Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun posted on the microblogging platform Weibo that it plans to fully benchmark Apple. In addition, he added that this competition is "a war of life and death."
Lei Jun also mentioned envisioning Xiaomi to be globally recognized as the top vendor of smartphones, aiming to "become China's biggest high-end brand in the next three years."
In addition, as stated in MacRumors, Chinese technology company Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun also stated on Weibo that the company will specifically target the high-end segment of the global smartphone market in an effort to directly compete with Apple, in an attempt to fill the void left by Huawei.
Previously, China's largest smartphone vendor was Huawei. However, the company was forced to pull out from the U.S. market.
Xiaomi vs Apple 'War of Life and Death'
The CEO's post was published after the Lunar New Year break, which is also Xiaomi's first strategic meeting.
The company describes it as "a war of life and death" when competing with the high-end smartphone market, wherein the company desires to expand.
According to South China Morning Post, Lei stated that "[We aim to] fully benchmark against Apple in [terms of] product and experience, and become China's biggest high-end brand in the next three years."
To allow this goal to come to fruition, the company pledged to allot US$15.71 billion over the next five years as an investment in research and development to achieve its ambitious goal.
Chinese Brands Leading Smartphone
Chinese smartphone companies Vivo, Oppo, and Xiaomi, are firms that reportedly rounded out the global top five ranking last quarter.
According to data from Canalys, Xiaomi managed to surpass Apple to become the world's second-largest smartphone vendor for the first time in the second quarter of last year, ranking just behind Samsung and ahead of Apple for the first time.
Due to strong demand for Apple's iPhone 13 line, the company's stakes have been raised significantly since Apple dethroned Samsung Electronics to become the world's largest smartphone vendor in the fourth quarter of last year, capturing a 22 percent global market share on the back of that success.
Xiaomi Surpassing Apple
Zhang Mengmeng, an analyst at Counterpoint Research, stated that "Apple rose to first place in China right after the iPhone 13 was released in September,"
It is also reported that Xiaomi plans to attract more customers by differentiating itself from other Chinese smartphone brands targeting Apple's lucrative high-end segment by focusing on user experience..
In addition to that, the company plans to open 20,000 new Xiaomi retail stores in China for the next three years and the 10,000 stores that it currently operates in China.
Xiaomi's ambitious goal of wanting to surpass the lucrative business of Apple comes from the fact that the company's product and brand aren't on the U.S. blacklist anymore.
It is also undeniable that the company's products always have highly competitive desirable features. An example is a Xiaomi phone that can charge within eight minutes.
