Xiaomi aims to sell 80-100 mln phones in 2015: CEO

Beijing-based Xiaomi Inc has set a more ambitious goal for smartphone sales in 2015, the company's founder and CEO revealed on Friday.

Xiaomi is expected to sell between 80 million and 100 million smartphones for the whole of 2015, Lei Jun, who is also a deputy to the National People's Congress, told reporters in Beijing on Friday during the ongoing two sessions.[Special coverage]

For the full year of 2014, Xiaomi initially set the sales target at 40 million at the beginning of 2014, but later revised it up to 60 million.

The company lived up to its promise by selling 61.12 million smartphones in 2014, up 227 percent year-on-year, according to Lei.

The Chinese smartphone vendor has set itself an ambitious target for 2015 despite a moderation in growth expected for the world's largest smartphone market.

In a suggestion of cooling demand for smartphones, US market consultancy IDC estimated in a research note e-mailed to the Global Times in December that China's smartphone shipments would grow by 7.8 percent year-on-year in 2015, down from 19.9 percent in 2014, marking the first single-digit growth since 2009.

But Li Yi, secretary-general of China Mobile Internet Industry Alliance, told the Global Times Sunday that Xiaomi's 2015 sales target might be less realistic, citing growing competition from its domestic rivals as well as the shrinking demands for smartphones as a whole.

The comeback of Motorola Mobility, currently owned by China's computer-making giant Lenovo Group, is considered to have intensified the competition in the domestic market.

Motorola Mobility took the wraps off three new handsets in China in January, signifying an ambitious return to China.

With Motorola's handsets targeting the higher end of the market, Lenovo is set to become a more competitive smartphone vendor in the market, Yang Yuanqing, chief executive of Lenovo and a political advisor, told reporters on Friday.

Xiaomi's insufficient reserves of patents was also cited by Li as a hurdle in its overseas expansion.

Throughout 2014, Xiaomi had applied for 2,600 patents, Lei disclosed, saying that the company "might turn out to be a new patent giant in a few years."

Against the backdrop of a slowing and tougher marketplace, some smartphone makers in China are diversifying their strategies by entering the smart wearables or smart home sector.

Xiaomi has also been investing in the establishment of an ecosystem made up of a variety of devices used in the smart home space, but the company would not make the devices itself, according to Lei.