Xiaomi Plans To Ditch ‘Mi’ Branding As It’s Become A Recognizable Enough Name
Image via Xiaomi
This year, Xiaomi became the world’s second-largest smartphone brand. With an impressive repertoire of smartphones to fit every desire from tech spec to budget, the company has divided its offerings into smaller “sub-brands” like Redmi and Mi.
Lei Jun, Xiaomi co-founder and CEO, previously clarified the origin of the company’s name. “Mi” stands for two things, according to him: “Mobile Internet” and “Mission Impossible.”
It seems that the company has decided that its presence is prominent enough for it to forgo some of its branding. Specifically, “Mi” will be phased out after a decade of being in use, and products will carry the Xiaomi name instead.
This change has been speculated about earlier this month, as a result of the new Mix 4 phone, which didn’t carry the usual branding fans were expecting.
It may be useful to note that although the big US market players tend to lean towards the likes of Apple, Xiaomi has been quietly building its reputation in other international markets.
As reported by XDA Developers, Xiaomi has always been a big brand in China, with many of its products available exclusively to the market there. Then, with the help of Google’s Hugo Barra, the company expanded into India, which was a key factor in its explosive success.
Xiaomi’s first products to be released outside of China were the Mi 3 and Redmi 2 smartphones. The Redmi sub-brand then went on to find huge amounts of success, significantly enhancing the brand’s global strategy.
In a statement provided to Engadget, a spokesperson for Xiaomi said that the change would “unify our global brand presence and close the perception gap between the brand and its products.” This change is scheduled to begin in Q3 of this year.
The Redmi brand is still sticking around for now, remaining as a budget option for consumers who don’t want to splash all their cash on a new phone. Additionally, it appears that Redmi will begin to be a more prominent name within the brand’s products.
“The product series naming convention—Xiaomi and Redmi—will also be applied to our ecosystem and IoT products over time,” the spokesperson added.
[via Engadget, image via Xiaomi]
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