Xiaomi is developing a brand new line of smartphones – Mi CC. The CC in its name stands for Camera+Camera, a dual camera setup. The announcement said that this series is “aiming at the global young generation with its trendy design and camera features.”
“Here comes the Mi CC, a trendy mobile phone for global young people,” said Lei Jun, Chairman, Founder and CEO of Xiaomi Corporation.
Though Xiaomi hasn’t revealed anything else about the smartphone series, their blog site gave a teaser picture. This new brand will be a flagship for photography and selfies. The cameras will utilize the algorithm empowered by the newly founded Xiaomi x Meitu AI Beauty Lab.
Xiaomi acquired Meitu, a selfie app maker turned smartphone maker, last November. The terms of this acquisition imply that Meitu will get a minimum guaranteed fee of $10 million per year along with 10% of all profits. This new Mi and Meitu division is putting a lot of emphasis on design than performance in Mi CC series.
Xiaomi also announced that Mi CC is created by one of the youngest product teams in the company, among which half are art majors and are dedicated to creating a trendy design for young consumers.
The first look at the brand is a teaser that features Gavin Thomas — an eight-year-old who went viral in China for his ability to speak Mandarin. But this teaser doesn’t give away much about the phone.
Last year hasn’t been profitable for Xiaomi. It had experienced a plunge in its sales. Not only Xiaomi but also giants like Apple faced losses in the Chinese markets. By aiming to develop a new flagship, Xiaomi is trying to get attention of a specific section of the world. Namely, the young people.
Xiaomi is world’s fourth-largest smartphone brand and claims to have established the world’s largest IoT platform. It is know for producing affordable feature phones. But most of its brands are performance-based smartphones. One such division is Poco. With the Mi CC series, the company is venturing into a new area and it would be interesting to see how this ‘trendy’ brand performs.
