Xiaomi is aiming to ship 90 million smartphones by the end of this year, as revealed by the company’s founder and CEO Lei Jun. This is interesting given that the company was way off its target last year.
In the second quarter of this year, the company had managed to ship 23.16 million phones. During the same quarter last year, it shipped only 13.3 million units, representing just 3.9% market share.
For the company to meet its target of 90 million devices this year, it will have to ship 30 million smartphones in the fourth quarter. In the month of September, Xiaomi shipped a record 10 million devices. Considering this, it is possible for the company to ship 30 million devices in three months.
Another reason that makes it possible for the company to reach its target is that the smartphones launched by Xiaomi this year, such as Mi 6, Redmi Note 4, Xiaomi Mi A1 and the Mi MIX 2 have been well received in the market.
Xiaomi’s strongest year to date, in terms of shipments, has been 2015, when it shipped 70 million devices. However, for that year, the company’s target was to ship 80 million devices.
Earlier, Lei Jin had said that Xiaomi aims to ship out 100 million smartphones in 2018. He also said that the company has been working towards that goal since quite some time.
There was a time when Xiaomi, which is currently amongst the world’s top 5 smartphone companies, once saw its smartphone shipments dip 40% year over year. To catch up with the competition, it took a series of strategic steps, which included increasing production capacity and focusing on advanced technologies.
Read More: Xiaomi To Focus on Offline Sales In the Future
Besides online flash sales, the company has now started focusing on establishing its presence in the offline space as well. Recently, the company launched 20 new Mi Stores in China, reaching its goal of opening over 200 Mi Stores in China this year. The tech giant has revealed that it plans to open 1,000 physical stores in different Chinese cities by the year 2020.
Not only in China, the new strategy seems to be working for Xiaomi in other regions as well. Xiaomi has now emerged as India’s second largest smartphone brand with a 15.5% of market share, second to Samsung’s 24%.
