Xiaomi Won’t Be Attending The Mobile World Congress 2017

In our previous blog post related to the 2017 MWC, ” What Can We Expect To See At The Mobile World Congress 2017” we introduced our readers to the product announcements and spoilers we can expect to see during the upcoming Barcelona MWC 2017. We mentioned some of the expected product announcements such as China’s upcoming Android Flagship phone, the Huawei P10, and the LG G6 Smartphone.

Another interesting fact shared was that Apple will be attending Mobile World Congress Barcelona and Nokia will also be present to announce its most powerful smartphone up to date, the Nokia P1. At the same time, however, Samsung won’t be announcing a new Android smartphone.

Besides Samsung, it seems that there will be another major Asian smartphone manufacturer that won’t be announcing any new devices at the 2017 MWC. Xiaomi, one of China’s leading electronics producers, has announced to skip the world’s largest electronics congress entirely.

Source: DroidPoin

The fact that Xiaomi will not be attending the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona came as a big surprise to the electronic industry as it was widely assumed the Chinese company would attend. The MWC is known to be the world’s largest event for the mobile industry that, with its 100,000 plus attendees, offers a great platform for electronic companies to introduce its upcoming products to the world. It was therefore expected that Xiaomi, one of China’s most innovative companies, would certainly attend and treat us with some great product teasers.

At last year’s event, Xiaomi introduced the world to the Mi5 Android Smartphone – a revolutionary device that made high-end specs available for a fraction of the price. During the 2015 MWC event, Xiaomi first raised its brand awareness in the Western market when Hugo Barra, then the head of international business development, took part in an on-stage interview – introducing the world to this back then relatively unknown Chinese tech-giant.

Source: Hugo Barra Twitter

Earlier this month Barra has announced his departure from Xiaomi – leaving behind the Chinese company after 3.5 years and moving on to Facebook where he will help the company in leading its VR efforts. The leave of Hugo Barra might be seen as one of the reasons why Xiaomi is not attending the 2017 WMC, however, it is widely understood that the primary reason for staying away is simply because the company has nothing new to show. Therefore it seems that we at Chinavasion, as well as all other smartphone lovers out there, have to be patient a bit longer before getting a peek at the upcoming Mi6 smartphone.

But no worries for Xiaomi fans all over the world. Just because the company is not attending the World Mobile Congress in Barcelona does not mean the company is going through a retreat. Recently the Chinese electronics leader has launched a new smart TV and introduced us to its future strategy at CES 2017 in Las Vegas. Also, we do understand that Xiaomi has plans to attend other major tech events outside China throughout 2017.

Source: The Indian Express

The first two months of 2017 have been challenging for Xiaomi. Besides Hugo Barra leaving the company, Xiaomi’s CEO Lei Jun admitted that the company is currently going through a period of slower growth after developing too fast the past several years. This also resulted in the fact that Xiaomi did not release its smartphone sales for the first time in its 5 year history.

Rival companies such as Huawei and Oppo rose up with their latest Android phones and replaced Xiaomi as the number one smartphone company in China. Xiaomi’s overseas internationalization process also remains uncertain at the moment. The company revealed it obtained around 1 Billion US Dollars revenue in India alone throughout 2016, however, about the remaining 20 plus countries that the company tried to enter no information was released.