Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi has gained a significant amount of success and revenue in the past 12 months and, in the process, has become the third largest smartphone maker in the world, trailing behind smartphone giants Apple and Samsung.
Lei Jun, the founder and CEO of the smartphone giant, claimed that Xiaomi was able to ship 61.1 million handsets in the year 2014 whereas in 2013, the company was only able to sell 18.7 million units, marking an impressive 326 percent year-over-year increase. The revenue amount that the company was able to accumulate was $11.97 billion, which is nearly twice what the company made in 2013.
Xiaomi's newly found success is the result of the company's aggressive pricing strategy, among other things. The company's current iteration of devices, named the Xiaomi Mi Note Pro and Mi Note are retailing for $532 and $371, respectively, despite the fact that the aforementioned smartphones possess hardware specifications that rival that of the flagship offerings rolled out by other companies in 2015. The company's Mi Note Pro is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 810 chipset coupled with 4 GB of RAM and still has a lower price tag compared to, say, Samsung's Galaxy Note 4, which is equipped with inferior hardware specifications.
The Chinese smartphone maker's current valuation is $46 billion, and after raising more than US$1 billion back in December 2014 to increase its total value to $45 billion, the company is speculated to be en route to going public. While the company has not mentioned anything of the sort, it is going to hold a press conference on Feb. 12 in San Francisco.
The press conference might be a signal for things to come. In addition to rolling out handsets to the United States, it is possible that the company would announce that it is going public. In 2010, Lei Jun, who currently has a 70 percent stake in the company, stated that Xiaomi would not be going public for at least another five years.
His primary reason for not taking the company public was due to the firm's low market cap. However, with the firm just a few billions away from reaching the $50 billion valuation mark, Feb. 12 could be the magical date for the company.
