Perhaps we have taken this news a little lightly because in reality it affects us poco: today the Mi Mix 3 will be released in England. It's true, we really care poco since we already have it, but for Xiaomi it's a huge step forward. The well-known journalistic publication Independent he wanted to do a good interview Wang Xiang, senior vice president of the Global section and head of international affairs for Xiaomi. The talk started with the question: "How would you like Xiaomi to be seen in the United Kingdom?"And by necessity he has reached the theme"competition", A theme with which Xiaomi will have to fight in a rather harsh way since the presence of brands Samsung and Apple It is definitely rooted.
Interview with Wang Xiang: "The challenge to Samsung and Apple"
The interviewer e Wang Xiang they met at Barbican Center, where last year Xiaomi debuted with the presentation of the Mi 8 Pro. The first started by saying that it was a building that gave a strong impression to the Londoners and asking him how he wanted Xiaomi he was seen when he entered the country. Wang Xiang began responding: "I think the first impression of the brand should be that this is a fantastic company, very young, energetic and very cool. It is a very different culture and a different product philosophy for others (referring to the English). This is the most important thing we want to achieve. "
Interviews
This article is an adapted translation of this interview to Wang Xiang published on Independent.
Interviewer: The first thing people will see is the product, so how will Xiaomi show the "freshness" of the company through its products?
Wang Xiang: "The 3 Mi Mix was also a contender for the first in the United Kingdom. It's another high-end model with a good camera, durable battery, new hardware. In the end, however, we opted for Mi 8 Pro for its design with the transparent back, the fingerprint sensor on the screen and so on. So, I think the UK audience will like it. We are also releasing a scooter, we believe we have chosen the best and most interesting products we have for the UK market ".
Yes, it's true, Xiaomi also makes an electric scooter. The range available in the United Kingdom includes half a dozen telephones, a fitness tracker and a couple of power banks, but in China the available products are much more numerous. The plan is to offer a much wider range here, one day.
Through the Xiaomi stores we want to learn what the British consumer wants and needs so he can bring the right products to the UK. Now, we have just brought the hottest products from China because it takes time to do the testing and certification of each market. We think that in the future, when we have a broader customer base, we will have a better idea of what works best for each country.
So, why is Xiaomi building its presence now in the UK?
I think logic is this. The 7 November 2017 was our first event in the West in Madrid. We have tested the market and now we are the number three in Spain. We work with all partners, including online and offline managers, and take care of creating our Xiaomi stores. The initial success in Spain has given us much more confidence in the markets of Western Europe. These are already developed markets where we had never worked before. Last May we launched our service in France and in Italy, in Paris and Milan, and then the next step was of course the United Kingdom.
This could lead to different challenges, it seems. (And here the question gets hot)
The United Kingdom has a lot of technological innovations, in addition to art, fashion and a stimulated young generation (from technlogy). I think this could be a good place for us. The challenges facing us in the United Kingdom are due to the fact that the normal consumer does not know us. Those who know us are the engineers and the new generations who have met us on the internet. Furthermore, in the smartphone world, the UK is still a driving market, so we have to make an extra effort. This is another challenge. Overall we are very confident.
When I met a Huawei executive a year ago, he said it would be easy for the brand to be the number one in the world (it has already risen to second place, surpassing Apple in recent months, leaving only Samsung in front). But that was not the most important thing. What would be the ambition of for Xiaomi?
Our ambition is not to become the leading smartphone hardware company: we definitely want to be one of the largest and most important technology companies in the world. But our goal is not just to sell hardware, we're much more than a smartphone company. We build more than that.
One of the distinctive features of the brand is the competitive price: both the new Mi Mix 3 and the Mi 8 Pro are priced at £ 499, half the price of an iPhone XS. How does the company give the phone for that price?
Internally we are making huge efforts to improve operational efficiency. In reality, unlike traditional hardware companies, we do not spend huge sums of money on marketing and billboards. We use social media and other channels to communicate our products. Basically the key is word of mouth. If someone loves our products, they will tell their friends, colleagues and family.
The company has set a maximum profit level of 2018% from 5. If the profit exceeds this score, Xiaomi said it will return the rest to consumers.
Yes, we already did it last year. We have given coupons to our consumers who can use them to buy products. This is a way we did last year for Chinese consumers.
From Xiaomi it is expected that the range will grow in the United Kingdom, but Wang emphasizes that there is already something for every pocket.
Actually, we have the whole portfolio from basic to peak level. We will gradually bring more, but we understand that we must be focused on targeted products, the UK market is very different from the others, there are still many entry-level products but the high end of the market is very large. The Three telephone network has asked us to offer better entry-level products and we are doing so. We want to better understand the mid-range and to do so we will listen more to the managers (like Tre).
It seems that the company will first see what works in China, to get an idea of what will work here in the UK. But Wang reveals that this could one day lead to tailor-made products for British tastes.
In the long term, once we have more resources, we can think of products that can be designed specifically for the United Kingdom or Europe. But now we basically select the products from our portfolio. We have to do some customizations, for example the frequencies are different, so we have to add bands to serve European consumers.
Every phone manufacturer faces a challenge. The phones have all become the same: a black oblong object with a back in glass or metal. How is Xiaomi different?
Mi Mix 3 is a way to stand out from the crowd. The competition is fierce, so we are competing on every front, for example, on design and material: the Mi Mix series was the first to use ceramics, like a unibody, the whole phone was built from a single piece ceramic, including the frame. As far as technology is concerned, we always collaborate with the best, for elements such as the fingerprint sensor on the screen (referring to the Mi 8 Pro).
Finally, how do you see the competition?
I think competition is a good thing. If we have the efficiency from ours and the cost advantage (from construction in China in large quantities) then we do not need to make much money from the hardware. Other companies have a business model in which they need to spend a lot of money on marketing. We do not, so our products are of high quality but not at a high price. "
