Xiaomi on course to sell 100 million smartphones this year

Xiaomi were the biggest winners of 2017. After a disappointing 2016, the company saw meteoric growth last year, ending the year on a high by becoming the fifth-largest smartphone producers in the world—ahead of Chinese rivals Vivo. The company will not rest on its laurels, though, as it is set to eclipse its 2017 tally this year.

Midway through last year, when the company’s monthly shipment numbers saw an upturn, company CEO Lei Jun announced that the company would attempt to sell 100 million smartphones. That wasn’t to be, though, as the company only managed to hit the 90 million mark.

The Chinese smartphone market saw a slight decline by the end of 2017, and the big local OEMs like Huawei, OPPO, Xiaomi, and Vivo have apparently decided to spread their wings globally, in order to compensate for the dwindling fortunes of the Chinese market. Huawei already has a significant presence in Europe, although the company’s attempts at entering the US market have seen numerous obstructions. Xiaomi is still making inroads into Europe, with the company launching stores in Russia, Poland, and Spain over the past few months.

According to analysts, Xiaomi has managed to sell over 10 million smartphone units in each of the first three months of the year, a figure we believe to be due to the incredibly positive reception of devices like the Mi A1, Mi Note 3, and Redmi Note 5 Pro. That shipment number in mind, we wouldn’t be surprised to see the company hit the 120 million mark this, bringing it eerily close to surpassing OPPO—an event analysts expect to happen sometime this year.