Xiaomi falls short of smartphone sales target in 2015

The Chinese smartphone maker sold more than 70 million smartphones in 2015, after it predicted reaching a 100 million milestone at the end of past year.

The Chinese smartphone manufacturer had initially set its sales target at 100 million before revising it to 80 million. It had sold 34.7 million handsets during the first half of the year.

Growth in sales of smartphones is starting to slow down across China due to the saturation of this market, said an analysts located in Hong Kong. Also, even as giants including Samsung and Apple predict 2016 as a tough year for sales and are already taking precautionary measures, the company [Xiaomi] may just want to reconsider its goals too. It's a good number but falls short of their target of 80 million, and compared to erstwhile rival Huawei, it may not be enough to claim that they're the top selling Android brand.

However, other than India and China, its performance in certain markets has been nothing but lackluster, said analysts.

While Xiaomi's smartphones account for 90 percent of its revenues, the company is attempting to create an eco-system of products and services that are controlled by the smartphone in a bid to lessen its reliance on sales of smartphones though, to date, this has yet to prove viable. In December, the company signed a global licensing deal with USA chip maker Qualcomm, which will help any expansion into the us market.

A lack of patents has shackled Xiaomi's efforts in some of those regions so far - one court ruling has severely limited its pursuit of consumers in India, for instance - but the company appears to be arming itself with a patent portfolio to enable it to better compete in foreign markets. In his speech, Xiaomi founder Lei Jun said: "The past year has been extraordinarily hard". This group is open to IT Leaders, MIS & IT Managers, Network & Infrastructure Managers who share insights, discuss challenges & wins and keep abreast of cutting edge technologies.

Source: Xiaomi falls short of smartphone sales target in 2015