Xiaomi, and other Chinese phone makers are likely to increase the cost of their high-end phones in a bid to build better brand images and larger profits.
If the price hike that accompanied the Xiaomi Mi Note wasn’t enough, CEO Lei Jun is now planning to launch phones that will cost between 3000-4000 Yuan in a bid to boost his brand’s image, could other brands follow?
Premium Xiaomi Phones could cost 4000 Yuan ($615) in 2016
Xiaomi are seriously trying to shake off the low-cost brands image in China and the rest of the world. Since the company launched they have been famous for producing phones with higher than expected hardware and lower than thought possible pricing. This strategy has worked to propel the brand in to the hearts and minds of smartphone enthusiasts, but it has also had a negative impact on Xiaomi and the Chinese smartphone market as a whole.
Due to Xiaomi’s legendary low-pricing, other phone makers have dropped pricing and we are now seeing an all out war between Xiaomi, Meizu, and LeTV. While this has been good for the consumer it has meant some smaller Chinese brands have suffered and even the 3 main rivals are making lower than expected profits.
In a bid to improve brand image and increase profits we have already seen Huawei duck out of the entry-level phone market and as a result popularity in the brand has taken a turn for the better in China and around the world as a whole. Xiaomi are now planning a similar move.
Gizchina News of the week
We already saw with the release of the Xiaomi Mi4 how design and quality were becoming more important to Xiaomi, then with the Mi Note high pricing came in to play, but the next Xiaomi phones could cost considerably more!
Lei Jun is now hoping to make a dent in the Chinese premium phone market and take on the likes of Oppo and Vivo with phones that will cost from 3000 Yuan up to 4000 Yuan. While this might sound like a strange move to international readers, it actually makes perfect sense for the local Chinese market.
Will all Chinese phone brands go premium for 2016?
In China the iPhone and other ‘premium’ devices are much more desirable than lower priced phones. The stature of owning a high-priced phone in China is important to many consumers in the country hence the boom in premium brand sales (just visit any large Chinese city and try not to see a Lamborghini or Ferrari to see how money talks in China).
It comes as no surprise to me that Xiaomi are planning this move, and I predicted as much ahead of the Mi Note announcement. Affordable phones are always going to be great for headlines, but their lack of margin is bad news for a thriving business.
With Huawei and Xiaomi heading upmarket for 2016, it’s likely that we will see Meizu, and LeTV follow, giving smaller Chinese phone makers the option to either fill in the void or follow in a similar premium fashion.
Personally I am excited by the move as higher pricing means more innovation and some unique flagship designs, it also means that smaller Chinese phone makers will be able to breathe a little and also be a little more daring in the low-cost smartphone space.
What are your opinions on higher priced phones for 2016?
I’d love to see more design! Premium price is OK for me as long as it doesn’t surpass the maximum 650€(min. being 450-500€) margin if justifiable.
Xiaomi didn’t sell 133 million units of smartphone at past two years because of premium brand image.
Huawei didn’t sell all that 100 million units this year under Huawei brand. Most of those were under cheaper Honor brand.
Why we should care about smaller Chinese brands?
There are tons of premium phones to any one of us at walking distance.
Premium pricing will kill the need of sites like Gizchina.
“Premium pricing will kill the need of sites like Gizchina”
+1
so damn right they are trading away what they have over premium brands
its LITERALLY like selling your soul …
i mean considering that the actual substance and spirit that is so attractive in chinese phones and brands is the fact that one can get very high quality devices at truly discounted prices …
if they do away with that , nothing will demarcate them from the draconian western/american brands !
Yes I bought huawei mate7 and when they updated is to lollipop they didn’t update international only Chinese units.that’s why I was going to get a mi5 if it ever comes out
If chinese phones get to a pricing as high as $600, european and american customers won’t follow anymore : chinese phones won’t have anymore comparative advantage.
$450 is a maximum for a chinese phone IMHO.
For me $300 is already pushing it.
for me $300 means Bankruptcy :p
for me 300 bucks means death
well … that escalated quickly !
totally disappointed, And I really cannot believe they did not make good profit on selling their phone units. It is just about getting more and more money, not being satisfied with the money they already earn. What can we read from this post and past services of the chinese brands? It was always about getting a lot of money, how can I say this? Well, read the thread again and comments of people complaining about no service/firmware updates (except LeTV). When they are lucky, they will push it like huawei did, but I doubt it. Selling high premium spec phones with low pricing is a high competition to big brands like Samsung, Apple, Sony,… Why? Cause Customers from big brands will switch to another brand. So, what this all about??
A fool and his money are soon parted, there is always people foolish enough to pay such price with no warranty for a Chinese phone, but most people would rather get a Samsung/Sony/Apple phone at that price range.
It will work for them in China, but not overseas.
LMAO “higher prices mean more innovation” are you serious? competition=innovation, innovation many times is just another view point of the same old tech
Let’s see. Should I buy a Samsung, Apple, LG for 600 bucks or a no-name phone from the land of fakes for the same price?
why u do dis 🙁
ahahahah, was thinking about you 😀
don’t worry, entry level market will be crowded, let’s see if 2016 is the year we finally see you with a chinese smartphone! 😀
Amen Bro 🙂 !
Your worst nightmare 🙂
Duh !
oh and unless you’re a person with alot of dispensable income , why the smile ?!
Getting schwifty is the ultimate income generator https://49.media.tumblr.com/89525c4f3e4edc58433cb6dfc8ef9e28/tumblr_ntv57vzUMO1uz69m2o1_500.gif
i din’t get the reference …
https://youtu.be/I1188GO4p1E
Rick and morty – Best adult swim production -Ever
well I can’t immediately afford a $300-400 but saving the money I can afford one in a couple of months
right.
Its the curse , the more you ask for low prices , The higher it will Raise , see you when elephone Will sell its phones for 1000 bucks , uhans will sell them for $600
and oppo will be a vertu rival
you are a sadist …
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6c01026bc4ac3f11a388787c9889e3e02c25859acff4e252ef08feadffcaa761.gif
Xiaomi mi2s, meizu mx4, now Letv x800 were for me the alternative to the hatred iPhone status statement. For 600 bucks or more with the reseller profit it has to be a hell of a device for me to choose it over the iPhone 7 or the Samsung s7 or even better the LG G5 for a couple hundred dollars more.
I’m happy to pay for premium build so long as it’s not insanely priced like an iPhone or a Galaxy S. So a price of around $500 is fine. Got the Mate 8 and it’s a beast but had some trouble moving my stuff over from my old phone.
Getting acquainted with Huawei’s security features is also a bit of a pain. I guess once the phone is sold in the US then I can expect some modded ROMs.
I’d love to see more design! Premium price is OK for me as long as it doesn’t surpass the maximum 650€(min. being 450-500€) margin if justifiable.
it’s a win move for chinese brands selling in china, no way export brands could think about this.
For us abroad, chinese phones will be the ones with unbeatable price/quality ratio, it’s kinda hard to splash 500$ into a chinese phone having huge customs to pay and a nightmare with assistance.
So we’ll probably won’t see anymore the ones wich will go premium only, I strongly believe that entry level and mid-rangers will be produced by Xiaomi and the likes just as it has always been, if they want to become elite only, we will survive 😀
Export companies (see Elephone, Ulefone, Umi) have all to play the low cost role in order to stay afloat and compete with products on local shops, they could only improve (and improve their quality) if big ones go “premium only”, more market share, more income and possibility to invest into upgrading all their structure (software development, quality control and all the rest), which would translate into growing quality of the products, which is good for us.
I checked out some Chinese sources. As I understand that whole story triggered by a Chinese analyst named Sun Changxu who is working as chief analyst at eet-cn.com. According to her blog post she did a 6 hours interview with Lei Jun last night.
I could be wrong, but as I understand she tried to persuade him whole time to releasing a 4000 yuan phone because she desires it.
As I understand again, he said that selling at near cost strategy won’t change ever, people who demanding 4000 yuan device is not their target consumers, for more than 4000 yuan you should set a gem on it.
She claimed that without a quote he said at 2016, a 3000 yuan Xiaomi handset will be amazing.
Also if I didn’t get it wrong Xiaomi will start offline sales next year, though I didn’t fully understand its exact nature.
If you know Chinese here is the links. Feel free to correct my mistakes.
http://weibo.com/1337881733/DaXN9E3DE
http://m.forum.eet-cn.com/BLOG_ARTICLE_23438.HTM
They risk loosing to companies like Elephone and others. It always comes down to component price, labour costs, and good-will.
Xiaomi didn’t sell 133 million units of smartphone at past two years because of premium brand image.
Huawei didn’t sell all that 100 million units this year under Huawei brand. Most of those were under cheaper Honor brand.
Why we should care about smaller Chinese brands?
There are tons of premium phones to any one of us at walking distance.
Premium pricing will kill the need of sites like Gizchina.
“Premium pricing will kill the need of sites like Gizchina”
+1
so damn right they are trading away what they have over premium brands
its LITERALLY like selling your soul …
i mean considering that the actual substance and spirit that is so attractive in chinese phones and brands is the fact that one can get very high quality devices at truly discounted prices …
if they do away with that , nothing will demarcate them from the draconian western/american brands !
Yes I bought huawei mate7 and when they updated is to lollipop they didn’t update international only Chinese units.that’s why I was going to get a mi5 if it ever comes out
WAIT A MINUTE!! Meizu is still in the business??
Yes, they’re still in business, although they haven’t announced a phone this week so it could look like they’re not in business anymore after all of their launches this year… ?
Meizu just had a 350 percent jump in in sales.
If chinese phones get to a pricing as high as $600, european and american customers won’t follow anymore : chinese phones won’t have anymore comparative advantage.
$450 is a maximum for a chinese phone IMHO.
For me $300 is already pushing it.
for me $300 means Bankruptcy :p
for me 300 bucks means death
well … that escalated quickly !
totally disappointed, And I really cannot believe they did not make good profit on selling their phone units. It is just about getting more and more money, not being satisfied with the money they already earn. What can we read from this post and past services of the chinese brands? It was always about getting a lot of money, how can I say this? Well, read the thread again and comments of people complaining about no service/firmware updates (except LeTV). When they are lucky, they will push it like huawei did, but I doubt it. Selling high premium spec phones with low pricing is a high competition to big brands like Samsung, Apple, Sony,… Why? Cause Customers from big brands will switch to another brand. So, what this all about??
A fool and his money are soon parted, there is always people foolish enough to pay such price with no warranty for a Chinese phone, but most people would rather get a Samsung/Sony/Apple phone at that price range.
It will work for them in China, but not overseas.
LMAO “higher prices mean more innovation” are you serious? competition=innovation, innovation many times is just another view point of the same old tech
Let’s see. Should I buy a Samsung, Apple, LG for 600 bucks or a no-name phone from the land of fakes for the same price?
why u do dis 🙁
ahahahah, was thinking about you 😀
don’t worry, entry level market will be crowded, let’s see if 2016 is the year we finally see you with a chinese smartphone! 😀
Your worst nightmare 🙂
Amen Bro 🙂 !
Duh !
oh and unless you’re a person with alot of dispensable income , why the smile ?!
Its the curse , the more you ask for low prices , The higher it will Raise , see you when elephone Will sell its phones for 1000 bucks , uhans will sell them for $600
and oppo will be a vertu rival
Getting schwifty is the ultimate income generator
well I can’t immediately afford a $300-400 but saving the money I can afford one in a couple of months
you are a sadist …
i din’t get the reference …
right.
Rick and morty – Best adult swim production -Ever
Pretty dumb move , considering its Xiaomi afterall , i thought they would do it from thw first moment i saw the mi2 , ( they would make some reputation off their prices , and do a sudden move by making the newer models regularly priced ) The worst part is that i buy High End Phones Only , ( with some exceptions for some cool midrangers ex.M1 note / Mi note 3) I guess ill stick to the bigX brands next year like Lg Sams , but il definetly buy A topline xiaomi device next year ( even though they wont have dat attractive pricing)
the bad part is that resellers usually add huge mark ups to all high end devices , (When some Vivo or Oppo phone launches (High end) its usually available only for 700-900 dollars if youre lucky at resellers so the situation will be the same for xiaomi if they rekease it at 600 bucks locally
Xiaomi mi2s, meizu mx4, now Letv x800 were for me the alternative to the hatred iPhone status statement. For 600 bucks or more with the reseller profit it has to be a hell of a device for me to choose it over the iPhone 7 or the Samsung s7 or even better the LG G5 for a couple hundred dollars more.
I’m happy to pay for premium build so long as it’s not insanely priced like an iPhone or a Galaxy S. So a price of around $500 is fine. Got the Mate 8 and it’s a beast but had some trouble moving my stuff over from my old phone.
Getting acquainted with Huawei’s security features is also a bit of a pain. I guess once the phone is sold in the US then I can expect some modded ROMs.
I think its a bad move andi I have as a UK user really got into China phones starting with OPPO find five right up to the seven a I b ought my daughter a mi3 she had always had I phones but she loved it my last and present phone is huawie mate7 and I was going to buy the new XIAOMI m5 but if the price gets hiked up then add-on the resellers hike they will be more than your big name brands in UK so the international user will just buy one of the big four brand names in UK with no warranty issues.
I would argue that the innovation will be the key of success but in my opinion limits have been already reached in terms of specifications like it was in the laptop industry. I mean that the company who will come with a brand new device with an hydrogen battery (extremely long battery life) or a innovative screen technology capable of charging adequatly the battery using the light of the sun would be amazing. Also a device you could keep for a couple of years because changing your phone every 3 months is just killing the ressources of the planet.
hydrogen will not work because it has really good life cycles which means bad for business lol
nuff said
We all know that hydrogen battery will never be used for one reason, manufacturers want people to change their phones every 6 months and force them to inject a couple of dollars more to get the brand new device at a higher cost. That’s how the business is working unfortunately, they create the needs and satisfy the demand constantly. Moreover most of the flagship phones in the market have non replaceable battery nowadays to oblige users to change their device regularly. But the usage they make with their phones isn’t evolving a lot.
That’s why I don’t see REAL innovation out there, at least this gone 2015. Since the modular phones concepts appeared, I’ve been waiting for the real deal to come, in the form of an industry standard and lots of compatible modules + chassis (from 2.8″ to “infinite”, say 7″ for “mobile phones”, later, bigger sizes for tablets) from a bunch of manufacturers. Of course “traditional” non modular phones will keep on selling in the market, but probably a vast majority of the phone makers would also offer closed configurations (still modular, but proven to be compatible) alongside their modules and parts to combine. Samsung would have a lot to win there too, as they’re big and design/produce lots of components.
Think about it: your choice of CPU, RAM/Storage, screen size + tech, battery and… OS!
This would be the final innovation for me, and would help to fight planned obsolescence while creating a 2nd hand market for all parts. China should take the lead now that this is in ‘pre-alpha’ stage.
I definitely agree with everything you said above, if a company decide to offer modular phones with attractive prices it will be certainly a great innovation with lots of different configurations.
it’s a win move for chinese brands selling in china, no way export brands could think about this.
For us abroad, chinese phones will be the ones with unbeatable price/quality ratio, it’s kinda hard to splash 500$ into a chinese phone having huge customs to pay and a nightmare with assistance.
So we’ll probably won’t see anymore the ones wich will go premium only, I strongly believe that entry level and mid-rangers will be produced by Xiaomi and the likes just as it has always been, if they want to become elite only, we will survive 😀
Export companies (see Elephone, Ulefone, Umi) have all to play the low cost role in order to stay afloat and compete with products on local shops, they could only improve (and improve their quality) if big ones go “premium only”, more market share, more income and possibility to invest into upgrading all their structure (software development, quality control and all the rest), which would translate into growing quality of the products, which is good for us.
In 2015 I bought a Xiaomi Redmi Note 2 and it’s been my best purchase yet. It’s a very good phone and I love it.
The most important part of why I bought it was that it was $200 including shipping and seller profit ( did not pay customs or VAT ). I love Xiaomi phones now but I’m not willing to pay more than $200 for a phone when I can find a $200 that meets my needs just like the Redmi Note 2 does.
There’s just nothing more that you can offer me to pay more.
nuff said
Ok at $615 Samsung phones will be the low end, good for us and happy 2016 4 u all.
Like many say, i’d rather buy an international big brand name phone if the difference will be just US$100-150. Maybe the high princing in 2016 Chinese phones will work in China, but internationally who will buy them, having poor support and long waiting times?
I would rather buy the best phone for my money and personally the Xiaomi brand name to me means higher quality than Samsung, LG or HTC.
I checked out some Chinese sources. As I understand that whole story triggered by a Chinese analyst named Sun Changxu who is working as chief analyst at eet-cn.com. According to her blog post she did a 6 hours interview with Lei Jun last night.
I could be wrong, but as I understand she tried to persuade him whole time to releasing a 4000 yuan phone because she desires it.
As I understand again, he said that selling at near cost strategy won’t change ever, people who demanding 4000 yuan device is not their target consumers, for more than 4000 yuan you should set a gem on it.
She claimed that without a quote he said at 2016, a 3000 yuan Xiaomi handset will be amazing.
Also if I didn’t get it wrong Xiaomi will start offline sales next year, though I didn’t fully understand its exact nature.
If you know Chinese here is the links. Feel free to correct my mistakes.
http://weibo.com/1337881733/DaXN9E3DE
http://m.forum.eet-cn.com/BLOG_ARTICLE_23438.HTM
They risk loosing to companies like Elephone and others. It always comes down to component price, labour costs, and good-will.
WAIT A MINUTE!! Meizu is still in the business??
Yes, they’re still in business, although they haven’t announced a phone this week so it could look like they’re not in business anymore after all of their launches this year… 😁
Meizu just had a 350 percent jump in in sales.
a ”premium” smarphone cost like 170 dollars to produce, can someone explain me why would the chinese brand follow the ”stealer” road? NO phone in the world should be priced more than 350 dollars that already a huge margin here.
This article can’t be true it’s impossible, chinese are way too smart to throw this kind of bullshit.
Leave the OVERPRICED phones to compagny that sells their names thanks
Clearly no MBA here, folks. Or even a BBA, for that matter.
I don;t know where you got your $170 figure from but it’s not close to being accurate. Most companies don’t release their BOMs to the public but there are two that do make this information available, Samsung and Apple. Here are the costs of their two premium phones:
Iphone 6 Plus – $236.04
Galaxy S6 Edge – $284.85
Keep in mind Samsung and Apple both make a lot of their own components so they save on costs of those versus a brand like Xiaomi or Meizu who sources everything. The average Chinese flagship depending on components used probably averaged between $250-300 to produce. And keep in mind that is just production costs there is also advertising, distribution and operating costs to consider. Xiaomi sells a lot of their phones for close to cost and hopes to make up the difference through sustained sales, accessories (power banks, headphones etc) and the MIUI store.
Hi balco how are you? Happ new year 🙂
That 170 figure comes from the samsung s5 and iphone 5 building cost
the iphone 6 cost about 199 dollars
iphone 6s 220 dollars
http://press.ihs.com/press-release/technology/samsung-galaxy-s6-edge-pricier-build-cheaper-buy-comparable-apple-iphone-6-
http://press.ihs.com/press-release/design-supply-chain/samsung-galaxy-s5-carries-astronomical-bill-materials-ihs-teardown
my bad the s5 actually costs more, but my argument is still valid 😉
To a point yes it is valid. Samsung for instance has costs around $300 but sells their phones for nearly double that. It costs them an extra $13 to upgrade a phone from 32GB to 64GB but they charge nearly $100 for the consumer to upgrade.
happy 2016 😀
Pretty dumb move , considering its Xiaomi afterall , i thought they would do it from thw first moment i saw the mi2 , ( they would make some reputation off their prices , and do a sudden move by making the newer models regularly priced ) The worst part is that i buy High End Phones Only , ( with some exceptions for some cool midrangers ex.M1 note / Mi note 3) I guess ill stick to the bigX brands next year like Lg Sams , but il definetly buy A topline xiaomi device next year ( even though they wont have dat attractive pricing)
I always said the Redmi series was cheapening their brand and people here gave me a lot of flak over it and telling me how wrong I was and now this article comes out. Thanks guys! Not.
Happy new year! (I actually mean that, ha)
You’re still wrong. It’s kind of obvious.
don’t bother with him he’s a waste of time
Agree with Airyl, you are still wrong.
Just like that Meizu logo they ended up not using, right? And just like the time Xiaomi said they were going after resellers using their name and I said xiaomishop.com would be the first to go, you argued otherwise, then like 2 weeks later they changed their name to honorbuy.
So yeah, if the road to building a premium brand IS in fact selling cheap stuff, then I am wrong. You and Airyl must have read the same marketing book. Actually I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re both the same person.
When did I say they weren’t going to use it?? I said I liked it from the start. But nice try.
balcobomber25 • 4 months ago
As a marketing guy I love it, it’s fresh and streamlined and has a more mature look to it.
Angry Mobile Nerd balcobomber25 • 4 months ago
Haha I knew you would fall for this.
The old was a lot better and I would have opted for an evolution of the old logo VS this cute bubbly thing which will not stand the test of time and has zero potential for becoming iconic.
Anyone with real graphic design ability (the do-ers) would understand this new logo is just “meh” and pretty generic at best. I’m guessing you’re one of those talking-type marketing guys.
You’re saying Xiaomi agrees that the Redmi series is cheapening them.
What Xiaomi wants to do is make the Mi line a more premium line of devices instead of an affordable alternative to other brands. It’s got literally nothing to do with the Redmi devices.
It’s nice to see you’re still acting like a spoiled child in 2016.
Were you talking about the logo prominently displayed on their homepage or the one that shows up everytime you start up Flyme? Is that the one you were saying they don’t use?
the bad part is that resellers usually add huge mark ups to all high end devices , (When some Vivo or Oppo phone launches (High end) its usually available only for 700-900 dollars if youre lucky at resellers so the situation will be the same for xiaomi if they rekease it at 600 bucks locally
I think its a bad move andi I have as a UK user really got into China phones starting with OPPO find five right up to the seven a I b ought my daughter a mi3 she had always had I phones but she loved it my last and present phone is huawie mate7 and I was going to buy the new XIAOMI m5 but if the price gets hiked up then add-on the resellers hike they will be more than your big name brands in UK so the international user will just buy one of the big four brand names in UK with no warranty issues.
I would argue that the innovation will be the key of success but in my opinion limits have been already reached in terms of specifications like it was in the laptop industry. I mean that the company who will come with a brand new device with an hydrogen battery (extremely long battery life) or a innovative screen technology capable of charging adequatly the battery using the light of the sun would be amazing. Also a device you could keep for a couple of years because changing your phone every 3 months is just killing the ressources of the planet.
hydrogen will not work because it has really good life cycles which means bad for business lol
nuff said
We all know that hydrogen battery will never be used for one reason, manufacturers want people to change their phones every 6 months and force them to inject a couple of dollars more to get the brand new device at a higher cost. That’s how the business is working unfortunately, they create the needs and satisfy the demand constantly. Moreover most of the flagship phones in the market have non replaceable battery nowadays to oblige users to change their device regularly. But the usage they make with their phones isn’t evolving a lot.
That’s why I don’t see REAL innovation out there, at least this gone 2015. Since the modular phones concepts appeared, I’ve been waiting for the real deal to come, in the form of an industry standard and lots of compatible modules + chassis (from 2.8″ to “infinite”, say 7″ for “mobile phones”, later, bigger sizes for tablets) from a bunch of manufacturers. Of course “traditional” non modular phones will keep on selling in the market, but probably a vast majority of the phone makers would also offer closed configurations (still modular, but proven to be compatible) alongside their modules and parts to combine. Samsung would have a lot to win there too, as they’re big and design/produce lots of components.
Think about it: your choice of CPU, RAM/Storage, screen size + tech, battery and… OS!
This would be the final innovation for me, and would help to fight planned obsolescence while creating a 2nd hand market for all parts. China should take the lead now that this is in ‘pre-alpha’ stage.
I definitely agree with everything you said above, if a company decide to offer modular phones with attractive prices it will be certainly a great innovation with lots of different configurations.
In 2015 I bought a Xiaomi Redmi Note 2 and it’s been my best purchase yet. It’s a very good phone and I love it.
The most important part of why I bought was that it was $200 including shipping and seller profit ( did not pay customs or VAT ). I love Xiaomi phones now but I’m not willing to pay more than $200 for a phone when I can find a $200 that meets my needs just like the Redmi Note 2 does.
There’s just nothing more that you can offer me to pay more.
nuff said
Ok at $615 Samsung phones will be the low end, good for us and happy 2016 4 u all.
Like many say, i’d rather buy an international big brand name phone if the difference will be just US$100-150. Maybe the high princing in 2016 Chinese phones will work in China, but internationally who will buy them, having poor support and long waiting times?
I would rather buy the best phone for my money and personally the Xiaomi brand name to me means higher quality than Samsung, LG or HTC.
a ”premium” smarphone cost like 170 dollars to produce, can someone explain me why would the chinese brand follow the ”stealer” road? NO phone in the world should be priced more than 350 dollars that already a huge margin here.
This article can’t be true it’s impossible, chinese are way too smart to throw this kind of bullshit.
Leave the OVERPRICED phones to compagny that sells their names thanks
Clearly no MBA here, folks. Or even a BBA, for that matter.
I don;t know where you got your $170 figure from but it’s not close to being accurate. Most companies don’t release their BOMs to the public but there are two that do make this information available, Samsung and Apple. Here are the costs of their two premium phones:
Iphone 6 Plus – $236.04
Galaxy S6 Edge – $284.85
Keep in mind Samsung and Apple both make a lot of their own components so they save on costs of those versus a brand like Xiaomi or Meizu who sources everything. The average Chinese flagship depending on components used probably averaged between $250-300 to produce. And keep in mind that is just production costs there is also advertising, distribution and operating costs to consider. Xiaomi sells a lot of their phones for close to cost and hopes to make up the difference through sustained sales, accessories (power banks, headphones etc) and the MIUI store.
Hi balco how are you? Happ new year 🙂
That 170 figure comes from the samsung s5 and iphone 5 building cost
the iphone 6 cost about 199 dollars
iphone 6s 220 dollars
When it comes to advertising, researching, distributing, it doesn’t cost them a lot since they’re already milking themself with the last generation (around 150% of profit on each phone not bad uh that enough to develop the next 3 generations and still get profit) and don’t start me on update because beside apple all the ”big brand” should be ashamed to bring beta to your “premium” phone.
It’s good to take the highest phone of the brand but what about their others ”premium phone”??
What about the samsung A serie, the xperia series, and all the others “premium” phones that didn’t cost more than 180 dollars to build but still cost way over 350 once they’re out?
I’m still right on the money!
Brand that are selling they’re name are overpricing their phones and that’s their right cuz nobody is forcing us to buy it.
http://press.ihs.com/press-release/technology/samsung-galaxy-s6-edge-pricier-build-cheaper-buy-comparable-apple-iphone-6-
http://press.ihs.com/press-release/design-supply-chain/samsung-galaxy-s5-carries-astronomical-bill-materials-ihs-teardown
my bad the s5 actually costs more, but my argument is still valid 😉
To a point yes it is valid. Samsung for instance has costs around $300 but sells their phones for nearly double that. It costs them an extra $13 to upgrade a phone from 32GB to 64GB but they charge nearly $100 for the consumer to upgrade.
happy 2016 😀
I always said the Redmi series was cheapening their brand and people here gave me a lot of flak over it and telling me how wrong I was and now this article comes out. Thanks guys! Not.
Happy new year! (I actually mean that, ha)
You’re still wrong. It’s kind of obvious.
don’t bother with him he’s a waste of time
Agree with Airyl, you are still wrong.
Just like that “fresh” Meizu logo they ended up not using, right? And just like the time Xiaomi said they were going after resellers using their name and I said xiaomishop.com would be the first to go, you argued otherwise, then like 2 weeks later they changed their name to honorbuy.
So yeah, if the road to building a premium brand IS in fact selling cheap stuff, then I am wrong. You and Airyl must have read the same marketing book. Actually I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re both the same person.
When did I say they weren’t going to use it?? I said I liked it from the start. But nice try.
balcobomber25 • 4 months ago
As a marketing guy I love it, it’s fresh and streamlined and has a more mature look to it.
Angry Mobile Nerd balcobomber25 • 4 months ago
Haha I knew you would fall for this.
The old was a lot better and I would have opted for an evolution of the old logo VS this cute bubbly thing which will not stand the test of time and has zero potential for becoming iconic.
Anyone with real graphic design ability (the do-ers) would understand this new logo is just “meh” and pretty generic at best. I’m guessing you’re one of those talking-type marketing guys.
You’re saying Xiaomi agrees that the Redmi series is cheapening them.
What Xiaomi wants to do is make the Mi line a more premium line of devices instead of an affordable alternative to other brands. It’s got literally nothing to do with the Redmi devices.
It’s nice to see you’re still acting like a spoiled child in 2016.
Were you talking about the logo prominently displayed on their homepage or the one that shows up everytime you start up Flyme? Is that the one you were saying they don’t use?
The only way I see those new high prices it’s Xiaomi finally expand their markets to America and Europe with After sales support offices and paying all the patents they need to sale everywhere. If not they can fuck themselves and Redmi Note 2 will be my last Xiaomi phone.
In my opinion I think it’s a mistake. I have a Vivo Xhot. If Iphone 6, Samsung S6, had the same price with the Xshot would I still bought it? Of course not. Before that I had the Xiaomi MI2 because it cost a fraction of the Iphone 5. That’s the reason why I bought it. Millions of people in China did the same which catapulted them at the top of most sold smartphone devices in the mainland.
This is a no brainer. They sell because it’s cheap. Raise the price then I for one would likely prefer the old reliable Sammy or Uncle Steve.
Considering the Xshot is a last year model that isn’t that fair of comparison, although the Xshot still has a better camera than both of those you mentioned.
All I’m saying is if the MI5 will cost only slightly lower against the Galaxy S7 or the I phone 7 I would definitely ditch the MI5 in
a heartbeat.
Why would you ditch it. What does the S7 offer than that Mi5 won;t? Where is the clear advantage for the S7?
All of them are incoming flagships and not yet available but
once released the S7 and the Iphone 7 will be much way better than the Mi5. Always is. The support, the optimization, the screen quality (hard to beat the Amoled).
And talking about the screen quality the Vivo Xshot trumped the MI4 easily. Likewise when I compared my Xshot to S6 or Note 5 it looks like an MI4.
FYI I’m a big fan of Xiaomi. I had the MI2, then the Redmi 1S and the MI4 for my daughters. The earphones as well. And yeah the power bank too Lol!
Much way better? Let’s break down your argument:
Support:
Xioami updates MIUI every single week, Samsung updates TouchWhiz once every 2 months if your lucky. Apple is a completely different boat as most of their devices run the same exact base hardware. Edge: Xiaomi.
Optimization:
It’s about even across the board.
Screen Quality:
Samsung uses their own AMOLED displays, Xiaomi uses displays made by Sharp/JDI. Apple used displays made by LG and Sharp/JDI. This one comes down to personal preference. As all three use displays of the highest quality.
MIUI is too heavy. Updates every week does help but mostly for every updates something got broken and need to be fixed again for the next update. It’s a cycle. Lag will come from time to time. And again for the screen nothing beats the Amoled.
I would rather have weekly updates than none at all. I’m still waiting for bug fixes in my wifes S6, she has had maybe 2 updates since we bought the phone and their is still plenty wrong with TouchWiz. In your opinion AMOLED is the best, I have one in my Meizu MX5. It is a good display but not the best. I have seen better from LG and Sharp.
It won’t be worth it for International consumers who have to buy through resellers as they add a huge mark up. Better off buying a bigger brand, atleast there’s warranty. I only just got my Redmi Note 3, this will most likely be my last Chinese phone for sometime as my next phone will be the 2016 Nexus, hopefully with SD820 or by that time an upgraded version is release like SD821 or SD825, 4GB DDR4 RAM, Ultrasonic fingerprint sensor on the screen, OLED display.
The only way I see those new high prices it’s Xiaomi finally expand their markets to America and Europe with After sales support offices and paying all the patents they need to sale everywhere. If not they can fuck themselves and Redmi Note 2 will be my last Xiaomi phone.
The way things are going smartphones will reach the PC stale level very soon, as almost every 199$ phone will be more than adequate to use for two years to come and most people won`t bother upgrading their devices, as long as they receive regular Android updates.
Let`s face it, if it wasn’t for maybe the better camera you don`t notice any real-life performance difference from a mid-range SoC and a high end one.
It won’t work… People buy from China because its cheap and cheerful, as soon as you take that cheap part away, you’re in the same boat as Samsung etc which won’t last long term as there’s plenty of ‘high end’ manufacturers out there grabbing ridiculous profit margins which in turn drives us to places like GizChina to get more for less money…
And with Xiaomi phones not even being officially established in the West yet, they don’t have a hope if the prices are high when they do arrive
Just my opinion…
totally agree with you
Chinese prices rise to the same sort of pricing as the western brands = Make way for another country to come up and take its place (and its money)
Most of the time the USP of a Chinese anything is that its mega cheap in comparison to a branded western product…
I think it’s a big mistake. I have a Vivo Xhot. If Iphone 6, Samsung S6, had the same price with the Xshot would I still bought it? Of course not. Before that I had the Xiaomi MI2 because it cost a fraction of the Iphone 5. Millions of people in China did the same which catapulted them at the top in the mainland. They sell because it’s cheap. Raise the price then I for one would likely prefer the old reliable Uncle Sam & Uncle Steve.
Considering the Xshot is a last year model that isn’t that fair of comparison, although the Xshot still has a better camera than both of those you mentioned.
All I’m saying is if the MI5 will cost only slightly lower against the Galaxy S7 or the I phone 7 I would definitely ditch the MI5 in a heartbeat.
Why would you ditch it. What does the S7 offer than that Mi5 won;t? Where is the clear advantage for the S7?
All of them are incoming flagships and not yet available but
once released the S7 and the Iphone 7 will be much way better than the Mi5. Always is. The support, the optimization, the screen quality (hard to beat the Amoled).
And talking about the screen quality the Vivo Xshot trumped the MI4 easily. Likewise when I compared my Xshot to S6 or Note 5 it would look like an MI4.
FYI I’m a big fan of Xiaomi. I had the MI2, then the Redmi 1S and the MI4 for my daughters. The earphones as well. And yeah the power bank too Lol!
Much way better? Let’s break down your argument:
Support:
Xioami updates MIUI every single week, Samsung updates TouchWhiz once every 2 months if your lucky. Apple is a completely different boat as most of their devices run the same exact base hardware. Edge: Xiaomi.
Optimization:
It’s about even across the board.
Screen Quality:
Samsung uses their own AMOLED displays, Xiaomi uses displays made by Sharp/JDI. Apple used displays made by LG and Sharp/JDI. This one comes down to personal preference. As all three use displays of the highest quality.
MIUI is too heavy. Updates every week does help but mostly for every updates something got broken and need to be fixed again for the next update. It’s a cycle. Lag will come from time to time. And again for the screen nothing beats the Amoled.
I would rather have weekly updates than none at all. I’m still waiting for bug fixes in my wifes S6, she has had maybe 2 updates since we bought the phone and their is still plenty wrong with TouchWiz. In your opinion AMOLED is the best, I have one in my Meizu MX5. It is a good display but not the best. I have seen better from LG and Sharp.
And you do realize that Touchwhiz is heavier than MIUI?
It won’t be worth it for International consumers who have to buy through resellers as they add a huge mark up. Better off buying a bigger brand, atleast there’s warranty. I only just got my Redmi Note 3, this will most likely be my last Chinese phone for sometime as my next phone will be the 2016 Nexus, hopefully with SD820 or by that time an upgraded version is release like SD821 or SD825, 4GB DDR4 RAM, Ultrasonic fingerprint sensor on the screen, OLED display.
2999 yuan is max max point for me.
I think we will see more companies doing what Meizu is doing, having a normal version like the MX5 and a “premium” version like the Pro 5. Personally I don’t ever see an end to the $300 flagships we all know and love, just a new product segment for foreign markets with a higher disposable income or for those who want the absolute best specs possible.
The way things are going smartphones will reach the PC stale level very soon, as almost every 199$ phone will be more than adequate to use for two years to come and most people won`t bother upgrading their devices, as long as they receive regular Android updates.
Let`s face it, if it wasn’t for maybe the better camera you don`t notice any real-life performance difference from a mid-range SoC and a high end one.
It won’t work… People buy from China because its cheap and cheerful, as soon as you take that cheap part away, you’re in the same boat as Samsung etc which won’t last long term as there’s plenty of ‘high end’ manufacturers out there grabbing ridiculous profit margins which in turn drives us to places like GizChina to get more for less money…
And with Xiaomi phones not even being officially established in the West yet, they don’t have a hope if the prices are high when they do arrive
Just my opinion…
totally agree with you
Chinese prices rise to the same sort of pricing as the western brands = Make way for another country to come up and take its place (and its money)
Most of the time the USP of a Chinese anything is that its mega cheap in comparison to a branded western product…
2999 yuan is max max point for me.
As I understand, this one is resume of a matter-
“Guaire • a day ago
I checked out some Chinese sources. As I understand that whole story triggered by a Chinese analyst named Sun Changxu who is working as chief analyst at eet-cn.com. According to her blog post she did a 6 hours interview with Lei Jun last night.
I could be wrong, but as I understand she tried to persuade him whole time to releasing a 4000 yuan phone because she desires it.
As I understand again, he said that selling at near cost strategy won’t change ever, people who demanding 4000 yuan device is not their target consumers, for more than 4000 yuan you should set a gem on it.
She claimed that without a quote he said at 2016, a 3000 yuan Xiaomi handset will be amazing.
Also if I didn’t get it wrong Xiaomi will start offline sales next year, though I didn’t fully understand its exact nature.
If you know Chinese here is the links. Feel free to correct my mistakes.
http://weibo.com/1337881733/Da…
http://m.forum.eet-cn.com/BLOG… “
I think we will see more companies doing what Meizu is doing, having a normal version like the MX5 and a “premium” version like the Pro 5. Personally I don’t ever see an end to the $300 flagships we all know and love, just a new product segment for foreign markets with a higher disposable income or for those who want the absolute best specs possible.
So now they are going to play the same game as the companies wich have the monopoly in the game and that is to overprice its products to get the attention of the people? , I’ve never bought a smartphone from the “leading” brands and I never will ,is incredible how we the humans are so easy manipulated with advertising in order to consume certain things or brands instead of trying for themselves
So now they are going to play the same game as the companies wich have the monopoly in the game and that is to overprice its products to get the attention of the people? , I’ve never bought a smartphone from the “leading” brands and I never will ,is incredible how we the humans are so easy manipulated with advertising in order to consume certain things or brands instead of trying for themselves
Non sense 🙂 They cant sell phones with high prices, Huawei sells mostly to service providers not to end users, and how many phones Oppo and Vivo can sell phones at higher prices ? Everybody in knows how much those phones costs to produce to phone makers, they earn Money, so much Money already…
Non sense 🙂 They cant sell phones with high prices, Huawei sells mostly to service providers not to end users, and how many phones Oppo and Vivo can sell phones at higher prices ? Everybody in knows how much those phones costs to produce to phone makers, they earn Money, so much Money already…
I’d say if this were to be true its a bad move.
We, international buyers, buy the Xiaomi and other Chinese brands for its low proce and high specificatiins, the well known bang-for-buck.
If they take away the low price, you can by a flagship from international brands aswell, unless they provide another unique selling point wich in the high-end market there is much less possibility to do so.
It is indeed a strange market. The international buyers want cheap Chinese phones but the Chinese themself are more willing to pay for it, as their phone is a status symbol that shows wealth aswell wich leads to the need for iPhones widh we loathe and now they want high-priced Xiaomi’s aswell….
I’d say if this were to be true its a bad move.
We, international buyers, buy the Xiaomi and other Chinese brands for its low proce and high specificatiins, the well known bang-for-buck.
If they take away the low price, you can by a flagship from international brands aswell, unless they provide another unique selling point wich in the high-end market there is much less possibility to do so.
It is indeed a strange market. The international buyers want cheap Chinese phones but the Chinese themself are more willing to pay for it, as their phone is a status symbol that shows wealth aswell wich leads to the need for iPhones widh we loathe and now they want high-priced Xiaomi’s aswell….
Fully understand… But definitely disagree!!!
Will looking for another brand for my next cell phone… pity!!!
Fully understand… But definitely disagree!!!
Will looking for another brand for my next cell phone… pity!!!
in 2012 choosing between oppo find 5 and Mi2s, I had chosen Mi2s only because of the price.
Pity that such company as Xiaomi which made a lot of “steps” closer to the end user, will make a BIG step backrward.
my list of best of smartphones 2016
1 samsung
2 oneplus
3 elephone
4 all nexus phones
5 xiaomi
the reason?! the reason are that all these phones get updates often… doesn’t matter if some of brands have minor bugs, what matters is all of these brands care about their devices…
you have talent dude…. ?? but why Elephone?
Elephone may have bugs but it’s always prepared for the future with amazing tech, (except bezzels)
maybe l have to try one, thanks bro
l’d reccomend to wait for elephone P9000 edge
screw you, l choose my own model by myself, noone asked you for advice
well noone asked you for a replica but anyway thanks for your interest 🙂 chill bro…
my list of best of smartphones 2016
1 samsung
2 oneplus
3 elephone
4 all nexus phones
5 xiaomi
the reason?! the reason are that all these phones get updates often… doesn’t matter if some of brands have minor bugs, what matters is all of these brands care about their devices…
you have talent dude…. 😂😂 but why Elephone?
Elephone may have bugs but it’s always prepared for the future with amazing tech, (except proccesors)
maybe l have to try one, thanks bro
l’d reccomend to wait for elephone P9000 edge
screw you, l choose my own model by myself, noone asked you for advice
well noone asked you for a replica but anyway thanks for your interest 🙂 chill bro…