Lei Jun, founder of Xiaomi, shows a new model at a news conference held in Beijing on Wednesday. (Photo: Zhang Ye/GT)
Upstart aims to 'excite' users, but analysts say latest model doesn't stand out in increasingly tough market
Xiaomi Inc launched its latest flagship smartphone, the Mi 5, on Wednesday at a press conference in Beijing, with founder Lei Jun saying the company plans to focus this year on making -"exciting" products and winning consumers' hearts and wallets.
Analysts warned, though, that the new device wasn't distinctive enough to help the Beijing-based company regain sales momentum in a hotly -competitive market.
In 2015, Xiaomi shipped nearly 70 million smartphones domestically, up about 14.5 percent from the previous year, retaining the No.1 position in China's smartphone market with a 15 percent share, according to a report issued by U.S.-based market consultancy Strategy Analytics in late January.
However, Xiaomi's shipments in 2015 fell significantly short of its target and raised doubts over the prospects of the Chinese tech start-up in a cut-throat battleground. The company had aimed to ship 80 million to 100 million handsets last year.
By contrast, domestic rival Huawei Technologies Co, which woos consumers around the world with both high-end and low-cost models, disclosed in early January that it had shipped 108 million smartphones globally in 2015, up 44 percent from 2014.
The Mi 5 is expected to be a key weapon in Xiaomi's fight against its competitors.
Liu Dingding, an industry analyst with Beijing-based market research firm Sootoo, wasn't very optimistic about the prospects of the Mi 5.
"The new smartphone is -well-spec'd but shows no distinctive differences from its domestic comparatives," Liu told the Global Times on Wednesday.
Wang Yanhui, head of the Shanghai-based Mobile China Alliance, told the Global Times on Wednesday that the Mi 5's product positioning is almost the same as that of the Mi 4, so the new model is unlikely to fare much better than the Mi 4 in the market.
Xiaomi will confront a tough year in 2016 in the face of increasingly strong Chinese competitors with respect to specifications and prices, Liu noted.
Guangdong-based smartphone manufacturer OPPO, for instance, has impressed the tech world with the latest iteration of its new smartphone featuring a 15-minute flash charge at this year's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.
And Chinese Internet company Letv unveiled its latest-generation smartphone, the Le Max Pro, in early January, sporting similar features and processors as the Mi 5.
On Tuesday, Letv announced that it had received orders for 1,000 Le Max Pro phones priced at 1,999 yuan ($306) in just two seconds.
The 5.2-inch Mi 5 model is priced at 1,999 yuan to 2,699 yuan, available both on its own online marketplace and at more than 1,000 brick-and-mortar stores of domestic home appliance retailer Suning Commerce Group Co in March.
"The sales of the Mi 5 will likely be tepid," said Liu, noting that Xiaomi's overall handset sales in 2016 will continue growing but at a slower speed in comparison with previous years.
Wang said that one of Xiaomi's most urgent tasks is to broaden its distribution channels.
"The Internet is Xiaomi's main distribution channel. But after several years, the room for Xiaomi's online sales growth has become very limited. The brand has to explore new channels of distribution, such as overseas markets and offline sales," he noted.
Xiaomi has been actively diversifying into other fields such as home appliances. It acquired a 65 percent stake in Ruifutong, a Chinese third-party payment tool, for 600 million yuan in an attempt to enter the promising mobile payment market, the National Business Daily reported on Tuesday.
Xiaomi's PR representative declined to comment on this report when contacted by the Global Times on Wednesday.
