Xiaomi Smartphones May Come to the U.S. Market in Early 2019 or Even This Year
One of the most fast-growing Chinese smartphone makers, Xiaomi, has announced its plans for the U.S. market expansion this year or at latest, in early 2019. The company has already established a strong standing in Western Europe, and the U.S. is the next on the list.
Actually, a beginning has already been made. In November, Xiaomi started its sales rollout with some periphery devices, including two headsets, the 10,000 mAh Mi Power Bank Pro, and a 360-degree camera, as well as a robot coding kit, previously launched at Xiaomi Mi U.S. online store. Besides, its Android-based Mi TV set-top boxes are now merchandised in Walmart stores all over the country.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the manufacturer aims at entering the U.S. market with its smartphone lineup not later than by the end of this year. “We’ve always been considering entering the US market,” says Xiaomi Chairman Lei Jun. “We plan to start entering the market by end 2018, or by early 2019.”
However, Xiaomi should consider two major factors, while pursuing the expansion into the North American market. The first and the most important one is to ensure the cooperation of the U.S. authorities with the Chinese manufacturer. As you might remember, the heads of the FBI, CIA, and NSA have lately warned the American citizens against buying Huawei and ZTE cell phones. Also, for the last four years, the U.S. government has been prohibited from buying and using Huawei smartphones and services.
Another important force to deal with are telecom carriers. Thanks to the partnership with some of the U.S. carriers, ZTE has recently succeeded within the overseas market.
On the other hand, Huawei ended up unable to assert partnership with AT&T, which resulted in cancelling its plans for the new Mate 10 Pro launch through the carrier. It is said that the U.S. authorities were responsible for reversing the deal, and the company’s CEO Richard Yu came up criticizing telecommunication companies during his appearance at CES. So, Xiaomi is probably trying to act with caution, in the hope to perform better while bringing its mobile devices to the home country of iPhone.