Xiaomi’s CEO Lei Jun granted an exclusive interview to China Central Television (CCTV) yesterday at the Boao Forum for Asia’s 2019 annual meeting held in Baoa, Hainan. Chairman Lei hinted among other things that the overall investment in 5G R&D in the industry is very high presently. He also hinted that Xiaomi strongly aims to be the number one provider of 5G mobile phones. Since this is the first year for 5G, Lei Jun says Xiaomi must be visible in the market by being among the first batch of 5G mobile phone providers in China. Also, he stated that the company must stay prepared to deal with the 5G phone demand for next year. This they can achieve by a lot of careful preparation and updating the product line as soon as possible. The company will also be thinking of ways to improve the cost/performance ratio in order to afford more people the opportunity to own 5G phones.
Xiaomi announced its first 5G phone, the Mi Mix 3 5G, at MWC 2019 in Barcelona last month. The phone is similar to the regular Mi Mix 3 that is already on sale in many aspects, including the design. Where the 5G version differs is that it is powered by the 5G-enabled Snapdragon 855 chipset instead of SDM 845. The phone is expected to become available in May but its global availability may be tied to the speed at which the network carriers roll out their 5G network.
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Lei Jun also spoke about the firm’s investment in research and development, revealing that Xiaomi increased its R&D investment by more than 80% last year. He noted how R&D investments continue to grow and expressed is thought that the company’s investment in R&D investment is expected to increase tremendously this year. This increase in R&D investment will, no doubt, lead to an increase in the technical strength of Xiaomi’s products. We expect to also see more innovative and topnotch products just like the revolutionary Mi Mix concept phone. On foldable phones, the CEO reiterated what we already knew, that the company has a double folding foldable phone concept. He also hinted that the company explored several folding schemes but the double folding design emerged as the most practical one for the Chinese giant. So, we may actually see that design on the phone when it is eventually announced.
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