Xiaomi President hints at entrance into the US market

Even though Chinese brand Xiaomi is the world’s 4th (some say 3rd) largest smartphone maker in the world, it still hasn’t made its presence known in markets outside of Asia. The past few months have seen speculation that they might be preparing to brave the US market at the very least, but there was still no official word from the OEM. But at a recent Wall Street Journal event, Xiaomi President Bin Lin hinted that they are “considering” going into the US market and selling some of its devices.

The WSJDLive Conference was held in California on Wednesday, and even though he didn’t really expound on it, Lin did say that they might be selling their Mi Note and Mi Note Pro in the US soon. No date or timeframe was given though, so if you’re waiting to finally get a hold of those babies, don’t hold your breath just yet. For the rest of the conference, he showed off their new self-balancing scooter, and the Mi TV 3, a 60-inch television. This proves that Xiaomi is bent on diversifying their portfolio, which may be a good move if they will be moving into an even more crowded smartphone market.

Last year, Xiaomi overtook Samsung in terms of smartphone sales in China and by the end of 2014, it was adjudged as the world’s most valuable tech start-up. But this doesn’t mean that it will be smooth-sailing for them once they get into the US. When they first expanded into India last year, they were immediately sued by Ericsson AB, saying that they didn’t license inventions from them like the tech that allowed wireless devices to connect to networks. And with the US being a notoriously litigious society, then they should be prepared for something similar, given that their smartphones bear a striking resemblance to one fruity competitor.

Google’s Hugo Barra also raised the possibility of US sales for Xiaomi in the Code conference, although once again, he didn’t say when. But this just proves that the Chinese OEM is really sending out feelers if an American smartphone invasion would be met with excitement or not.

VIA: ReCode