It's only a matter of days until 2017 is over, and Xiaomi has had another year of events and achievements. As always, it's the fans who deserve the biggest thanks for their loyal support this year, even if we sometimes disagreed with them. Let's look at the 12 biggest events of 2017 for the company.
- Xiaomi announces its first own chip, the Surge S1
February 28th was a milestone in Xiaomi's life, as they announced their own SoC solution, the Surge S1 processor. It entered the narrow circle where manufacturers try to offer users better performance and efficiency not with external solutions, but with their own. Xiaomi is the fourth company in this family to offer their own device, the Xiaomi Mi5c, with its own chipset.
2. The Mi6, the culmination of 7 years of uninterrupted development
The culmination of 7 years of research and development is here! Meet Mi6, our latest flagship with Qualcomm's next-generation Snapdragon 835 processor. Mi6 is the first device to come to China equipped with Snapdragon 835 based on 10nm FinFET technology. Precisely crafted like a watch, the Mi6 fits perfectly in the palm of your hand with 3D curved glass on four sides and a stainless steel frame. Optical zoom dual camera for clearer images of distant subjects and portrait shots with unparalleled background blur.
3. Xiaomi and Nokia Sign business cooperation and patent agreements
Nokia and Xiaomi announced that they have signed a business cooperation agreement and a multi-year patent agreement, including a cross-license for each of the core patents for each mobile phone standard. As part of the transaction, Xiaomi also acquired Nokia's patent assets, but Xiaomi also has its own patent portfolio. It has applied for more than 16,000 patents in seven years and has been granted 4,806, 2,407 of which are overseas.
4. Xiaomi shipped 23.2 million smartphones in the second quarter and joined the top 5 manufacturers
According to the latest research from Strategy Analytics, global smartphone shipments grew by 6 percent annually to reach 360 million units in the second quarter of 2017. Samsung led the global smartphone market with a 22 per cent share, while Apple achieved an 11 per cent share. Xiaomi grew 58 percent annually and joined the top five manufacturers for the first time in a year. "We shipped 23.16M smartphones in Q2 2017! This is a record for our quarterly smartphone shipments, signaling our return to rapid growth."
To date, no other smartphone company has been able to continue to grow after the sales slump, except Xiaomi. They have focused on three key areas: technology innovation, a new retail model, online and offline integration, and a continued drive for explosive global growth.
5. Xiaomi launches MIUI 9 in China, Mi 5X and Mi AI speaker
Xiaomi co-founder Hong Feng then revealed that MIUI has reached more than 280 million users in 142 countries and regions around the world and MIUI 9, the latest update to the popular Android-based operating system, now offers a much faster user experience. Extensive changes have been made under the hood, resulting in a faster and smoother user experience, for example, performing simple tasks such as launching apps is even faster, in addition to the introduction of a number of new features.
6. Xiaomi sets a new record: over 10 million smartphones sold in a single month!
Earlier, Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun announced that Xiaomi shipped 23.16 million smartphones in the second quarter of 2017, a 70 percent increase over the previous quarter, which in turn is a record for Xiaomi's quarterly smartphone sales. In September, Xiaomi set a new record by selling more than 10 million smartphones in September! This performance is one of the key points of their growth - after two years of internal recalibration, Xiaomi is back on a fast growth track.
7. Xiaomi takes a huge step, unveils Mi A1 with Google, in the Android One family
The Mi A1 is a new addition to Google's Android One programme, featuring a dual camera and premium design. The Mi A1 runs basic Android to deliver a high-quality software experience designed by Google, underlining Xiaomi's commitment to offer more options for users.
"The next step with Android One is to work with our partners around the world to bring high-quality Android devices to more consumers," said Jamie Rosenberg, Google's director of business and operations, Android and Google Play. "Mi A1 delivers a high-quality device experience, a simple and clean Android experience, the best of Google, and a commitment to future software and security updates. We are delighted to welcome Xiaomi and Mi A1 to the Android One family."
8. Xiaomi's new retail milestone: the world's first flagship Mi Home store opens in China
By integrating its unique sales model, e-commerce platform and logistics system, Xiaomi has introduced a whole new ecosystem never seen before in business. It is a completely new way of marketing that still takes time to be fully understood by the market. After pioneering internet sales in China to reach the highest level of the smartphone market, Xiaomi is now focusing on internet plus and new retail strategies.
9. What Singles Day sales: 2.46 billion Yuan, Top Smartphone sales in five years!
Xiaomi broke previous records on Tmall this year, with total revenue of RMB 2.46 billion! For the fifth consecutive year, they also emerged as the top smartphone company in terms of units sold. In fact, Xiaomi can claim four of the top 10 smartphones sold on Tmall. "Our internet products have also been extremely popular and helped us to take the top position in the smart devices category for the third consecutive year, and we are also ranked number one in TV sales."
10. IDC report: Xiaomi is now the number one smartphone brand in India!
Xiaomi India has announced that it shipped over 9.2 million smartphones in the country for the first time in the third quarter of 2017, up from 100,000 smartphones shipped per quarter in 2014, and 3 million in the third quarter of 2015, to over 1 million in the third quarter of 2017, and now reaching 9 million units for the first time in the third quarter of 2017, said Manu Jain, Vice President and Group Managing Director, Xiaomi India.
11. Xiaomi is the world's leading supplier of smart devices for the IoT platform
On 28 November 2017, Xiaomi held its first 2017 MIDC Xiaomi IoT Developers Conference in Beijing. Xiaomi CEO, CEO of Xiaomi, shared some of the notable achievements of the IoT platform. We are delighted to have Lu Qi, CEO of Baidu and Olivia Qiu, Head of Innovation from Philips Lighting, attend this conference.
12. Mi MIX and Mi MIX 2 added to the Centre Pompidou's world-famous collection
We're so excited that Mi MIX and Mi MIX 2 have just been added to the world-renowned collection of the Center Pompidou, one of the world's most popular art museums. It is the first time a Chinese consumer electronics product has been added to the museum's collection and showcases Xiaomi's reimagined design and innovation. The Mi MIX was also added to the collection of the Finnish National Design Museum earlier this year.
