Xiaomi becomes number two smartphone vendor for first time ever in Q2 2021
canalys.com
canalys.com
Hardware is great. Software (MIUI) is adware crap, which I knew when I was buying. I tweaked privacy settings as much was possible, and I use almost none of the builtin apps. Instead I use Firefox Focus+Mobile for browsing, Amaze for file management, Dropbox for file storage and PDF view, etc.
Overall the entire experience is comparable (for me) to a Samsung or Apple phone at 3x the price. The most annoying things are still Google and YouTube ToS accept dialogs I get all the time because I'm effectively using an incognito browser, and I'd get those on any phone.
I have the Poco F1, cost me about $230 for SD845 + 8GB RAM + 4000mAh + 256GB storage. It's a pretty good deal after installing LineageOS on it.
I personally went the Google route w/ a Pixel 4a, so I get a simple, zero non-sense UI, with no forced ads or anything, just a smooth experience, at a slight premium (not that much to be completely fair ...)
After that, I'm never buying another cheap Pixel again.
Just wtf. I had a $130 phone with Lineage die on me the same way recently. No IP on that machine, but if you pay for a Pixel you should definitely have it.
Though most of the brands (except Nokia and Samsung) seem to have pretty reasonable terms for unlocking the bootloader and aren't as ass-backwards as Xiaomi's.
[1] https://xiaomitool.com/MiUnlockTool
[2] https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/tool-win-lin-mac-miunlock...
Xiaomi once conducted a poll on Twitter which OS users prefer - MIUI or Stock. 80 % or so voted for Stock Android hence Xiaomi deleted the poll.
I haven't managed to find anything other than the Pixels that have it.
https://gitlab.com/CalyxOS/calyxos/-/issues/88
https://review.calyxos.org/c/CalyxOS/calyxos.org/+/2904/4/pa...
Not sure about other Xiaomi phones.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/guide-re-locking-the-boot...
None of the operating systems that are designed to be used with a relocked bootloader (e.g. CalyxOS, GrapheneOS, RattlesnakeOS) support OnePlus phones at the moment, so you'll need to build LineageOS, AOSP, or some other Android variant manually to use it on a OnePlus phone with a relocked bootloader.
There might be more device models with this kind of support. Search for "avb_custom_key" with the model name to see whether anyone has commented on this.
You may be able to add a list to uBlock which blocks cookie popups.
Sadly Firefox Focus on Android doesn't seem to support extensions or manually loading block lists, but as I do mainly browse from private mode on desktop as well, the extension will help there.
For example I use their Music app for playing Youtube in the background without ads, I didn't even install the Youtube app.
The camera is mediocre, I am hoping for a gcam port.
Not perfect and LineageOS would still be a bit better, but close enough for me. I don't enjoy using smartphones either way.
I previously had a different Android One Nokia Phone which was great and well supported.
Whether everything works ends up depending a bit on how you use your phone.
I had an Mi3 and I thought the UI was better that what stock Android was offering at that time. But overtime they kept adding more and more crapware.
Though they're still immensely popular here in Russia.
Just unlock and root the thing as soon as you get it and Xiaomi will not get any data - either put LineageOS on it or de-fang MIUI by removing the nasty bits. Don't use the phone with a logged-in Mi account, the only valid reason for using the Mi account is to get the unlock code. Once unlocked and rooted you can remove nearly all the Mi-account-related parts from the phone as well as the ad-related APKs. If you happen to disable debugging over USB (adb) you can re-enable it without using a Mi account (in a terminal, use root):
setprop persist.security.adbinput 1
setprop persist.security.adbinstall 1
...or just install LineageOS and be done with it, you'll probably end up doing this anyway so why wait?
https://knowthechain.org/wp-content/uploads/2020_KTC_ICT_Sco...
"engaged with knowthechain: No"
So, basically they got no data, and had to assume the worst.
I'm sympathetic with Knowthechain: they don't have an easy job, they have to be able to reach out to any company in the world and get an answer...
But I also think that this doesn't mean much.
The largest smartphone vendor is BBK Electronics. They manufacture multiple brands like Oppo, Vivo, OnePlus, Realme, iQOO. Their brands have over 40% market share in China, India, over 50% in Southeast Asia, and are generally the largest vendor all over the developing world.
The real list is
1. 24% BBK Electronics
(10% Oppo, 10% Vivo, 4% Realme)
2. 19% Samsung
3. 17% Xiaomi
4. 14% Apple
5. 4% Huawei
I searched and it seems true. https://www.qichamao.com/orgcompany/searchitemdtl/e6f25044f9... https://www.aitouyan.com/news/7877.html
(read via translate!)
>A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company owned or controlled by another company,
Hence that is why using BBK as one would have been wrong. BBK does not own majority of shares, nor de jure voting power. But in a complex power relationship BBK do have much higher leverage or with other investor de facto voting power. Think if Foxconn decided to invest into 5 different Phone making companies, ( Like the current Nokia Smartphone ) and Foxconn is a shareholder and provide technical and manufacturing consultancy, you would not list them all under Foxconn right?
I wont blame the English main stream media most of them are so late to anything from Japan and China it is borderline comical.
I mean when I first mentioned BBK in 2015 no one had a clue what I was talking about. My earliest comment on BBK on HN was from Jan 2018 [1]. Barely anyone knew BBK then. As a matter of fact even right now not that many have heard of BBK.
You can always try to display the statistics in your favor...
It should also be noted that Canalys lists Xiaomi as one of their clients - so, one could argue that Canalys has a conflict of interest.
In addition to their brand (of which few more are not counted above,) BBK still manufactures unbranded white box OEM goods
This article was labeled wrong and missed the biggest company.
Xiaomi pays the bills of their employees, BBK doesn't.
Especially for older people that don't need $500+ flagships, a $150 Xiaomi is more than sufficient. I see them a lot nowadays.
Makes me wonder if it's sustainable.
While there are some suspicious of doggy accounting practice and also political investment, Xiaomi is actually a company listed in HKSE 1810.HK [1] with positive cash flow and operating income. Currently valued at around ~$90B USD.
Their phone are at a very low gross margin but their other products, or they call it the Xiaomi ecosystem is quite profitable. ( Comparatively Speaking ). And of course they earn most of their profits from selling Data and Ads. Which to be fair is similar to Google. ( Cough on the surface because we dont know how those Data are used Cough )
So to answer your question, it is sustainable. And they benefited most from the Huawei incident.
[1] https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/1810.HK?p=1810.HK&.tsrc=fin-...
That doesn't mean this is a worthless thing to run. Unless you are being specifically targeted, security measures that simply put you outside the main herd can still be effective.
Does it really matter if it has 4x the cameras of a cheap Samsung if it sends all the photos to some server in China on the sneak?
Besides, one person's "targeted by interventionism" is another person's "liberated by democratic forces".
Does newspeaking it make it better?
And if one would look at the examples of "liberation by democratic forces" over the last decades I feel that it is somewhat difficult to find an instance that wasn't a prime example of securing natural ressources or ensuring of keeping the global power structure intact.
I might be naive (or even contrarian to the US policy) bbut wwere aare tthe purely humanistic examples of Uncle Sam mingling in foreign affairs?
Imho the US should keep their fingers out of others' proverbial cookie jars.
The difference in language is often just political rhetoric. The difference in substance became very clear to me talking to my grandfather who was liberated by democratic forces and would have been insulted by having that called "targeted by US interventionism".
There are good reasons for both sentiments based on actual, sometimes painful, experience. We should respect that.
It's a very complex and off-topic subject. That's why I'm not going into the details of the various conflicts in recent decades.
There are no easy answers.
But most current interventions as well as many historic ones were not motivated by ulterior motives but by economic ones and questions of power.
Coming from Germany and having studied history I must ask myself when did liberation turn to intervention because of political or economical gains? While keeping the rhetoric more or less the same.
There is imho a difference between WW II or Yugoslavia and Kuwait. Or Irak. Or even Afghanistan. Or Serbia. Or different South American states were intervention is often less militaristic.
I feel we need to have a way to differentiate and look closer to be able to discuss without falling back to ideology or "party lines".
I can't even begin to imagine how various groups of people (ethnic groups, women, young men, ...) or individuals in Afghanistan may feel about the various interventions during the past half century.
What use is it if a company knows everything about me when they can't use that information to sell me things?
Don't get me wrong, I like these free OS versions, but while I could teach my wife, my mother in law etc to manage Netguard, I couldn't teach them to handle Lineage, f-Droid all by themselves.
Is that part even made by Xiaomi?
or Telegram
Or Signal
And have nobody spy on you
"Trust me, I'm Italian."
Edit: Pixels
The pricing is now norm in Asia for last several years. In fact Xiaomi is not #1 in terms of quality or value for money. It's Oppo/Realme/OnePlus (all are same hardware). They do not have ads like Xiaomi and pretty much retail for the same price and ship millions of hardware. The quality is definitely higher with Oppo/Realme (budget options) having same quality as Oneplus (premium).
https://9to5google.com/2021/07/02/oneplus-android-update-sch...
Let me rephrase that for you: Especially for people who realise they don't need $500+ flagships, a $150 Xiaomi is more than sufficient.
It has nothing whatsoever to do with age, my 16yo daughter is more than satisfied with her Redmi Note 5 - she wanted one when she saw mine. Good battery life, good screen, more than fast enough and plenty of memory, 3.5mm jack, can take an SD card. Show me the "flagship" phone which offers this combination.
Phones have been fast enough for years now, screens, memory and storage have been big enough. Add LineageOS and you have a device which can easily last for 6 years, longer when you change the battery. I'm using a Samsung SIIIneo from 2014 with LineageOS 17.1 (Android 10) as a second device, it receives weekly OTA updates (which I generally do not install, but still - they're there). With a new battery it lasts for 2-3 days between charges when used for audio streaming through bluetooth or the speaker.
Xiaomi, if you're listening, please continue to make at least one line of phone that has these features.
The market for cheap phones is much bigger than for the expensive ones and as you see from the Apple numbers: the expensive market is pretty much covered. Also covered in an separate environment form where those users are reluctant to switch because it's hard to learn again.
imho I think that fighting for the low budget Android market makes much more sense than for the high price Apple audience as "Apple" has become the "I can afford it"-message of prestige this group is looking for and therefore won't be replaced by anything else. Even if you buy the most expensive Samsung, you'd have to explain how expensive it was first to your audience. There is no need with Apple. Everybody knows you've spend a lot of money on it.
So it is a point ..
I think it’s sustainable considering the vast majority of the world can’t afford an iPhone or even a Samsung, so there’s a large market. Also, once someone has a phone that can run a web browser, have a camera, and use messaging apps, then that’s basically set for this target market.
Been happy enough, so I bought a like new second gen iPhone SE for $250.
There are others:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/04/12/not-all...
I am not so old, and I also have enough with a cheap smartphone. I just use mail, instant messaging, maps and government and bank apps. None of these need advanced graphics or fast CPUs. Interestingly I need access to Google Play as many official apps from the government are not available in alternative stores.
Said that, I got a Xiaomi cheap tablet and I had a bad experience as it was full of ad-ware and I was not able to install Google Play. The lack of official apps in the Xiaomi app store is not really their fault, but all the ad-ware is, I suspect, why the tablet was so extremely cheap. So, good enough hardware specifications, but somewhat disappointed at the software part.
I have a Xiaomi Mi 9 SE (had it almost 2 years now), and it's the best phone I've ever owned. Previously I'd owned flagship Samsungs and an iPhone 6.
It's powerful, the display is excellent, the battery lasts 2 days even with plenty use (unusual these days!), the cameras are excellent, and the device itself looks great. Oh, and it cost £340 at a time when flagship equivalents were around twice that - amazing value for money.
Service is great too - the phone stopped charging at some point, but it was fixed within a few days of initial contact, with no quibbling.
My only gripe is the lack of a 3.5mm headphone jack, but that's hardly a unique issue.
This kind of reads like your a person who hates the price of iPhones? Either that or I read like an Apple fan boy; However, I'm a pretty keen Linux / PC user and I don't think I'm that bias?
There are reasons why things are little bit more expensive to make. And those add up quickly. The flexible OLED panel is more than double the BOM cost of rigid OLED even at the scale of Apple. For Apple that is ~$150+ of RSP increase form a single component. It is not only just being rigid, but they are also a higher quality panel. People often only look at "spec" on the surface without actually going it into details. Add up the cost of iOS ( $10 on accounting basis or $30 for RSP ), Face ID etc you are looking at $200 RSP extra already without going into any many other differences. Of course the main thing being Apple has a gross product margin of 60% compared to Xiaomi at ~10%. ( I think they raised this to 15%+ due to operating cost being higher outside China )
It is also worth remembering. Hardware is insanely cheap. Comparatively speaking. We talk about moore's law ending because of higher cost of making chips, at the same time we keep making dozen of billions from stupid social network and ads. The number by comparison are often comical. The cost of a product are now mostly driven by software when Apple are still giving iOS update to a phone first released 6 years ago.
It might also be worth noting, the entry level iPhone, iPhone SE, has faster single thread performance ( Very important due to Amdahl's law ) than the best flagship Android Phone on the market. You have to price this in somewhere.
It's simply an anecdote from a random HN user who has a Xiaomi device, in a thread about Xiaomi; I figured they'd be relatively rare among HN users, and someone might appreciate a comment from an owner.
I don't hate iPhones, or the Samsung I've owned. They all have different attributes and values: the iPhone 6 was beautiful to look at, and the physical size was great; the last Galaxy I had was a great all-rounder; the Xiaomi I have now is a little larger than I'd like (though that's the way everyone has gone now), but otherwise it's very good in almost any regard. Is it better than an iPhone or the latest Galaxy? I'm not saying that - what I'm saying is that it does everything I need and more, and was half the price of flagships at the time. Way I see it, that's incredible value for an extremely capable device.
So while their software is basically adware and like all Chinese companies they are probably controlled by CCP, we must acknowledge that they also have some really bright engineers.
Ad bloat could be disabled in settings, I did not see too many suspicious logs in Netguard (calls to Facebook APIs were much more frequent, even from apps that have nothing to do with FB). But that's is an EU country, I've read that Xiomi at least tries not to annoy regulators too much there with privacy issues, going for market share.
Also most bloatware (even their browser) could be uninstalled in 10 minutes, just google "Xiaomi debloat", or go directly to https://github.com/Szaki/XiaomiADBFastbootTools
When it comes to high end hardware the only phones that I've seen come close also cost in the same ballpark. Frankly you get what you pay for, diminishing returns are a thing but you can still see a clear difference between 200€ and 600€ phone. Even the iPhone 12max my wife has can justify the price with the insane photo/video quality for a phone.
It's personal preferences, for me the aspects of long battery life and turning the device into disposable cattle, not a pet, are much more important. The display on Xiaomi is decent, and that plus fast responsive apps the display shows is all I need from a phone.
Not the best performance or camera, but for what I paid it's an amazing product. Battery still lasts a couple of days.
It's a real shame Xiaomi got out of Android One. I'm probably going to get a Nokia when the A1 dies.
Xiaomi does smartphones that run on Qualcomm chips and Android. Of course there are always games and tit-for-tat but on the face of it Xiaomi is rather innocuous and benefits US companies (and that's probably why it was removed from the US blacklist).
We will see what happens if Xiaomi starts using main chipsets from Unisoc or another Chinese designer.
It is interesting to me to try and square the software with the obviously (1) competitive and (2) East Asian reality of the hardware. The hardware makers must be in a great position to pull another Apple if they think the market is actually uncompetitive.
Their prices are very difficult to beat. Their software is not as polished as say, Pixel devices or Apple devices, but for a third of the cost, that's an acceptable compromise for me.
They are very aggressive at rolling out new phones, though. There is a Redmi Note device every 6-8 months, and a comparable Mi Lite device released a month or two later too. They are pretty similar with Poco specs as well.
Their strategy is to release more and more phones and make the users think their device hit the sweet-spot. For example, my Redmi Note 10 has an IR blaster and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Another line of devices might reuse the same SoC and physical aspects, but not include an IR blaster and a 3.5mm jack. Redmi Note series also has a bunch of variants, some with NFC, some without, and some with 5G.
Also had a xiaomi phone as business phone, and it was performing better than the currently available iphone.
I think iphones have stopped looking nice a while ago anyway.
I like the design and finish of Mac laptops, but even there, you can get better from brands with windows os, but that will cost a ridiculous amount of money.
May I ask, apart from look, why do so many people in the US chose to use an iphone? Genuine curiosity.
I guess I don't care as much about how the phone looks and more about the fact that the iPhone 8 is still on latest iOS whereas XZ2 and basically all sony phones will hardly get any updates and you get to choose between keeping your camera or updating your phone and keeping it fast with a custom rom(yes, you keep your phones camera active nowadays even after unlocking, but there is no updated camera HAL on the latest custom rom, you'll always have a subpar camera experience). Sony even announced that the Xperia 1 III will only receive one major update recently. Although everyone is still hoping that that was a mistake but the europeans.
I would say Xiaomi deserves it though. They're cheap devices with good performance(and inofficial GCAM), and usually some (not great) open source drivers that allow for fast custom rom development(although that too has taken a turn for worse recently).
iOS
I have not seen iphone being outclassed by another phone.
And you didn't name any phones that outclass the iPhone.
That's because there are none. I say that as not a particular fan of Apple products or their ecosystem. I only buy Android phones as I prefer that ecosystem and interface. Every generation - for the past ~13 years - I research all the phones on the market, those worth bothering with, and it's still exceptionally clear Apple is making the best smartphones. Ecosystem, performance, audio, video, photos, gaming, all aspects remain at elite levels among smartphones. They're the only smartphone maker that has consistently stayed at or close to the top for so long, generation after generation.
But the camera is just awful. It takes 5 seconds to start, video recording is jittery, sometimes as if it was recording at 10 FPS. I just don't have good pictures of my kids anymore.
...proceeds to buy linux phone.
Introspection might help here - I recommend Apple if you want something that lasts and just works.
Galaxy S2 it was called. I had one that was passed onto me. It had a thin plastic removable back panel so you could swap out the battery.
I loved the form factor and the feel.
My point was more around the fact that you stated you want a phone to just work, then proceed to talk about how a linux phone might be good for you. Apple is good at making consumer friendly devices. Linux phones are for hardcore tinkerers that like to hack things together and learn about stuff (compromise on the 'just work' bit).
Unfortunate that we must assume that the devices are manufactured under awful working conditions though.
Also the pre installed apps like file manager and browser have ads. The browser, which additionally has a bunch of bloaty games integrated for whatever reason, can't be uninstalled. Not going to get one again, my mate's pixel seems like a delight in comparison
What is going on, maybe NFC and other expensive goodies are just disabled by software? And maybe this OTG just stops working at next update?
E.g. the Pi Zero is $5 and comes with an OTG port, it's really not a matter of cost rather focus.
Not only Xiaomi phones are cheaper, but technology is IMO way better then that of Samsung and friends:
- Face recognition NEVER FAILS. It fails on MS Surface (and in kinda embarrassing way really), Samsung, Huwei etc. but never on Xiaomi - it can rain, snow, you can change haircuts... its irrelevant, it only scan eyes.
- MAUI is way less bloated IMO then alternatives
- Glass is awesome on my Redmi - I recently dropped it on asphalt (which is very sharp) from 1.5 meter height and then I hit it with my foot while walking so it slide on asphalt on the glass side, traveling around 5 meters. I thought it will go to trash can after that, but I picked it up and there was just a small scratch ! Amazing
I am not judging only using phone xperience - all other gadgets I got from the company are great and 3 times cheaper then alternative - air cleaner, roborock etc.
Good job Xiaomi.
What about false positive rate? It's there for security after all, not for convenience. Actually that's what makes me worry about biometrics. I was able to find out Apple claims about security characteristics of their fingerprint recognition and face recognition features. But I was not able to find this information for Android vendors, it's like nobody cares.
Are we talking about the false negative or the false positive rate here?