iPhone clone Xiaomi headaches over its own clones

“It is a complete misunderstanding that Xiaomi is known as iPhone clone. We’ve received feedbacks from the fan group (發燒友) of Xiaomi products and created a masterpiece from scratch, said Chief Communications Officer Li Lei at Xiaomi headquarters in Haidian District of Beijing on Sept. 15.

“Apple and Xiaomi have a common strategy of "selling single model in big quantity." That is why Xiaomi products give such impression,” added Li. “We release very few models a year. As everyone knows iPhone 4 and 5, everyone knows Xiaomi 3 and 4.”

Li continued to emphasize, “Xiaomi has grown up in China. Its operation is based on feedbacks and user experiences of Chinese customers. Xiaomi’s own OS "MIUI," developed on Aug. 16, 2010, has been improved based on the user experience feedbacks from the fan group. Thanks to their support, we were able to develop a mobile phone one year later. I should admit that there is something similar to Apple, but our company is totally different.” Li also stressed, “Xiaomi’s strong points are that its products reflect Chinese users’ unique characteristics or experiences. That is the same to other Xiaomi electronic products, including mobile phones.”

As an example of functions that reflect Chinese characteristics, Li pointed out the function that does not allow stopping recording even though a phone call comes amid recording with the mobile phone. Regarding the criticism that "if Xiaomi advances into the U.S. market, it is highly likely to be sued by Apple for infringement of intellectual copyrights," Li said. “Xiaomi doesn’t have a plan to launch its products to the U.S. market, but we’re ready to defense whichever country raises a lawsuit against us.” According to the officer, Xiaomi headquarters has a designated department called "International Affairs Department," responsible for dealing with lawsuits.

Starting from Singapore this March, Xiaomi actively pursues globalization. It has launched its products in the Philippines, India, Indonesia, Hong Kong and Taiwan. It plans to advance into 10 more countries within this year. Lee said, “The biggest problem of a fake is that it cannot guarantee the quality and also taints reputation of Xiaomi. Consumers may complain ‘How come a Xiaomi product is in poor quality,’ and give poor evaluation on the Xiaomi products.” In short, Xiaomi is also getting a clone boomerang.