Xiaomi to Team up with Foxconn Threatening Apple More
Xiaomi's global plans may be delayed as the company works out a deal with Foxconn Technology Group to boost its production of affordable devices. The Chinese firm has been working on pushing expansion aggressively to five more countries threatening major players like Samsung and Apple.
According to a report by Bloomberg, Xiaomi and Foxconn are in talks to start producing units in Brazil and India. The information from an interview Xiaomi's vice president in charge of global operations, Hugo Barra. The official also said that the company is considering including Indonesia as its manufacturing site.
"Our focus is to add market-by-market, one market at a time," Bloomberg quoted Barra. "Earlier this year, we talked about wanting to be in 10 markets within 2014. We realized that if we are to stay sharply focused, we can't do that, so we scaled back."
Xiaomi's CEO Lei Jun has already been pushing the company's home base to several other countries including the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and now Indonesia.
Shanghai-based analyst with Gartner Inc., Sandy Shen shared: "They should be sure they have solid plans for the markets they do enter."
"If time can buy them good performance in even fewer markets, that still makes sense."
At the moment, Xiaomi does not have its manufacturing line and has been relying primarily on contract manufacturers like Inventec Corp. and Foxconn's FIH Mobile Ltd. In two years, the company hopes to be producing its product line within India capitalizing on the considerable market rivaling China.
Despite accusations that the company copied Apple and executives downplaying global aspirations, Xiaomi remains hopeful of its future in the smartphone industry. According to The Motley Fool, while Apple rejects global success for the company, Xiaomi continues inspired noting that becoming a mobile virtual network operator or MVNO may be beneficial to Xiaomi even more.