Xiaomi said to launch first laptop in 2016

Rumors that Chinese giant Xiaomi is working on a MacBook-clone have been floating around since last December. Now a new report claims to confirm that the company will launch its first laptop in China next year.

According to Taipei Times, Xiaomi recently tapped Inventec to produce the notebook. The new device won’t launch until the first half of 2016, the report said. It’s expected to follow a similar model as the company’s smartphones, which offer solid hardware and features at cutthroat prices.

Xiaomi already has a huge fan base in China and a few other countries where it operates. The firm mostly sells smartphones and a few other gadgets, but a new laptop could give it a whole new source of revenue. “I am upbeat about the business outlook for Xiaomi’s notebook computers,” Inventec chairman Richard Lee told Taipei Times. “The firm has more than 200 million registered smartphone users.”

It sounds like Xiaomi’s laptop will be limited to China at first, though it’s possible the new computer could get a broader launch. The company already offers some non-smartphone products in the U.S. and Europe through its online store, so perhaps this new gadget won’t be limited to just a handful of developing countries.

Xiaomi Corp. is considering the introduction of its first laptop early next year, people with direct knowledge of the matter said, opening a new front in its battle against Apple Inc. and Lenovo Group Ltd.
Xiaomi’s notebook may go on sale in the first quarter to compete with such premium computers as Apple’s MacBook Air and Lenovo’s ThinkPad, the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter is private. Xiaomi has held talks with Samsung Electronics Co. to supply memory chips, and that initial agreement may extend to providing displays, the people said.

Only five years after its founding, Xiaomi vaulted into the global smartphone industry’s top ranks by providing stylish devices with premium components at mid-range prices. Xiaomi getting into the PC business risks bringing additional cost pressures against industry leaders Lenovo, Hewlett-Packard Co. and Apple.

Supplying Xiaomi, the fourth-largest smartphone vendor, will boost Samsung’s components business as its tries to reduce reliance on providing for its own Galaxy devices.
Samsung and Xiaomi declined to comment in separate e-mails.

Lenovo dropped to a three-year low in Hong Kong trading, falling 2.5 percent to HK$6.13. Samsung rose 0.5 percent to 1,090,000 won in Seoul.
Xiaomi’s trying to carve out a spot in a rapidly shrinking market. IDC forecast in August an 8.7 percent slide in 2015 PC shipments and doesn’t expect a return to growth till 2017.