In an effort to separate itself from the competitive smartphone market, Xiaomi is on the verge of announcing a phone powered by a chipset they have developed on their own. That will make Xiaomi the second Chinese manufacturer to do so, after Huawei came out with their Kirin range of chipsets. The news is that Xiaomi will be coming out with the new phone and the new chipset in a month or so.
According to sources familiar with the matter, Xiaomi is set to come out with their “Pinecone” microprocessor within a month, and it will be launching in a Xiaomi smartphone that the company hopes will be the first of many powered by the new chipset line. According to these sources, Xiaomi has set up “Beijing Pinecone Electronics” as the entity that will develop its in-house silicon.
A lot of industry pundits say that this is a mature move for Xiaomi, and that it should push them to compete better in the market. “A phone maker can only reach the pinnacle of user experience when optimizing the integration of hardware and software on its own,” said Sean Yang, Taiwan-based research director with tech research firm TrendForce.
Of course, apart from Huawei, we’re talking about Apple and Samsung that they will be taking on, not to mention chipset makers Qualcomm and MediaTek. It will be interesting to see what changes for the better we will see with Xiaomi as they usher in this period in their business.
