Snapdragon 820 powered Xiaomi Mi 5 rumored for December 3rd launch

Xiaomi has had a few opportunities to launch its next flagship smartphone, the Mi 5, this year, but the handset has remained elusive so far. The latest rumor is now pointing to a possible December 3^rd announcement, while a new Mi Band could be unveiled next week.

According to the tipster, the Xiaomi Mi 5 will be powered by Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 820 processor. The chip isn’t expected to appear in devices until 2016 but there’s nothing to stop companies announcing phones before then. The rumor also states that Qualcomm may officially launch its latest mobile chip on November 20^th. Qualcomm has gradually been dripping out little pieces of information about its chip over the past couple of months.

See also: Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 said to be 50% stronger than the Samsung Exynos 742068

Other rumored specifications for the Xiaomi Mi 5 include a 5.3-inch QHD (2560×1440) display, 4GB of RAM, a 16 megapixel rear camera, 3,030mAh battery, and either 16GB or 64GB of internal storage, but without a microSD card slot. A different report also suggests that Xiaomi may opt for MediaTek’s Helio X20 chip, as the Snapdragon 820 may not be available for a while yet.

Moving on, a separate source has suggested that Xiaomi may launch a successor to its Mi Band next week. The new device is said to incorporate a heart sensor this time around and could cost CNY 99 (approximately Rs. 1,050 or USD$16).

We’ll be sure to keep our eyes peeled for additional Mi 5 rumors and details in the coming weeks.

Xiaomi Redmi 2 and Mi 4 headed to Africa

Xiaomi is to continue its overseas expansion into Africa as it seeks to offset its slowing home Chinese market where it faces increased competitions from companies such as Apple and Huawei, with the latter believed to have recently overtaken Xiaomi at the top of the Chinese market.

A large part of Xiaomi’s success is down to the company’s online-based direct-to-consumer sales channels, which cuts out distributor and retail partners costs and ensures devices are available at the lowest price as possible. However, in Africa, the company will be passing a range of functions over to a distributor, which suggests that Xiaomi is struggling to replicate its sales model in overseas markets.

The company said today that it has entered a distribution partnership with Mobile in Africa Group to sell the Redmi 2 and Mi 4 smartphones in South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria, beginning later this month. Whereas it relies on the online model at home, Xiaomi will pass on the importation, logistics, marketing and support for Xiaomi devices to MIA Group and the handsets are expected to be sold through operator partners, websites and retailers throughout the three countries.

Tough Indian market means Xiaomi may miss sales target

Xiaomi has been one of the fastest growing smartphone companies for successive quarters and pitched a lofty sales target of 100 million unit this year back at the start of 2015. However, the Chinese smartphone manufacturer is thought likely to miss this target by quite a margin, raising concerns about the company’s future growth prospects.

Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun already scaled back this target to 80 million phones in March, but even this figure began to look in doubt after the company announced that it had sold 34.7 million smartphones come the first half of 2015.

The latest estimate from market research firm Trendforce suggests that Xiaomi will sell 70 million phones this year. While still a gain on 2014’s 60 million sales, it’s quite a long way from Xioami’s initial expectation for the year. Canalys research expects that Xiaomi’s Q3 sales in 2015 actually dropped year-on-year, a first for the company.

This news comes despite Xiaomi entering the Indian smartphone market, which was expected to give the company a substantial sales boost. However, saturation in its home territory of China and the nature of the highly competitive Indian market has created a difficult environment for the company. Xiaomi has not had quite the major impact on India that perhaps had been expected, the company is currently sitting with less than the 4 percent of the market that it grabbed when it first entered India. Instead, Chinse rivals such as Lenovo and local Indian manufacturers have secured larger shares of the market.

Xiaomi’s expansion plans could still prove key to the company’s future growth. The company has not yet made a move on many major global markets yet, with Europe and much of Asia still relying on import retailers to try out Xiaomi’s products. Talk is also increasingly turning to the company’s eventual US launch, with a handset also spotted at the FCC recently too. Furthermore, Xiaomi is increasingly moving into new areas of consumer electronics, which could help the company withstand any slowdown on the mobile market.

See also: Redmi 2 Pro passes through the FCC, sparks speculation about Xiaomi’s US launch7

Despite a slowdown this year, Xiaomi still has plenty of room left to manoeuvre and the firm is still growing. But even China’s latest mobile darling isn’t immune to the highly competitive nature of the low cost smartphone market.