Xiaomi rose to prominence as it absolutely shattered sales expectations by aggressively pricing handsets and basically flooding the market with its smartphones. The has done very well for itself as it has been able to expand out of China into other lucrative markets and is now trying to break into the United States as well. However, sales have been declining for the company, but Xiaomi says that it’s not too concerned about that.
While Xiaomi always tends to avoid answering questions about declining smartphone sales, market estimates suggest that in the first quarter of this year the company’s sales were down 25 percent compared to the same time last year. Shipments were estimated to have seen a further decline of 38 percent in Q2 2016.
Reports suggest that Xiaomi is losing out on sales in China as Huawei is quickly picking up the slack. The latter saw exceptional growth in China over the past year and some of it has obviously come at Xiaomi’s expense.
Xiaomi global vice president Hugo Barra told Reuters that the drop in smartphone sales won’t hurt the company’s long-term profit growth, adding that Xiaomi “could sell 10 billion smartphones and [the company] wouldn’t make a single time in profits.”
He also confirmed that Xiaomi basically gives away its smartphones “without making any money” because its ultimate goal is to establish recurring revenue streams that continue to thrive over many years.
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