New Xiaomi Mi 5 render shows up looking a bit different than the last

A couple of days ago we showed you a leaked image out of China which claimed to depict the upcoming Xiaomi Mi 5 in all its glory. And now we have yet another purported render of this smartphone.

Xiaomi Mi 5 Release Date, Rumors Update: Specs To Include Qualcomm's New 3D Fingerprint Mechanism

The upcoming Xiaomi Mi 5 is reported to flaunt Qualcomm’s 3D fingerprint mechanism, which eliminates the need for a "capacitive sensor." Pictured above: Lei Jun, Xiaomi founder and chief executive officer, speaks at a company event last year. Reuters/Jason Lee

Following the launch of the powerful Mi 4c smartphone in its home country, the Chinese tech giant Xiaomi is apparently gearing up to release the ambitious flagship “Xiaomi Mi 5.” New reports suggest that the upcoming device could include many advanced features.

Xiaomi is planning to enter the Africa market this September

Xiaomi is definitely on a roll. Through a mix of hard work, competitive pricing, viral marketing and just a little bit of luck the Chinese OEM is now enjoying incredible interest in its handsets. In the past week alone, the company can boast record breaking sales on the Redmi Note 2, a gorgeous new MIUI 7 and rumors of a benchmark-breaking Mi5 flagship on the way.

This presents the company with the opportunity to finally work on its ambitious expansion plan, laid out last year. After entering the huge India market with a flying start, a new report now suggests that an Africa expansion is just around the corner.

Xiaomi MIUI 7 features walthrough in screenshots

Today, Xiaomi has unveiled the new version of its MIUI Android skin: version 7 comes to replace the earlier version 6, and brings a host of new customization options and a very noticeable 30% boost in responsiveness.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 2 leaks ahead of announcement

Xiaomi Redmi Note 2 leaks ahead of announcement

Tomorrow Xiaomi is going to unveil its next-generation MIUI v7 launcher, but many rumors put devices such as Xiaomi Redmi Note 2, Mi 5 and Mi 5 Plus on the announcement queue as well. And while we are waiting for the event to happen here is some more news on the upcoming Redmi Note 2.

Xiaomi Redmi 2 Prime may launch in India with more RAM, storage

Next week, on August 13, Xiaomi will officially unveil MIUI 7, the latest version of its Android-based mobile operating system. We've already heard that the Redmi Note 2 might finally debut at the same event, and now we can apparently add another device to the list.

It looks like the Redmi 2 Prime will be launched in India soon. That's because it was listed by Amazon India for a while, and through that listing we have information about its specs.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 2 may be outed alongside MIUI 7 on August 13

Xiaomi is set to take the wraps off the next iteration of its mobile operating system based on Android on August 13. But at that event we apparently might see a new smartphone being announced alongside MIUI 7.

New rumors are popping up in China saying that the long-awaited Redmi Note 2 will finally become official on that occasion. Furthermore, a leading Chinese online retailer has mentioned August 16 as the possible date on which pre-orders for the new handset are due to start.

Xiaomi Releases New Flagship Mi Note To Take On iPhone 6 Plus, Samsung Note

Xiaomi launched its new flagship phablet, the Mi Note, on Jan. 15, 2015, at an event in Beijing, China. The phone has a larger screen than the iPhone 6 Plus and is lighter as well. Xiaomi Inc.

Xiaomi Inc., which has earned the moniker, "China’s Apple," launched its new flagship phablet, the Mi Note, with a screen larger than that of Apple's iPhone 6 Plus, and priced at 2,299 yuan ($371) for the 16GB version.

The Mi Note, with its 5.7-inch screen, is also thinner than iPhone 6 Plus, Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun said at the launch event of the new Note. The event was webcast live from Beijing and Lei had put up slides on a large screen behind him on the stage, similar to Apple product launches.

Mi Note comes equipped with a six-element, 13-megapixel primary camera sourced from Sony Corp., with optical image stabilization, and a two-tone flash from Philips. The selfie camera offers a 4-megapixel shot.

The phone is 6.95 mm thick, wrapped on both sides with Corning Gorilla glass, and has a 3,000 mAh battery from Sony or LG Electronics. At 161 grams, the Mi Note is also lighter than iPhone 6 Plus.

While the standard Mi Note delivers 1,920 x 1,080 pixels display with 386 pixels per inch (PPI) resolution, along with 3GB of RAM and is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor, a Pro version bumps up the specs to 2,560 x 1,440 pixels display with 515 PPI, 4GB RAM and a 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor along with an Adreno 430 graphics processing unit.

Both the stock Note and the Note Pro handsets support 4G LTE technology, but the fancier version costing 3,299 yuan ($532) also supports a standard called category 9 that allows for considerably higher rates of data transfer that can be as high as 450 Mbps.

In the four years since its birth, Xiaomi has risen to become the world’s third-largest smartphone maker, shipping more than 60 million handsets in 2014, almost all of which were sold in China. India is the company’s next biggest market where it sold over a million phones in the last six months since its entry into the market.

The privately held company recently raised $1.1 billion in fresh funding, at a valuation of $45 billion, making it one of the most valuable technology companies today.

source

Xiaomi-Facebook Deal Falls Through, Hindering Expansion Hopes For Both Companies

Xiaomi's fears caused an investment deal with Facebook to fall through. Reuters

Xiaomi may be the world’s most valuable startup, but the Chinese smartphone manufacturer was unable to nab U.S. social media giant Facebook as an investor. The companies were in talks in October when Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Xiaomi Inc. CEO Lei Jun met for dinner during Zuckerberg’s visit to Beijing, according to Reuters.

Though Facebook hoped to increase its presence in China, Lei was concerned that a deal with the social media company could cause political unrest. Facebook has been banned in China since 2009; citizens use domestic social media platforms like Sina Weibo instead. Additionally, Xiaomi does not want to hinder its relationship with Google, which develops the Android operating system on which its smartphones are based. Google also is banned in China; however, Xiaomi skirts this issue by using a heavily modified version of Android that does not run Google Play Services and other Google-based applications.

The investment that was discussed was "not huge," but it could have given both companies clout in areas where they fall short. Facebook would have gotten a new market for its apps and could have made headway in getting unbanned in China. Xiaomi would have received access to Facebook’s user data, which would have helped the company expand internationally. Xiaomi has succeeded as a software and services company by catering to the needs of Chinese consumers, but it does not have much experience outside East Asia, the U.S. in particular.

"Facebook wants to get into China, and Xiaomi is keen to expand outside, so they both recognize the importance of working together," an unnamed source told Reuters.

In December, Xiaomi was named the world’s most valuable startup, with a valuation of $45 billion. In the coming year, Xiaomi plans to invest $1 billion in online video content to complement its Mi TV software and Mi Box streaming device. The company also plans to expand its smartphone business into markets such as India and Indonesia this year, and later to Brazil, Russia, Thailand, Mexico and Turkey.

Facebook recently acquired the speech-to-text startup Wit.ai, which markets software that works like Apple Inc.’s Siri and Google Now.

How Xiaomi Plans To Trump Apple, Google and Chinese Rivals In India’s Booming Mobile Market

Three models of China's Xiaomi Mi phones are pictured during their launch in New Delhi July 15, 2014. Reuters/Anindito Mukherjee

Xiaomi Inc. is looking to India’s growing startup ecosystem to help it diversify beyond its home market in China, where it sold most of its over 61 million handsets last year. The privately held company, which has rapidly become the world’s third biggest smartphone maker and has invested in startups from Shanghai to San Francisco, is bringing it partnering strategy to the subcontinent, where it’s making alliances with a number of key ecosystem players.

It’s a campaign that the company hopes will give it the early mover advantage of Chinese rivals like ZTE and Lenovo, as well as U.S. players like Apple and Google, in one of the world’s fastest-growing mobile markets, which is only now starting to roll-out next-generation services like 4G LTE.
Xiaomi will collaborate with Indian startups in various ways, including on developing and launching products as well as investing in them, Economic Times reported on Wednesday, citing Manu Jain, the company’s chief operating officer in India. “We have had discussions with a few startups so far,” the newspaper quoted Jain as saying in an interview.

India is Xiaomi’s largest market outside China and last year the company sold over a million handsets via exclusive sales on Flipkart, an Indian online shopping provider.

Xiaomi, which recently closed a $1.1 billion funding round that valued the company at $45 billion, is bringing more products into India. After selling its entry level Redmi 1S and the more pricey Mi series phones, the company released its Redmi Note phablet in November, including a version that supports the flavor of 4G LTE technology currently available in pockets of the Indian wireless market.

The Redmi 2, successor to the 1S as well as the flagship Mi 4, is also widely expected to be sold in India, though Xiaomi has not given details on a release date.

Jain has previously said that an important aspect of Xiaomi’s success over the four years since its inception in 2010 is its focus on software, including MIUI, a highly tweaked version of Google’s Android operating system that runs on the Chinese company’s smartphones.

Xiaomi has also relied on crowdsourcing various apps that have made its overall mobile ecosystem attractive in China, where it has succeeded in monetizing various components of that environment, including Internet-based services. Last year, the company said its online store for mobile apps recorded a total of 10 billion downloads since the store started some two-and-a-half years ago.

Xiaomi is looking to replicate that success in India, where it is ramping up a steady fan base, slowed only by inability to meet demand. So far the company has only sold its handsets in the tens of thousands on so called “flash sales” on Flipkart, where buyers register ahead of a sale and are served on a first come, first served basis.

Typically the available handsets get snapped up in a matter of seconds. In November, when Xiaomi released the Redmi Note, the company also announced a partnership with Bharti Airtel Ltd., India’s largest wireless provider, to sell handsets at the carrier’s exclusive stores. Buyers get the added benefit of getting a 4G SIM card activated right at the time they pick up their handsets, and walk out the store with an active 4G connection, Rohit Malhotra, chief executive for Bharti Airtel’s operations in the southern Indian state of Karnataka, told reporters at the time.

Xiaomi is also seriously exploring the option of manufacturing its handsets in India, Jain has said, but that could be at least a couple of years away. In the meantime, ramping up work at the company’s Bangalore research and development center is easier, as it focuses on localizing the Indian smartphone’s user experience beyond a mere screen wallpaper that sports the image of the Taj Mahal.
Deep local language support -- some of it is already in place, with support for the most widely prevalent language of Hindi -- can be expected, as well as other tweaks and apps that are distinctly Indian.

source

Xiaomi Triples Smartphone Sales In 2014, Mounting Global Challenge to Apple, Samsung

China's Xiaomi Inc. has become the world's No. 3 smartphone-maker -- behind Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and Apple Inc. -- mostly by selling low-cost smartphones in China, India and the rest of the developing world. CEO Lei Jun posted on Sina Weibo this weekend a sign of just how fast Xiaomi is growing: The company sold more than 60 million smartphones in 2014 and booked nearly $12 billion in revenue.

Xiaomi Redmi 2S with Snapdragon 410 spotted on TENAA, AnTuTu

Xiaomi Redmi 2S (photos by TENAA)

Xiaomi's Redmi 1S is enjoying great popularity, so naturally an updated version is on the way. The Xiaomi Redmi 2S has appeared on both TENAA and AnTuTu, giving us a pretty good look at its new specs.

 

The new model will be more compact (134 x 67.2 x 9.2mm vs. 137 x 69 x 9.9mm) and lighter (134g vs. 159g) while retaining the 4.7" 720p screen. Other than the slimmer bezels, the back has been reworked a bit (the LED flash moved to the left of the camera) and that's about it for exterior changes. The capacitive keys below the display have been retained.

Meet Qihoo 360, The Chinese Mobile Upstart That May Be The Next Xiaomi

Qihoo is looking to broaden its mobile ecosystem through a joint venture with smartphone manufacturer Coolpad. Reuters

You’ve heard of Huawei, Xiaomi and Lenovo, China’s largest smartphone makers. Now meet Qihoo 360 Technology Co., which also is looking to capture a piece of the world’s largest mobile market while casting an eye to the West.

Xiaomi Smartphone Sales In India Threatened By Patent Dispute With Ericsson

WUZHEN, China Founder and CEO of Xiaomi Lei Jun (R) speaks next to Sohu CEO Charles Zhang during a meeting at the World Internet Conference (WIC) in Wuzhen town, Zhejiang province November 20, 2014. Reuters/Stringer

Sales of Xiaomi Inc.’s smartphones have been temporarily barred in India by a court order in connection with a patent dispute with Swedish networking gear maker Telefonaktiebolaget Lm Erisson. The interim order was reported by SpicyIP.com, a blog on India’s intellectual property law.

Misfit Wearables Raises $40M In Latest Funding Round From Xiaomi, Existing Investors

Misfit Wearables has raised fresh funding from China's Xiaomi's for its sports fitness tracker that can be worn in a variety of ways, including on the wrist, as a pendant or a clasp. Misfit Wearables

Misfit Wearables, a California-based maker of fitness activity and sleep monitors, has raised $40 million in a third round of venture funding from investors including Xiaomi Inc., Forbes magazine reported on Tuesday, citing the startup’s CEO.

Xiaomi Mi3 5.0 Lollipop update in testing, release imminent

Xiaomi is on a seriously hot streak lately, the company selling smartphones as fast as it can build it. Its attractively priced devices even helped it climb to the third spot globally even though the quality of the Chinese maker’s after-sale support has often been questioned.

Samsung Galaxy S6 to pack next-gen UFS memory

Korean newspaper ETNews has outed a report citing a Samsung insider, who claims the company is going to use a next-gen NAND flash storage in the upcoming Galaxy S6. The storage technology in question is called UFS 2.0, which stands for Universal Flash Storage.

Xiaomi on track to score $1.5 billion funding, now worth $40B

Xiaomi on track to score $1.5 billion funding, now worth $40B

A report by CNBC suggests Xiaomi managed to raise $1.5 billion in investment capital in its latest round of funding. Facebook, Alibaba, Airbnb and Russian ISP DST are among the companies

Samsung, Apple Lead Worldwide Smartphone Market In Q3 While China’s Xiaomi Enters Top 3

People stand near a logo of Xiaomi ahead of the launching ceremony of the Xiaomi Phone 4 in Beijing, July 22, 2014. Reuters/Jason Lee

Fresh products and the combined effort of new entrants helped worldwide smartphone shipments surpass 300 million units in the third quarter of 2014. The latest numbers, released by International Data Corporation, or IDC, suggest that the domination of Samsung and Apple in the smartphone market is at stake.

Xiaomi releases statement regarding Indian privacy concerns

After gaining immense popularity in India in a short time, Xiaomi has come under fire regarding security issues and concerns over user data being sent to China. The relations between the two countries aren't 100% peachy, so it's no wonder organizations such as the IAF or the Indian Air Force are concerned about the data being used to spy upon Indians.