In its special press event in US today, Xiaomi invited a handful of journalists and publications, largely to give a recap of what Xiaomi has achieved and plans to achieve. There was one big news though, Hugo Barra announced that Xiaomi will be launching its online retail site, Mi.com in the U.S., without its phones though.
Mi.com is Xiaomi’s online marketplace, where it sells all of its products, which includes power banks, Mi merchandise, headphones, obviously its phones and a lot more. Though a U.S. launch sounds attractive, this news wouldn’t create much of an excitement, largely because of the fact that Xiaomi has no near-future plans of launching its phones in the U.S.
But then, US consumers will be getting premium quality electronics at a fraction of what they pay for other brands right now, that should be enough till Xiaomi readies itself up to enter the US smartphone market. However, Barra further mentioned that the timeframe for Mi.com’s US launch is not set and it will launch when ‘its ready’.
Hugo Barra told the limited gathering,
The amount of effort required to bring those products to the market is an incredible amount of work. We’re accelerating our entering by bringing simpler products.
This is also in line with Xiaomi’s expansion plans, which currently focus on its home market China and other Asian markets like India. Xiaomi aims to further expand its stronghold in this region, specially in China where it has already snatched away the top spot from Samsung.
