQ8064 to the dual-core MSM8260A (with just 1GB RAM). On the other hand, this particular version of MSM8260A does utilize Qualcomm’s newer Krait 300 architecture instead of Krait 200, and it’s clocked at 1.7GHz instead of 1.5GHz. The same old 16GB storage space, 2,000mAh removable battery, 8-megapixel main camera, 2-megapixel front-facing camera and the powerful Adreno 320 graphics chip are here to stay.
That said, the rest of the 2A is rather peculiar considering this model is meant to be a cheaper offering: the 720p IPS screen has been bumped up from 4.3 inches to 4.5 inches, and the phone also comes with NFC, 5GHz WiFi plus a new audio engine co-developed with Sweden-based Dirac (instead of using Dolby’s). It’s no wonder that this phone is a “2A” instead of yet another “Youth Edition,” but it is also baffling that Xiaomi has avoided throwing in NFC for the 2S as well. Anyway, the 2A will be available in China three weeks from now. The price? ¥1,499 or about $240 unsubsidized.
Of course, let’s not forget the software. Both phones are graced with the presence of the new MIUI v5, which benefits from not only a leaner look (with a new system font, general visual tweaks and also less distracting stock wallpapers) but also from live icons. Here are a handful of new software features added to the already rather intuitive Android fork from Xiaomi:
Pre-identification of unknown incoming caller ID (based on Chinese crowd-sourced phone number database, so China only), so you’d know if it’s a spam call or just the delivery man calling
Phone book is able to look up the most common service hotline numbers in China, including banking services and restaurants
Toggle automatic call-recording for specific incoming callers (CEO Lei Jun said this was his idea)
Voice recorder supports 168 hours of continuous recording, saved on the fly, wouldn’t be interrupted by incoming calls or notifications (which are muted automatically); and the recorded MP3 files won’t show up in the native music player
System lets you monitor and control data traffic from each app
Unified background sync of apps for longer standby time — up to twice as long compared to vanilla Android 4.1
MiChat (which is also available outside MIUI) now supports walkie-talkie-style video messages instead of just audio
Lei also used his stage time at today’s packed “Xiaomi Fans Carnival” to bolster Xiaomi’s position in the mobile content world. According to the CEO, his company’s app store MiStore today offers 20,000 apps and has seen a total of 500 million downloads so far, while its Doukan store now has 3,000 legit e-books, and Xiaomi’s game center comes with 10,000 games — including PopCap’s official China debut of its classic titleBejeweled today — with a total of 60 million downloads. As for video content, the Xiaomi Box has yet to take off properly after its botched launch due to demands from a provincial regulator, but 50,000 of them have already been sold in the three launch cities so far. We’ve been told to expect a full China roll-out in May, so stay tuned.
The question now is whether Xiaomi can extend this aspect of the company to around the world. Sure, Hong Kong and Taiwan make a good first step towards the international market, but it’s also a relatively easy step given the similar cultural backgrounds. Xiaomi’s real success will only be proven when it does eventually enter, say, Europe as we had once heard; and it wouldn’t hurt to see some improved hardware design instead of just software. We shall take another pulse check in about a year’s time.
[Exclusive] Xiaomi Co-founder Hong Feng on MIUI [TechNode blog in China, April 17, 2013]
We heard that the monthly revenue from MIUI reached 10 million yuan. Hong Feng, co-founder and lead of MIUI, confirmed the number in an interview at our ChinaBang 2013. He added that that’s just the beginning of monetization.
Hong Feng used to work at Google China as senior product manager leading local services such as music search and input method. Three years ago he was invited by Lei Jun, CEO of Xiaomi, to become one of the seven founders. The first version of MIUI was launched four months after the inception of Xiaomi company.
MIUI announced 15 million installs and officially release the latest version, MIUI V5, not long ago. Approaching 10 million were in Xiaomi phones shipped and the rest were installed in non-Xiaomi Android phones. Xiaomi claims MIUI is the best customized Android ROM on the market.
Hong Feng is proud that MIUI has a group of core, loyal users who are active on its platform. MIUI is well-known for its online forum that engineers would answer questions from users and collect user needs there. His team also visit users in different cities regularly. He’s also proud that fans around the world did 22 language versions, apart from three official language versions, for MIUI.
Apart from gaming, other revenues generated from MIUI are mainly derived from the built-in browser with paid placements on the start-page, paid search, and the app center, according to Mr. Hong. Also, the company has been selling paid theme designs that the sales must be minor compared with gaming.
ARPU of gaming, in general, is relatively high. It’s no wonder more and more Chinese mobile service providers, such as UCWeb and 91, set up gaming platforms to monetize their big user pools. The users, 3-4 mn, of the games center within MIUI are very active, Hong said. Xiaomi also partners with game companies to custom editions of popular games tailored to MIUI users.
Duokan, the mobile reading platform acquired by Xiaomi last year, is exclusive of the sources that make up the 10 million monthly revenue. Duokan has been selling digital books and now has 30 thousand paying users. It hopes to make profits in 2014 that needs one million paying users, according to Hu Xiaodong, VP at Duokan.
When asked about the monetization plans in the near future, Hong said that they’d just try to produce the best possible products at the lowest possible prices — which means they’d try to gain as many users as possible and profit from them later and gradually.
It’s no secret that companies with considerable user bases, Qihoo, Sogou, UCWeb, 91 and the like, are trying to profit from every possible source, gaming, CPM/CPC-based advertising, CPC/CPS-based e-commerce transactions, paid digital content, etc. When it comes to a customized Android ROM? It works the same.
Xiaomi Mi2S vs HTC One / Samsung Galaxy S4 / LG Nexus 4 [News - MIUI Official English Site, April 26, 2013], note that the first bechmark is Antutu
Xiaomi Mi2S vs [new] HTC One [having also Snapdragon 600 SoC]
Xiaomi Mi2S vs Samsung Galaxy S4
Xiaomi Mi2S vs LG Nexus 4
[3.5.10][ROM Download] Unofficial MIUI V5 for 41 devices released for public! [Beta Team - MIUI Official English Site, May 10, 2013]
New devices this week (10, May, 2013):
OPPO Finder
Samsung E120L (Galaxy S II HD LTE)
Hey MIUIers,
After a week’s testing by MIUI Beta Team, MIUI V5 for the following devices developed by MIUI unofficial devs are released for public today!
Guys please report bugs in respecting bugs sections to keep developers posted about bugs and to avoid unnecessary confusion.
Note:
1. OTA update of unofficial MIUI V5 released once a week.
2. Download links of full rom updated every Monday.
- Google Nexus S
- Google Galaxy Nexus
- Samsung Galaxy S II I9100g
- Samsung Galaxy S II I9100
- Samsung Galaxy Note I9220
- Samsung Galaxy S I9000
- Samsung E120L (Galaxy S II HD LTE)
- ZTE U970
- ZTE U930
- ZTE N880E
- ZTE N909
- Sony Ericsson Lt18i
- MOTO Defy
- MOTO Defy+
- MOTO Atrix 4G Me860
- Lenovo K860i
- Lenovo K860
- Huawei C8812
- Huawei C8812E
- Huawei Honor U8860
- Huawei U8818
- Huawei Honor2 U9508
- Huawei Ascend D1 XL U9510E
- Huawei C8860E
- OPPO Finder
- LG LU6200
- LG SU640
- LG P990
- LG P970
- SKY A820
- HTC Desire Z
- HTC Desire HD
- HTC OneS S4
- HTC OneS S3
- HTC Incredible S
- HTC Sensation (G14/G18)
- HTC HD2
- HTC Desire S
- HTC Mytouch 4G
- HTC EVO 3D(CDMA)
- HTC EVO 3D(GSM)
MIUI: 999 days! [News - MIUI Official English Site, May 10, 2013]
MIUI was officially launched on August 16th, 2010. Today, May 10, 2013, means that MIUI ROM has been inexistence for 999 days! Tomorrow will be our 1000th day!
In these 999 days, we have accumulated over 15 million fans worldwide and the ROM can now be flashed across 33 Android devices.
Of course, we can only have achieved this milestone with the help of our dedicated fans. They have made unofficial versions of the ROM and in various languages so even more users can enjoy MIUI worldwide.
Although, this milestone is something we are proud of, we also realize there are many areas of improvement and problems to be solved. In essence, this means that MIUI is still growing and there will be challenges along the way. But with the help of our dedicated fans and hardworking MIUI team we hope to celebrate the next milestone and continue to see MIUI thrive!
Xiaomi MI-Two – [ENG SUBS] Full Official Presentation 2012 [XiaomiUnofficial YouTube channel, published on Sept 7, 2012, recorded on Aug 16, 2012]
[Led by Xiaomi co-founder and CEO Lei Jun] Original source: http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDQ3ODU3OTM2.html This presentation in higher quality: All 4 videos from this presentation in HD:http://youtu.be/-8whu5sFppY PPT show (English) from this presentation:http://youtu.be/BbqVl2egyIs 0:03:00 – End of Launch Conference Opening Video 0:05:30 – End of App-Controlled Wi-Fi Racer 0:49:00 – End of 3D Look of Xiaomi Mi-Two The exception is the video of MIUI Free Launcher, because there are subtitles. It is better to start watching from: 0:58:04
Official promotional video of Xiaomi MIUI V4 (English Subtitles) [MrMiui YouTube channel, Aug 10, 2012]
FInd MIUI ROM here twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/miuirom facebook page:http://www.facebook.com/miuiromchina Google + : https://plus.google.com/u/0/108531052526575991056/posts
Introducing Xiaomi MIUI V5 (HD) [MrMiui YouTube channel, April 10, 2013]
Find MIUI here (en.miui.com) Facebook：http://www.facebook.com/miuiromchina Twitter： https://twitter.com/#!/miuirom Google plus: http://gplus.to/miuiofficial MIUI is one of the most popular Android ROMS in the world. It is based on Android 2.3 and 4.0, featuring a rich user experience and user customizable themes. MIUI is updated every Friday based on feedback from its users. Now with over 1.5 million registered users and 17 MIUI fan sites worldwide, MIUI is the choice of many Android users globally.
As Xiaomi Sells Out of New Flagship Phone, Bin Lin Talks About the Disruptive Chinese Start-Up’s Approach (Video) [AllThingsD, Oct 30, 2012]
Xiaomi co-founder Bin Lin was in many ways the perfect speaker for our Dive Into Mobile conference. Xiaomi is one of the most interesting corporate stories from the transformative global spread of smartphones, but its quick ascent is not widely known about outside of China.
The company, which is just two-and-a-half-years old but already has sold more than five million phones and employs 1,700 people, has disrupted the Chinese home handset market by making and selling top-of-the-line smartphones direct to consumers for a fraction of the expected price.
Today, Xiaomi launched its second major phone, known as the Xiaomi Phone 2, or the Mi-2. A run of 50,000 units sold out in two minutes and 51 seconds.
While companies might shy away from literally naming one of their phones a “me too,” the new Xiaomi phone has much in common with Apple’s iPhone 5, including the size and shape of the handset, the way application icons tile on the screen in Xiaomi’s modified version of the Android Jelly Bean OS, and the look and feel of the built-in camera application.
But Lin was quick to pull his iPhone 5 out and show that the (slightly larger) Mi-2 has a better display — 720 by 1280 with a pixel density of 342 pixels per inch.
Sitting on a red couch (instead of our signature D conference red chairs) at the hotel to which we had evacuated for Hurricane Sandy, Lin told me about his company’s plans for the Mi-2 launch as well as its long-term strategy.
As we spoke on Monday, Lin seemed remarkably unstressed on the eve of his company’s big launch. That’s because Xiaomi phones are offered only online and typically sell out in a matter of minutes to fans who apparently follow the company’s progress like they would a rock band.
In fact, last week, a block of 300,000 of the older Mi-1s model — that is, a phone that everyone knew was a week away from being outdated — sold out in only four minutes and 15 seconds.
Xiaomi released just 50,000 phones for order today and said it would have 250,000 more available in mid-November.
To date, Xiaomi has sold 3.5 million Mi-1 units and 1.8 million of the between-upgrades Mi-1s. That’s only a single-digit percentage of the Chinese smartphone market, where as many as 200 million smartphones are expected to be sold this year.
The base model for the Mi-2 costs just $230. Lin said Xiaomi spends “almost that price” to manufacture the phone, but that the company doesn’t mind its low margins because it is pursuing a strategy similar to Amazon’s Kindle Fire.
Xiaomi doesn’t spend any money on retail and barely any on marketing. Instead, the company corresponds with fans on Weibo and in forums, asking for their product feedback and sometimes incorporating it.
Xiaomi creates its own hardware and its own modified-Android software, and expects revenue to flow in from e-commerce in the future.
“As we see huge adoption of smartphones, we see e-commerce getting more mature, with logistics and payment systems,” Lin said. “As we get more adoption of software, the money will come after.”
E-commerce is the specialty of Xiaomi co-founder Lei Jun, who founded Joyo.com, which is now Amazon.cn. Meanwhile, Lin is the software guy, having most recently led Android development in China as an engineering director of Google. Others from the seven-member Xiaomi founding team include a Motorola hardware expert and a Microsoft development director.
That unified approach has a familiar precedent in Apple, though Lin noted that Xiaomi is not yet at the point where it custom-designs its own chips.
As for what Xiaomi will do next, Lin said that the company is working to expand internationally and sees Taiwan and Hong Kong as its most likely targets, given their similarity to China. He also acknowledged rumors about Xiaomi building a set-top box, saying that kind of personal computing device might be a natural extension.
But for now, Xiaomi’s approach is really quite simple, Lin said. “The strategy is to build top-end handsets. That’s what we’re good at.”
More information: Bin Lin tag on AllTingsD
CO-FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT XIAOMI CORPORATION
Bin Lin co-founded Xiaomi Corporation with angel investor Lei Jun in April 2010. He is now president of Xiaomi Corporation, and is in charge of Xiaomi’s day-to-day operation, business and product strategy, carrier relationships, and business development with strategic suppliers and business partners.
Lin worked at Google Inc. as engineering director from 2006 to 2010. He founded and led Google China’s engineering effort for Mobile, Android apps, and Google Music. Under his leadership, his team successfully launched many Google products for the China market, including Google Mobile Maps, Mandarin voice search, mobile verticals such as video, dictionary, finance, and local, Android Pinyin IME, Android Dictionary, Android News and Weather widget, Google Music (free streaming and download of legal music online), Google Pinyin IME, and various OneBoxes.
Prior to joining Google, he worked at Microsoft from 1995 to 2006, and held various senior positions, including software design engineer and development lead at Microsoft’s Redmond headquarters. Lin admits that he is older than he looks, but says, “It’s never too late to start your own business if you have a young heart.” His first cellphone was a Motorola StarTAC.
POSTS WITH BIN LIN
…
And how that innovation started: Xiaomi Tech Unveils Its Own Smartphone: RMB 1999 with Dual-Core 1.5G CPU, Fastest Ever [TechNode blog in China, Aug 16, 2011]
Xiaomi Tech, a mobile apps vendor, has just unveiled its long-rumored smartphone today. The phone is equipped with dual-core 1.5G CPU which makes it the fastest smartphone in terms of CPU clock speed in the whole world
Some of its technical specifications:
*Qualcomm MSM8260 Dual-Core 1.5G CPU, 1G RAM,
- 4 GB capacity,
- can expand to 32G.
*Sharp 4 inch display, resolution: 854-by-480-pixel resolution.
*Battery: 1930mAh.
- Standby time:up to 450 hrs.
- Talk time: up to 15 hrs.
- Audio playback: up to 45 hrs.
- Video playback: up to 12 hrs.
- Play game: up to 6 hrs.
*Cellular and wireless
- GSM+WCDMA
- GPS, GLONASS, A-GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
*Size and weight
- 125×63×11.9mm
- 149 grams
Xiaomi Mobile is built on on MIUI OS (based on Android 2.3.5). As we wrote before, MIUI has strong user base around the world, with several global fans clubs in US, UK, Germany, Italy, Spain,Australia, Russia and more.
Honestly, the sheer specification of Xiaomi Mobile is already stunning, while its price is something even more surprising and unexpected. With only RMB 1999 (US$ 312), you can get the fastest mobile in the world and a bunch of powerful hardware. The Android phone market is expected to see mounting competitions in the near future.
Xiaomi Mi2A VS Meizu MX2 [phonezilla2013 YouTube channel, May 10, 2013]
小米 Xiaomi Mi2A vs. 魅族 Meizu MX2
小米 Xiaomi vs. 魅族 Meizu
2. 魅族 Meizu
Meizu MX2 Flyme 2.0 OS Official Introduction [androidsales YouTube channel, May 7, 2013]
Flyme 2.0
[Meizu microsite in English, the original Chinese version came on-line on Dec 22, 2012]
New system: Flyme 2.0
Based on the latest Android kernel, Flyme 2.0 is specificall designed as the soul of MX. The brand-new system, coming with a full suite of apps and powerful cloud services, is sure to surprise you.
Dedicated Design
3452 improvements of interaction and 417 new features are added to Flyme 2.0, which means greater visual elegance and ease in operation. We care about your experience in using our product and hence dedicate ourselves to optimize every detail in concern and recover them to original simplicity.
The most frequently used icons are moved to the top of the screen and automatically hidden in full-screen display. The buttons like Back and More will appear on the innovative Smart Bar. The beautiful breathing light is designed to wake the phone is a stylish manner.
Unparalleled Built-in Service
Flyme 2.0 does not only meet what you want, but also helps you find out more you want. The unparalleled built-in services we developed for you are going to surprise youl like never before.
GPU acceleration, HTML5 streaming, and smart interaction better the browser performance. Enjoy surfacing with the Flyme Web Browser.
When you can’t pick up the phone, Flyme Voicemail will record the message for you. No carrier involvement, no fees.
Add filters, rotate, crop, and enhance the image on photos – you can easily edit photos on MX and share them.
Tree-structure file arrangement app allows you quickly browse, access, copy and move files on the go.
Doodle, insert photos, and add text – the new Notes app brings note-taking to the next level.
Closer Networking
We are dedicated to integrated the most valuable network resources and connect you with the world close at hand.
Music
Online Music is the fruit of year’s concentrated R&D endeavor and the best music app at present. Plenty of copyrighted lossless music is available and its payment is simplified. All you need is connect to the network and indulge your ears in your favorite tune.
Video
Online Video marks a new level of video services. With greater network expansion, you can search and watch online video as you like. The most resourceful video app is at your service.
App Center
We encourage third-party apps to fertilize the soil for virus-free software development, tapping boundless potential for more applications. You can quickly browse, search for and install the apps you want, with the ease of mind that they have all gone through our strict audit system.
Powerful Flyme Cloud Services
A free Flyme account is all you need to get full cloud services to manage over MX. The latest Flyme Web helps you browse and manage data on your MX at ease. It get everything for you smartly.
Flyme can automatically sync your contacts, text messages, phone settings, and call logs; bringing you concenience like never before.
Featuring voice messages, Flyme messages lets you communicate more efficiently. Now you can insert voice messages in SMS and send to friends who have Flyme accounts. You are going to love this new way of messaging!
Flyme Blacklist is intelligent enough to acurately filter unwanted calls and block spam messages to free you of the annoyance.
Flyme reminds you at once when new versions of Flyme OR are released. OTA (Over The Air) download and upgrade with nothing more than a few swipes and taps.
Flyme Sharing enables you to share files of any format any size with your friends at ease.
Phone Finder helps you locate your lost phone, with remore lock and alerts.
MEIZU MX2 MX5S A9 Quad Core with Flyme 2.0 4.4 Inch 1280*800 RAM 2GB 1.6GHz 16G Version [blogmerimobiles YouTube channel, April 1, 2013]
Flyme X for Meizu MX2 coming soon [phonezilla2013 YouTube channel, May 10, 2013]
How that innovation has started:
For The First Time, People Queue for a Chinese Phone, Meizu M9 [TechNode blog in China, Jan 3, 2011]
If you see people are queuing for a new product from Apple, you would not be surprised; if you see Chinese buyers queue for something from a Chinese brand, you may think it is weired and would not take it serious. We have tens of local mobile phone brands in China, some are Shanzhai and some are not, some are really in bad quality and some are not only relatively cheaper but also quite handy and powerful. But, never ever, we’ve seen people are so thirsty for a new phone model and even queueing for it.
M9, produced by Meizu and regarded as the best iPhone 4 replacement from a local manufacturers, is out at 2st, Jan 2011. And in Huaqiangbei, the cradleland for China Shanzhai phone, over a thousand Meizu-fans were queued for their dream-phone, M9 made by Meizu which they have been waiting for 2 years since the release of M8.
We thumb up to Meizu M9. Although you might see a different story when M9 comes to Beijing, Shanghai etc where people are more addicted to iPhone, I appreciate the courage and ambition Meizu has to compete with iPhone. As some people said, Chinese see the hope beyond Shanzhai.
[image via qq.com]
Here is a video report about that product: Meizu M9, $380 Android phone with Retina Display [Charbax YouTube channel, April 7, 2011]
The price is $380 unlocked, for an Android phone with a same type of retina resolution display as on the iphon4. I think it uses the Samsung Hummingbird ARM Cortex-A8 1Ghz processor with 512MB RAM, please post in comments if you know more specs.
See also: Meizu, Chinese Best iPhone-Liker Is Testing Its App Store [TechNode blog in China, Nov 11, 2009]
Meizu Technology Co. Ltd, the maker of the best Chinese iPhone-liker, Meizu M8 officially entered the hype of Chinese mobile App Store. Its application store, aka Meizu Developer Network is now available on http://developer.meizu.com/.
According to this official announcement, application is required to become a Meizu developer. Once the application is accepted, the developer can develop and submit his application which will be verified and tested by Meizu operation team. Meizu user will be able to download the tested applications via a client (mobile version of