Xiaomi reveals new smartphone sales data, unlikely to hit 2015 target

Xiaomi announced today that it has sold 34.7 million smartphones in the first half of 2015. Putting this into perspective, projections for Xiaomi’s 2015 smartphones sales reached as high as 100 million last year, when CEO Lei Jun made his first announcement at an IT Leadership Summit in Shenzhen. At a press event just a few months ago, Jun restated his goals for 2015, but on this occasion, he downsized his projections to somewhere between 80 million and 100 million. He also said Xiaomi hopes to pull in US$16 billion to US$32 billion this year in total revenue.

Should these figures be seen as a disappointment or are they merely a reminder of China’s ‘peak smartphone’ phenomenon? It’s important to note that Xiaomi is still the top smartphone vendor in China, based on last year’s sale volume which indicated the brand held a 12.5 percent market share. Xiaomi saw a year-on-year increase of 33 percent for the first half of this year.

Given the increasing commodification of smartphones in China, perhaps this is a sign of further fracturing and segmentation still to come. There has been talk of the segmentation of the smartphone industry for some time now, and given Apple’s strong smartphone performance in the previous quarter, many hardware vendors are now pursuing different routes to reclaim revenue dominance.

See: Samsungs new vision with its Galaxy S6 rangeIn the face of China’s changing smartphone landscape, Xiaomi is making great strides in diversifying its products and bringing more people onto its software platform. Since its initial foray into television, with the Mi TV and Mi set-top box, it now produces a swath of smart accessories from the ubiquitous fitness tracker, Mi Band, to its Wifi router-range, and even now offers a Xiaomi air purifier.

Xiaomi has no doubt witnessed the rise of competitive vendors taking cues from its business model. It now appears to be joining the likes of Baidu, Alibaba, Letv, and Tencent in pushing a multi-platform ecosystem model with multiple revenue streams.

Given its entrance into emerging markets like India and Indonesia, and the enormous success of the brand’s awareness campaigns – from various product launches to China’s Singles Day – it’s still possible for Xiaomi to see enough growth this year. The company may still hit either its US$16 billion to US$32 billion revenue target or pull a rabbit out of its hat and manage to sell 80 million phones. Given the brand’s reputation, it’s not unthinkable.