Xiaomi Determined to Take on Apple in ‘War of Life and Death’

Apple faces competition from many different brands all offering Android alternatives, but Xiaomi looks to be the most determined to beat it in the high-end phone market.

Xiaomi chief executive and founder Lei Jun has said the company wants to benchmark against Apple in terms of both product and experience and become China’s dominant high-end brand within three years, reads a new report from South China Morning Post.

Jun noted in a Weibo post earlier this week that in order to continue to grow in the future they had to enter a “war of life and death” with their competitors in the high-end of the smartphone market; a market that Apple absolutely rules.

Jun stated on Chinese social media Weibo that the company will specifically focus on the high-end segment of the smartphone market to directly compete against Apple. Since Huawei is out of the equation, Xiaomi is planning to make sure that it fills that void. The company wants to become the world’s largest smartphone vendor within three years.

Competing with and beating Apple means producing smartphones that outperform the iPhone in all areas, so Xiaomi is investing $16 billion USD in research and development over the next five years. Even so, it’s an uphill battle the company is facing. Xiaomi sales did surpass Apple’s briefly last year, but Apple is currently the world’s largest smartphone vendor followed by Samsung, Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo.

Xiaomi’s desire to be the top brand is helped by the fact it isn’t on the US blacklist anymore. Being able to ship highly-desirable features, such as the ability to recharge a phone in eight minutes, will also help if the company can use those R&D billions effectively to keep producing them.