Photo taken on June 4, 2021 shows the interior of the Mi-store in the Electron Commercial Center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. China's tech company Xiaomi, known for its smartphones, opened its first Mi-store in Saudi Arabia on Thursday.Photo:Xinhua

In a speech marking Xiaomi's 11th anniversary, Founder and CEO Lei Jun, known as "China's Steve Jobs," set new target for the Chinese smartphone vendor's future development - aiming to become No.1 in the world arena in the next three years, an ambition followed its achievement of becoming world's No.2 smartphone brand in the second quarter of this year.

The task for Xiaomi at the moment is keeping hold of its No.2 ranking, Lei said during the annual speech given late Tuesday.

"Research companies told me that this is the first time that a Chinese company has achieved such an achievement. For the first time in history, a Chinese company's mobile phone product owns first place in a developed market like Europe. Everyone is very happy to hear such good news and feels that achieving the world's No.1 position is just at your fingertips," Lei noted.

According to the latest research from Strategy Analytics, Xiaomi topped all vendors with 25 percent market share in Europe, surpassing Samsung in terms of smartphone shipments in the second quarter of 2021, as European smartphone shipments posted strong growth.

The report came on the heels of another market research report released in July by Canalys showing that Xiaomi overtook Apple in the second quarter this year to become the world's No.2 smartphone maker for the first time with 17 percent share of worldwide smartphone shipments.

Despite recent positive news, Lei said Xiaomi should not underestimate the competitiveness of world-class giants.

"Xiaomi is still a very young company, we need to be very calm in being aware of the gap, and continue to pave a solid foundation in a steady pace," he noted.

Some industry watchers took an optimistic view of Xiaomi's future growth, saying it may not take three years to reach that goal.

A senior mobile phone industry expert, who asked to remain anonymous, told the Global Times on Wednesday that according to statistical trends produced by Counterpoint Research, if Xiaomi maintains its current growth momentum, it is very likely to become sales championship for this category of products in the second half of 2021or even the whole year. 

"And Lei's three-year goal may be completed ahead of schedule," he said.

During Tuesday's event, Xiaomi also officially launched MIX 4, the latest generation of its boundary-defying MIX series. It is the first Xiaomi smartphone ever to feature the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 888+ mobile platform for ultimate performance.

Shares of Hong Kong-listed Xiaomi edged down by 2.19 percent as Wednesday's closing at HK$26.85 ($3.45).

Global Times