That was quick. Only a few hours after US Mobile announced that it’s selling Meizu and Xiaomi Android phones, product pages were pulled out from the website. PCMag shared in an article that US Mobile, a small mobile carrier relying on T-Mobile, was selling Meizu and Xiaomi smartphones, making them the first to “officially” do so as the first “legit” carrier.
We said “was selling” because things have changed in the past few hours. Redditor known as ‘MindAsWell’ pointed out that it wasn’t legit and it wasn’t really sanctioned by Xiaomi. US Mobile is more of an importer in this case, was selling only older models like the Xiaomi Mi 3, Mi 4, Redmi 2, and Meizu M2.
The prices offered by US Mobile seemed like great deals. Interestingly, the carrier noted that the phones, even if 4G/LTE capable couldn’t get LTE connectivity in the Us simply because “they weren’t designed” for the networks in the country. Well, trust the Reddit community to notice inconsistencies. For one, Xiaomi already sells phones through Mi.com so US Mobile isn’t the “first legit” carrier for the brand. Anyone can buy from there so there is no need for another carrier to bring it to the country.
The company, a T-Mobile MVNO, was actually only dealing with distributors and not Xiaomi directly. The Chinese OEM’s aim has always been to deliver low cost phones by bringing them directly to buyers so no need for a middle guy.
The phones are already “sold out”. At first, US Mobile only listed the phones as “sold out” but soon removed the page. So it looks like the company realized the mistake. We can’t say it was an honest mistake but it sure looked US Mobile only wanted to sell phones from China and make a lot of money. Perhaps the term “legit” used in the article was too much. What do you think?
Check out the cached paged HERE.
[Update] Xiaomi released an official statement saying that T-Mobile MVNO US Mobile is not authorized to sell their phones. Mi.com only lists a few accessories for sale in the United States and they won’t have any distributors in the country anytime soon. The statement reads:
“Xiaomi only offers a small selection of accessories for sale in the US through Mi.com. There are no plans to sell smartphones through any authorized distributors in the US. US Mobile is not authorized to sell Xiaomi products in the US.”
VIA: PCNEWS, Reddit, Android Police
