an advertisement . please help improve it by removing promotional content and inappropriate external links and by adding encyclopedic content written from a neutral point of view . august 2016 learn how and when to remove this template message coordinates 39 55 32 n 116 26 30 e 39.9255 n 116.4416 e 39.9255 ; 116.4416 xiaomi inc. native name type private industry consumer electronics computer hardware founded 6 april 2010 ; 6 years ago 2010 04 06 founder lei jun headquarters haidian district beijing china area served selected markets list china hong kong taiwan singapore malaysia philippines india indonesia israel brazil united states european union turkey nepal key people lei jun ceo lin bin president hugo barra 1 vice president products mobile phones smartphones tablet computers smart home devices revenue us 20 billion 2015 number of employees approximately 8 100 2 website xiaomi global xiaomi mainland china xiaomi hong kong xiaomi taiwan xiaomi singapore xiaomi malaysia xiaomi philippines xiaomi india xiaomi indonesia xiaomi brazil xiaomi chinese literal meaning foxtail millet transcriptions standard mandarin hanyu pinyin xi om ipa i a u mi yue cantonese jyutping siu2 mai5 xiaomi inc. 3 chinese mandarin i a u mi listen chinese ; pinyin xi om k j literally millet technology ; 4 english pronunciation ia mi or i a mi is a privately owned chinese electronics company headquartered in beijing . 4th 5 largest smartphone maker . xiaomi designs develops and sells smartphones mobile apps laptops and related consumer electronics . 6 since the release of its first smartphone in august 2011 xiaomi has gained market share in mainland china and expanded into developing a wider range of consumer electronics including a smart home iot device ecosystem . 7 8 9 10 the company s founder and ceo is lei jun china s 23rd richest person according to forbes . the company sold over 60 million smartphones in 2014 . 11 the company has over 8 000 employees mainly in mainland china india malaysia 12 and singapore and is expanding to other countries such as indonesia the philippines and brazil . 13 14 according to idc in october 2014 15 xiaomi was the third largest smartphone maker in the world following samsung and apple inc. and followed by lenovo and lg . xiaomi became the largest smartphone vendor in china in 2014 having overtaken samsung according to an idc report . 16 at the end of december 2014 xiaomi became the world s most valuable technology start up after it received us 1.1 billion funding from investors making xiaomi s valuation more than us 46 billion . 17 xiaomi entered the indian market in july 2014 and since then expanded rapidly in india . earlier xiaomi used to sell exclusively on flipkart until it announced its partnership with both amazon.com and snapdeal on 7 april 2015 . this is seen as a bid by the smartphone manufacturer to expand its retail base in india . it has also teamed up with airtel store and the mobile store to sell some of its selected devices . later in q1 2015 it started its own store and stopped selling its accessories to online stores . on its first anniversary in india it launched its own mi store app . on august 11 2015 it started its first factory in sricity andhra pradesh in a partnership with foxconn . 18 contents 1 etymology 2 history 3 business model 4 products 4.1 laptop 4.1.1 mi notebook air 4.2 mobile phones 4.2.1 mi series 4.2.1.1 mi series devices 4.2.1.2 mi note series 4.2.1.2.1 mi note series devices 4.2.1.3 redmi series 4.2.1.3.1 redmi series devices 4.2.1.3.2 redmi note series devices 4.3 other miui based devices 4.3.1 mipad 4.3.2 other devices table 4.4 miui operating system 4.5 miwifi network router 4.6 mi tv smart tv line 4.7 mibox set top box 4.8 micloud cloud storage service 4.9 mitalk messaging service 4.10 mipower bank external battery 4.11 mi band fitness monitor & sleep tracker 4.12 smartbands and smartwatches specifications 4.13 smartwatch 4.14 mi personal transport 4.14.1 electric bikes 4.14.2 electric scooters 4.14.3 ninebot mini scooter sports protector set black 4.15 smart home products 4.15.1 blood pressure monitor 4.15.2 air purifier 4.15.3 yi smart webcam 4.15.4 yi action camera 4.15.5 mi smart scale 4.15.6 mi water purifier 4.15.7 smart home kit 4.15.8 ninebot mini 4.15.9 smart rice cooker 4.15.10 robotic vacuum 4.16 drones 5 recognition 5.1 guinness record achievement 5.2 cafe killer 6 controversies 6.1 comparisons with marketing of apple inc. 6.2 state administration of radio film and television issue 6.3 hugo barra 6.4 privacy 6.5 sales numbers 6.6 ban in india 7 references 8 external links etymology edit xiaomi is the chinese word for millet . 19 in 2011 its ceo lei jun suggested there are more meanings than just the millet and rice . 20 he linked the xiao part to the buddhist concept that a single grain of rice of a buddhist is as great as a mountain suggesting xiaomi wants to work from the little things instead of starting by striving for perfection 20 while mi is an acronym for mobile internet and also mission impossible referring to the obstacles encountered in starting the company . 20 21 he also stated that he thinks the name is cute . 20 in 2012 lei jun said that the name is about revolution and being able to bring innovation into a new area . 22 xiaomi s new rifle processor 23 has given weight to several sources linking the latter meaning to the communist party of china s millet and rifle revolutionary idiom 24 25 during the second sino japanese war . 26 27 28 29 history edit further information timeline of xiaomi xiaomi was co founded by eight partners on 6 april 2010 . in the first round of funding institutional investors included temasek holdings a singaporean government owned investment company the chinese venture capital funds idg capital and qiming venture partners 30 and mobile processor developer qualcomm . 31 on august 16 2010 xiaomi officially launched its first android based firmware miui . 32 the xiaomi mi1 smartphone was announced in august 2011 . it was shipped with xiaomi s miui firmware which is based on android and resembles samsung s touchwiz and apple s ios . the device could also be equipped with stock android . 33 in august 2012 xiaomi announced the xiaomi mi2 smartphone . the phone was powered by qualcomm s snapdragon s4 pro apq8064 a 1.5 ghz quad core krait chip featuring with 2 gb of ram and the adreno 320 gpu . 34 the company said on september 24 2013 that the company had sold over 10 million mi2 devices over the preceding 11 months . 35 mi 2 smartphones were sold by wireless phone vendor mobicity in australia europe new zealand the uk and the us . 36 on september 5 2013 xiaomi ceo lei jun announced plans to launch an android based 47 inch 3d capable smart tv 37 which will be assembled by sony tv manufacturer wistron corporation of taiwan . 38 the company explained the choice as to take advantage of wistron s skill as a supplier of sony . 39 in september 2013 xiaomi announced its mi3 phone with a version powered by the snapdragon 800 msm8974ab and another by nvidia s tegra 4 chipset . 40 a 2.3 ghz quad core krait chip featuring with 2 gb of ram and the adreno 330 gpu . 41 on september 25 2013 xiaomi announced plans to open its first service center in beijing . 42 by october 2013 xiaomi was reported as the fifth most used smartphone brand in china . 43 in 2013 it sold 18.7 million smartphones 44 and 26.1 million in the first half of 2014 . 45 xiaomi mi 4i was the first xiaomi phone to see its initial release outside of china in 2014 xiaomi announced its expansion outside china with their first stop in singapore . the international headquarters which will coordinate all activities including future product launches in the region will also be set up there . 46 xiaomi s redmi and mi3 phone were released in singapore on february 21 and march 7 2014 . 47 48 on march 7 xiaomi mi3 batches sold out within 2 minutes of the opening day sale in singapore . 49 following singapore the company opened in malaysia philippines and india 50 and had plans to enter indonesia thailand russia turkey brazil and mexico in the following months . 51 on march 17 2014 redmi note phablet known as hongmi note in some asian markets was announced by xiaomi ceo lei jun. the redmi note has a 5.5 inch hd display with ogs technology and an octa core processor from mediatek . 52 there are two variants of the redmi note one with 1 gb of ram and 8 gb of internal storage ; and the other with 2 gb of ram and 16 gb of internal storage . it was made available for pre order on march 19 exclusively through a mobile application from tencent . 53 in april 2014 xiaomi purchased the internet domain mi.com for a record us 3.6 million the most expensive domain name ever bought in china replacing xiaomi.com as the official xiaomi domain . 54 in q2 2014 xiaomi shipped 15 million devices 14 percent of china s market while samsung shipped slightly more than 13 million . 55 by july 2014 it had sold 57.36 million phones . 56 in november 2014 xiaomi said it would invest us 1 billion in television content building . 57 in december 2014 xiaomi completed a round of equity financing led by hong kong based technology fund all stars investment limited a fund run by former morgan stanley analyst richard ji 58 59 raising over us 1 billion with a valuation of more than us 45 billion making it one of the most valuable private technology companies in the world . 60 in april 2015 xiaomi announced it would make its mi devices available through two of india s major e commerce sites and through offline retailers for the first time . 61 on 23 april 2015 xiaomi ceo lei jun and vp hugo barra came together to announce a new telephone named mi 4i in india the first phone to be launched in india before any other country . mi band was launched in the same event . on 30 june 2015 xiaomi announced it expansion into brazil with the launch of locally manufactured redmi 2 the first time the company sells a smartphone outside asia or assembles one outside china . 62 on 24 february 2016 xiaomi launched the mi5 with qualcomm snapdragon 820 . it has a power efficient 5.15 inch hd 1080p display with a 16 led backlight technology giving a picture of brightness 600 nits . there are models in black white and gold cases and available storage of 32 gb 64 gb and 128 gb . on 10 may 2016 xiaomi launched the mi max with qualcomm snapdragon 650 652 processor . it has a power efficient 6.4 inch fullhd 1080p display with 342ppi 4850 mah battery 4 gb of ram 16 mp back facing camera a 5 mp front facing unit and a fingerprint sensor . 63 64 xiaomi later on launched the mi max in india on 30 june 2016 . 65 in july 2016 chinese artists liu shishi wu xiubo and liu haoran became the first ambassadors of xiaomi s redmi series in china . 66 business model edit a xiaomi exclusive service centre for customer support in kuala lumpur . a selected range of products is on display but purchase can only be made online . xiaomi s mascot a bunny called m t mi bunny . in selling the xiaomi smartphone xiaomi employs a strategy very unlike other smartphone makers such as samsung and apple . lei jun xiaomi ceo