Xiaomi: the saturating machine

Smartphones Saturate the market The success of Xiaomi The limitsComments

Xiaomi has always presented a lot of smartphones, but never with such frenzy as during the month of March 2021. The brand has made market saturation a profitable strategy, but which also has potential limits.

How Xiaomi saturated the smartphone market // Source: Frandroid

The word "saturate" is a transitive verb of the first group. “Provide […] something up to an excessive quantity or level”, reads the definition in the Larousse dictionary. This explanation perfectly suits the strategy that Xiaomi has been pursuing for years and that the month of March that we are now leaving behind has symbolized us well.

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Indeed, between March 1 and March 31, 2021, Xiaomi presented more than ten smartphones. Realize! Some brands can't even claim to release that much in a full year.

The Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro // Source: Arnaud Gelineau – Frandroid

These announcements in spades show how determined the Chinese brand is to drown the mobile phone market under its wave of devices.

We will see together why this saturation strategy is effective, but also that it can backfire on Xiaomi.

Xiaomi smartphones announced in March

Before going any further, it is good to highlight the plethora of smartphones made official by Xiaomi in the month of March alone. Nothing will do this better than a good old bulleted list:

As you can see, the list is quite long. And again, we're not mentioning the Black Shark 4 and Black Shark 4 Pro gaming smartphones here that were also unveiled this month – that brand is largely under the umbrella of Xiaomi.

As a reminder, the Redmi family is geared towards finding the best value for money and the Poco range is above all focused on the power of its devices.

The Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra // Source: Xiaomi

The versions of the Mi 11 come to expand the brand's offer on the high end, with a very promising Mi 11 Ultra in the photo, a Pro version reserved for China and Lite models which all the same have more modest technical sheets.

Next is Xiaomi's first foldable smartphone. By presenting the Mi Mix Fold, the Chinese manufacturer is showing off its know-how.

Official render of the Xiaomi Mi Mix Fold // Source: Xiaomi

His device, whose format is similar to a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2, has the particularity of carrying a liquid lens and a Surge C1 house chip dedicated to photographic processing.

Xiaomi attracts attention

All these smartphone releases necessarily lead to press articles and tests in specialized media such as Frandroid. Added to this are communication campaigns, sometimes really intense on social networks and regular promotions that Xiaomi is very fond of.

The back of the Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 // Source: Arnaud Gelineau for Frandroid

In other words, the builder occupies the land massively. Xiaomi wants to overwhelm, flood, saturate the smartphone market, because it allows several things. On the one hand, it helps to make the brand known. Today, still many people outside of China have never consumed Xiaomi products, but this name is no longer unknown to them and it is already a great victory for the firm which still needed to go through the import it only a few years ago.

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On the other hand, it gives consumers a pleasant feeling of freedom from all the choices available to them, in almost all price segments. So, whatever the budget of someone looking for a new smartphone, there is bound to be a Xiaomi device to consider.

Xiaomi's new logo, a little more rounded than before

Ultimately, and this is the manufacturer's most important objective, all these efforts make it possible to eclipse the competition. When the article you read, your entourage, the YouTubers you follow or the seller in your electronics store tell you about Xiaomi, it's so much less time to devote to other brands.

Recall that in March there were also other important smartphones such as the Oppo Find X3 Pro, the OnePlus 9 Pro or the Samsung Galaxy A52 5G. But by taking center stage at this point, Xiaomi hopes to make you forget about these other models.

A strategy that works

Xiaomi is on track to sustain this strategy, simply because it works. The boss of the company, Lei Jun, thus evoked a “commercial miracle” during his Mega Launch conference on March 29.

The businessman was indeed pleased to see Xiaomi become the third largest smartphone manufacturer in the world in 2020 despite a very difficult context due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It even announced growth of 19.4%.

Lei Jun presenting on stage the very good results of Xiaomi // Source: Xiaomi

This good dynamic of Xiaomi is also observed in France where the brand continues to be a hit.

To go furtherIn Europe, Xiaomi is doing well in a sluggish smartphone market

We cannot therefore say with certainty that Xiaomi will bring us back to live months as intense as March, but this possibility cannot be ruled out. We think in particular of October, which is traditionally very busy with news in the world of tech.

Infinite ambition, but limited strategy

Xiaomi's strategy is paying off today, but one wonders if it will always remain so. Already, the brand is clearly not immune to the component shortage plaguing the industry. This could increase supply prices.

More generally, these repeated announcements could end up disinteresting the public. For the latter, it is indeed becoming complicated to find your way around in an ever larger Xiaomi catalog and therefore potentially generating confusion.

The Xiaomi Mi Store on the avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris // Source: Frandroid

Finally, the environmental issue can also be addressed. Producing smartphones pollutes a lot. However, announcing so frequently new, ever more flashy models is enough to encourage consumers to renew their devices too quickly.

To go furtherWhy France Insoumise wants to ban ads for smartphones

Except that Xiaomi wants to give itself a slightly greener image. During his presentation, Lei Jun spent some time extolling the merits of the brand new eco-responsible Mi Eco Bag.

The eco-responsible bag Mi Eco Bag // Source: Xiaomi

We do not doubt the durable and robust aspect of this accessory, but this initiative seems very ridiculous when, in the same month, the brand launches a dozen new smartphones.

At a time when the climate law is being debated in the National Assembly and measures such as the repairability index have been put in place, it would be interesting to see a player as major as Xiaomi take advantage of its popularity to raise awareness of eco-responsible behaviors.

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