It feels more like a rock concert than a press conference as the casually dressedchief executive takes to a darkened stage to unveil his firm's sleek newsmartphone to an adoring crowd. Yet this was not the launch of the new iPhone byApple on September 10th, but of the Mi-3 handset by Xiaomi, a Chinese firm, inBeijing on September 5th. With its emphasis on snazzy design, glitzy launches andthe cult-like fervour it inspires in its users, no wonder Xiaomi is often compared toits giant American rival, both by admirers and by critics who call it a copycat.Xiaomi's boss, Lei Jun, even wears jeans and a black shirt, Steve Jobs-style. IsXiaomi really China's answer to Apple?
穿着随意的首席执行官上台向那些崇拜者们展示着最新的时尚品牌手机,比起记者招待会,这看上去更像是一场摇滚演唱会。但是这并非是苹果公司9月10日的新IPHONE发布会,而是中国的小米公司9月5日在北京召开的一场小米3发布会。小米把重心放在了时尚的外观设计,炫目的发布会以及用户间蔓延着的宗教信仰般的崇拜,也难怪无论是追随者还是把小米视为抄袭者的批判者都喜欢拿小米和他强大的美国竞争对手相比较。小米的老板雷军甚至穿着黑T恤牛仔上场,完全的乔布斯风格。小米真的是中国版的苹果么?
Xiaomi sold 7.2m handsets last year, in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, earningrevenues of 12.6 billion yuan ($2.1 billion). Apple sold 125m smartphones globally,earning about $80 billion of its $157 billion sales. But since it was founded in 2010, Xiaomi has grown fast. A recent funding round valued it at $10 billion, more than Microsoft just paid for Nokia’s handset unit. That made Xiaomi one of the 15 most heavily venture-backed mobile start-ups ever, says Rajeev Chand of Rutberg, aninvestment bank. In the second quarter of 2013 Xiaomi’s market share in China was 5%, says Canalys, a research firm—more than Apple’s (4.8%) for the first time.
去年小米在中国内地、香港和台湾地区总共销售了720万台小米手机,获利126亿元(21亿美元)。苹果公司在全球出售了1.25亿台智能手机,销售额为1570亿美金,获利约800亿美金。但是自2010年成立以来,小米迅速成长。新一轮融资估值为100亿美金,比最近微软收购诺基亚手机业务的花费还要高。投资银行路特伯格公司表示,这也使得小米成为了有史以来多家风投支持的15家移动初创公司之一。调查公司易观国际的调查显示,2013年二季度小米在中国的市场份额达到了5%,首次超过了苹果(4.8%)。