The initial sales results of Xiaomi’s new 17-series smartphones have “exceeded expectations” so far, according to company founder, chairman and CEO Lei Jun in a Tuesday post on the Chinese microblogging platform Weibo.
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Beijing-based Xiaomi launched its 17-series smartphones last month, two weeks after Apple introduced its iPhone 17 models.
In a separate Weibo post on Tuesday, Xiaomi’s smartphone business president, Lu Weibing, apologised for the “insufficient stock” of the company’s new flagship handset in the market, which has inconvenienced buyers. On October 2, Lu said more than 1 million units of the Xiaomi 17 had been sold a week after it was released, which surpassed the previous series’ performance.
The latest posts from Xiaomi’s senior executives reflected the company’s confidence in its sharpened focus to compete in premium-priced smartphones, handsets that cost more than US$600, against rivals Apple and Huawei Technologies.
At last month’s product launch, Lei touted that the Xiaomi 17 series already “surpassed the iPhone 17 series in many areas”. That included the latest models’ thin design and a new imaging system, suitable for backlight photography, that was developed through a partnership with German optical giant Leica.
The senior Xiaomi executives lauded the promotional and marketing efforts behind the 17 series in spite of some analysts’ negative sales projections.