Xiaomi to Remove 'Mi' Brand from Premium Phones

[Asia Economy Reporter Eunmo Koo] Xiaomi is removing the ‘Mi’ from its smartphones and putting the company name 'Xiaomi' front and center.

On the 24th (local time), the overseas developer community XDA Developers reported that Xiaomi will gradually phase out the ‘Mi’ brand starting from the third quarter of this year.

Instead of the Mi brand, Xiaomi will use ‘Xiaomi’ as its new brand name going forward. The recently released flagship product, the ‘Xiaomi Mix 4,’ is the first product to drop the ‘Mi’ brand. From now on, Xiaomi will use the Xiaomi brand for premium smartphones and the 'Redmi' brand for mid-to-low-end budget models. Furthermore, the rebranding from Mi to Xiaomi will not be limited to smartphones but will expand to smart home products, laptops, TVs, smartwatches, and more in the future.

According to Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun, Mi has two meanings: ‘Mobile Internet’ and ‘Mission Impossible.’ It represents a mobile internet company that accomplishes impossible tasks. However, as Xiaomi has recently grown into one of the world’s top smartphone brands, the company believes it is time to associate its products with the company name rather than the ‘Mi’ brand. Additionally, since products are already sold under the company name rather than the ‘Mi’ brand in China, this move also aligns the global strategy with the Chinese strategy.

Recently, Xiaomi has been rapidly increasing its market share in the global smartphone market. According to market research firm Counterpoint Research, in the second quarter of this year, Xiaomi captured a 24% market share in Europe, closely trailing Samsung Electronics (31%). This is an 11 percentage point increase from 13% in the same period last year. Looking at June alone, Xiaomi’s market share in Europe was 27.2%, surpassing Samsung Electronics (26.9%).