At the same time as the announcement of its bestseller Xiaomi Mi 11, Xiaomi also introduced the new proprietary MIUI 12.5 user interface for the international market.
Up to this point, MIUI 12.5 has been tested in China. Xiaomi plans to start releasing the stable firmware for Chinese users in April.
As announced now, MIUI 12.5 will primarily be available for the Xiaomi Mi 10T, Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro, Xiaomi Mi 10, Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro and Xiaomi Mi 11 smartphones. These models will start to be updated in the second quarter of 2021.
Secondly, the update will be released for Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G, Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite, Xiaomi Mi Note 10 and 10 Pro, Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite, Redmi Note 9T, Redmi Note 9 Pro, Redmi Note 9S, Redmi Note 9, Redmi Note 8 Pro and Redmi 9. Those wishing to participate in the testing program, Xiaomi began to invite a few days earlier.
Among the main advantages of MIUI 12.5 for international users, the manufacturer notes high optimization (CPU usage decreased in the interface by 22%, and power consumption by 15%), as well as smooth operation of control gestures.
Another highlight of the new UI was the announcement of the ability to remove system applications. As the manufacturer promises, most of the system applications can be removed, and the key applications necessary for the system to work can be hidden.
For greater clarity, the number of non-removable applications in MIUI 12.5 is compared with Samsung’s proprietary Android UI and Apple’s operating system.
Gizchina News of the week
IDC: The smartphone market has returned to growth
Experts of the analytical company IDCsummed up the results of the fourth quarter of 2020 and the whole year in general on the smartphone market. As stated in the corresponding report, the smartphone market returned to growth. Sales in the fourth quarter of 2020 were 385.9 million units; which is 4.3% more than smartphones sold in the fourth quarter of 2019. At the same time, for the entire 2020, smartphones were sold 5.9% less than in 2019.
At the end of the fourth quarter of 2020, Apple was named the market leader. It was able to increase sales in annual terms; that is, compared to the same quarter of the previous year, by 22.2% – from 73.8 to 90.1 million devices. This led to an increase in Apple’s share from 19.9% to 23.4%. The second place is occupied by Samsung, which in annual terms increased sales by 6.2%, as a result of which its share increased from 18.8% to 19.1%. The third place is taken by Xiaomi. Its share increased from 8.9% to 11.2%. The top five also include Oppo and Huawei. Also, The share of Oppo increased from 8.3% to 8.8%. The share of Huawei decreased from 15.2% to 8.4%.
As for 2020 as a whole, Samsung remained the leader with 20.6% of the market. Apple is in second place with 15.9%. The share of Huawei, which is in third place at the end of 2020, is 14.6%. The fourth-place belongs to Xiaomi, whose share is 11.4%, the fifth – to Vivo, whose share is 8.6%. In 2019, Samsung’s share was 21.6%, Apple’s 13.9%. Huawei – 17.5%, Xiaomi – 9.2%, Vivo – 8.0%.