Xiaomi the money: China's latest IPO star tastes of bubble tea

Xiaomi's rush to go public is as much a sign of a speculative bubble as Bitcoin mania. Will it have a happy ending? Somebody seems to be in a hurry. Xiaomi is only just making a comeback from a crash last year. But for the few years prior to that, though, Xiaomi enjoyed astonishingly unctuous coverage. "Is Xiaomi the next …

[Anonymous Coward]

At least one happy customer

Can't comment on the IP issues, but if Xiaomi can work to keep away from both bricks and mortar retailing, and the poor value that mobile networks often offer, they may have a good business model.

I'm using a grey import Xiaomi, and it's a superb phone. If they Xiaomi worked with some of the (currently) grey importers, and avoided all the oncosts, and vast waste of typical European marketing, they could build a European brand based purely on product quality and value, I reckon.

So although the IPO may not create value (they never do) all I can say is that I've already bought two Xiaomi phones, and they'd be at the top of my list for the next few purchases. If they launch an official EU presence, extensive marketing, EU head office, official service centres and the rest, then I'd actually be LESS likely to buy one, because that all becomes vast expense they need to add to the price tag.

[Dr_N]

Another Xiaomi User Here.

Have convinced 3 others to switch as well. ~€150 for a rich-feature smartphone shipped from Europe with the fully-supported "global" version of MIUI. What's not to like?

[ArrZarr]

Re: Another Xiaomi User Here.

Within 6 months, my Redmi Note 2 hardlocked whenever I made the rash decision to try and use the phone as a phone. Wasn't that big a deal considering how I bought the phone for the amazing quality of the screen on a £100 model to read on, but was rather a spanner in the works.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Another Xiaomi User Here.

Xiaomi are spreading themselves too thin, and when product quality falls (as it will) this will bite them in the arse.

Right now, they still make VERY good quality phones for the money being asked, but the software glitches are starting to bite, and not being fixed in a timely manner.

Mi Desktop hasnt worked in 2 years, and no updates in 3 years, MIUI 8 broke a lot of 2.4GHz wifi that has never been fixed, and already we are looking at MIUI 9 being rolled out - on top of the duff v8, or replacing it with working code?? Who knows.

This is all reminiscent of the fuzzy camera firmware cock-up, prior to the crash (MIUI6); eyes offthe ball, face squished into the brick wall.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Another Xiaomi User Here.

Xiaomi are spreading themselves too thin, and when product quality falls (as it will) this will bite them in the arse.

Well, you can say the same about Google, Samsung, Apple (even Sony, Motorola/Lenovo) - allowing the number of devices to proliferate, leading to more and more hardware, battery and software problems (any number of older and current examples), and even self inflicted problems like Apple's battery related throttling, or the Chromecast ping problems.

I really don't see that the problems that Xiaomi have are in any way different or more frequent. And, even if my Redmi Note 4X goes tits up, and the multiple guarantees of the vendor, Ebay, Paypal and my credit card don't cover it, it was only one hundred and fifty quid. Which is why value matters.

But even if Xiaomi go under, there's a list of about six or eight VERY competent Chinese smartphone makers who haven't made the mistake of piling into Europe with an official distribution presence, and ended up destroying their value proposition, as Huawei or OnePlus have.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Another Xiaomi User Here.

Within 6 months, my Redmi Note 2 hardlocked whenever I made the rash decision to try and use the phone as a phone.

That feels like a software bug, caused by either the MIUI home app or an app overlaying/ override your touch input. You could try to

- Try uninstalling apps (might as well look under security app for overlay permission)

- Factory restore

- Update MIUI

- Flash a different MIUI

- Flash a custom rom

Backup before you do, but one of them surely could fix it.

[Rajiv_Chaudri]

Xiaomi had aspirations to be the "next apple" but now, even in China, Xiaomi phones are immediately found in the "bargain bin" of cheap copycat Android makers. They've failed to move up market and has seen 4 years of margin declines. Now Xiaomi's strategy has pivoted to own the "entry level" of the Chinese market.

Xiaomi is in a race to the bottom in margins & profit vs. an army of other Chinese Android copycats. I'd give them 5 years before they fail, or become another random Chinese gadget maker.

[Lars]

Steve Wozniak

I am surprised Steve is not mentioned as I believe he was the first to "spot" Xiaomi as far as I remember, and I do.

[Heathermomo]

Happy Xiaomi User

Posting this on my £150 Redmi Note 4 bought on the grey market, wearing my Mifit band (Amazon). Love em both. Beautiful, useful and economical.

[zaphy42]

Yet another Xiaomi User here...

Bought a 64Gb Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (Global Band 20 version) for my daughter last year and really pleased with it. I'll probably buy another for my other daughter's birthday this year.

Battery life is easily 2 days even with heavy use, build quality is good and performance is great. The only downside is that the camera is decidedly average, but can't really complain for a £120 phone.

A Xiaomi Mi will probably be my next smartphone when my ZTE Axon 7 kicks the bucket unless Oppo bring out a phone with Super VOOC charging.

[Anonymous Coward]

Do they provide security updates to their phones?

[zaphy42]

Yes. Xiaomi are very good at providing security updates and bugfixes - much better than most of the more well known names imo.

[Anonymous Coward]

Not sure who it is who gives the thumbs down for someone asking a question