Xiaomi may soon be the top mobile brand in the world if Samsung’s numbers don’t improve. It still is a close fight but in Europe and China, the Chinese OEM is already number one. We respect Xiaomi as it has since grown to be a popular and reliable global brand. It’s not only known for its smartphones but also for smart home devices. It may be in danger of suffering the same fate as Huawei but right now, it’s still in the clear.
The Chinese phone maker is believed to be proactively blocking devices as compliance with export regulations in some regions. There is no formal and official announcement but XDA devs are sharing what’s been happening.
Xiaomi is available in many countries and regions but it’s still not widely out in some areas like the United States. You can use Xiaomi phones even if the region is not supported. You are free to buy and import and the phone should function without any problem. It only needs a carrier’s support.
In some countries though, Xiaomi seems to blocking these phones, specifically, those in Iran, Cuba, North Korea, Suda, Crimea, and Syria. Related reports have surfaced on reddit from Xiaomi phone users. What’s been happening was phone owners are being locked out of the devices.
This message pops up on the screen: Xiaomi policy does not permit sale or provision of the product to the territory in which you have attempted to activate it. Please contact the retailers directly for additional information.
There is no confirmation from Xiaomi about the reports but we won’t be surprised if that’s what the company has been doing. XDA said this doesn’t happen to phones that have custom ROM so that’s interesting. Xiaomi’s TOC contains a statement that prevents buyers from exporting smartphones to some regions. It doesn’t say though that those devices would be blocked so we want to know what’s happening here.
