Lei Jun leads Xiaomi's 14th comeback

A 100,000-word article: Xiaomi 14's Success

After nearly four years of exploring the high-end market, Xiaomi 14 has finally allowed Lei Jun to hold his head high and make a breakthrough in the high-end smartphone market dominated by Apple and Huawei.

On November 7th, Xiaomi's founder, chairman, and CEO, Lei Jun, publicly revealed that the sales of Xiaomi's high-end 14 series have exceeded 1 million units, and there is still a severe shortage of supply, with backorders being rushed. This once again confirms the news that "Xiaomi 14 is selling like hotcakes."

The Xiaomi 14 series was released on October 26th and went on sale on October 31st. Within the first sales cycle, the sales volume exceeded 1 million units, potentially setting a new record for domestic smartphone sales exceeding one million units.

And so, Xiaomi 14 has once again become a hot topic.

Since the release of the Xiaomi 14 series, it has broken multiple sales records due to its strong sales performance.

On November 1st, Xiaomi's official Weibo account announced that within just 5 minutes of going on sale, the first sales volume of the Xiaomi 14 series had increased sixfold compared to the total first sales volume of the previous Xiaomi 13 series.

On the same day, Lei Jun personally delivered the good news, stating that within the first 4 hours of the Xiaomi 14's launch (from 8 pm to midnight on October 31st), the sales volume and revenue broke the record for the entire day of first sales of all domestic smartphones on the four major e-commerce platforms, namely Tmall, JD.com, Douyin, and Kuaishou, in the past year, once again refreshing the sales record.

Lei Jun said, "Currently, the number of orders has far exceeded expectations, and with the pressure of order processing and logistics during the Double 11 period, it may take a few days to fulfill the orders."

As we all know, the competition in the high-end smartphone market has been fierce during this period. First, there was Huawei's Mate 60 series, which made a comeback as the first shot fired by Huawei in the smartphone market. Then there was Apple's iPhone 15 series, both of which firmly grasped the minds of high-end smartphone users.

Xiaomi, which has never been able to establish a foothold in the high-end market, how did the Xiaomi 14 series achieve such hot sales?

With its fully loaded configuration and a lower price, coupled with the first launch of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8Gen3 chip and the latest Xiaomi Surge OS operating system, these are all important reasons why the Xiaomi 14 series has sold so well.

It is reported that the starting prices for the Xiaomi 14 and Xiaomi 14 Pro are 3,999 yuan (8GB+256GB) and 4,999 yuan (12GB+256GB) respectively. Compared to the starting prices of the previous Xiaomi 13 and Xiaomi 13 Pro, which were 3,999 yuan (8GB+128GB) and 4,999 yuan (8GB+128GB), the pricing of the Xiaomi 14 can be described as "more for the same price."

It can be seen that compared to the high-end models released during the same period by Huawei and Apple, the Xiaomi 14 series still emphasizes cost-effectiveness, with the highest configuration version priced at 5,999 yuan. In contrast, the starting price of the Huawei Mate 60 series is 5,499 yuan, and the starting price of the Apple iPhone 15 series is 5,999 yuan, with the highest configuration versions all exceeding 10,000 yuan. In terms of configuration, Lei Jun was straightforward during the new product launch event, stating that the Xiaomi 14 is a significant upgrade compared to the previous generation. While the Xiaomi 13 was positioned as a standard version comparable to the iPhone, the Xiaomi 14 directly targets the iPhone 15 Pro.

According to Counterpoint analysts, the pricing of the Xiaomi 14 is precise, and its cost-effectiveness is highly competitive among similar hardware products.

From the configuration to the sales performance of the Xiaomi 14, some industry insiders believe that this year is when Xiaomi truly enters the high-end market.

In the current smartphone market, which is increasingly declining and driven by existing stock, the trend towards high-end products is an important direction for smartphone brands, and Lei Jun agrees with this view.

During his annual speech in August this year, Lei Jun emphasized that pursuing the high-end market is not only a necessary path for Xiaomi's development but also a matter of life and death. Xiaomi cannot waver in this regard and must persist to the end.

He believes that in this industry, there are tech giants like Apple, Samsung, and Huawei, and the competition is extremely fierce. Faced with such strong competitors, Xiaomi can only succeed by focusing on the high-end market. This will force Xiaomi to seek breakthroughs in technology and create space for its future survival and development.

Xiaomi's journey into the high-end market began in 2019 when Lei Jun boldly announced at a Xiaomi event that they would attack the domestic high-end market and "overthrow Huawei." Two years ago, they officially set their sights on "benchmarking Apple." This year marks the fourth year of Xiaomi's pursuit of the high-end market.

Looking back at the past four years, Xiaomi launched its first high-end smartphone, the Xiaomi 10, which had a relatively smooth start. However, the subsequent Xiaomi 11 faced significant setbacks, and the Xiaomi 12 did not meet expectations. Nevertheless, the Xiaomi 13, released at the end of last year, received positive reviews.

Of course, for Xiaomi, it can only be said that they have achieved a breakthrough in the high-end smartphone market in a certain stage. They still have a long way to go to establish a presence or capture a significant market share in the high-end smartphone market.

Currently, the only domestic smartphone brand that can compete with Apple in the high-end market is Huawei, which has been following the high-end route since entering the smartphone market.

Before being sanctioned by the United States, Huawei's market share in the high-end smartphone market even surpassed Apple's. According to IDC data, in the first half of 2020, Huawei accounted for approximately 44.1% of the high-end smartphone market in China (above $600), while Apple accounted for 44%, and Xiaomi ranked third with 4%.

In the following two years when Huawei faced challenges, Apple dominated the high-end smartphone market in China.

Since 2022, other leading domestic smartphone brands' continuous investment in high-end flagship models has started to yield results. In the Chinese market for smartphones priced above $600, the market share of domestic brands has risen to 30%. This indicates that more and more consumers are recognizing Android smartphone brands.

According to data released by IDC, in the first half of this year, Apple ranked first in the Chinese high-end smartphone market with a market share of 67%. Huawei followed closely behind with 15.6%, OPPO ranked third with 4.2%, and Xiaomi ranked fourth with 3.7%. Counterpoint analysts believe that Chinese smartphone brands will continue to rise in the mid-to-high-end market. Currently, it is unlikely that Xiaomi will make significant progress in the $600 and above price range, but it will steadily move forward.

Lei Jun also deeply feels the difficulty of entering the high-end market. He exclaimed that the road to exploring the high-end market has been the most painful experience for him in the past decade, but it has also been the most rewarding growth experience. He pointed out that the success of the Xiaomi 13 did not come easily. It was the first time that Xiaomi achieved "leading in specifications and prioritizing user experience," making it a representative work.

Xiaomi has also summarized its experience in the high-end market: no shortcomings in high-end products, leading in specifications and prioritizing user experience, and deep integration of software and hardware.

Guo Tianxiang, a senior analyst at IDC China, also told Wall Street News that to succeed in the high-end market, companies need to create competitive and attractive products in terms of appearance, materials, colors, self-developed hardware, and self-developed systems. In addition, they need to invest in services, channels, and their own brand image.

Xiaomi, which has achieved success through high configuration and low price as well as the fan effect, needs to continue to overcome challenges in the high-end market. This requires more patience and firm investment.