Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi announced plans to expand to the US, selling first accessories. At a press conference in San Francisco, Xiaomi said it will launch its mi.com ecommerce site to sell accessories such as headphones, battery packs and fitness trackers in the US. "We intend to launch here in the US in a few months, perhaps a few other markets as well," said Hugo Barra, Xiaomi's head of global, according to a report from the Financial Times. Bringing phones and tablets to the US is "not in our plan at this point" due to the "incredible amount of work" in localising hardware and software and getting the devices certified by telecoms regulators, he added.
Others have questioned whether Xiaomi could launch in the US without facing accusations of patent infringement from Apple. Xiaomi has denied copying the iPhone, using its first major US press conference to detail features of its MIUI software and hardware that are not yet available on Apple's iOS. Intellectual property is "not the most important matrix" that Xiaomi uses to decide which counties to launch in, according to its cofounder Lin Bin, but "it is one of them". Xiaomi said that it had been awarded 100 patents last year and plans to double that figure this year.
The Android-based MIUI software now has more than 100 million users, the company said. Last year it sold 61 million phones, an increase of 227 percent, generating revenue of CNY 74.3 billion (USD 12 billion), up 135 percent.
