Reports are pouring in that the Chinese market is now flooded with counterfeits of the stylish Mi Power Bank from Xiaomi. According to a report in Bloomberg the Chinese manufacturer could not reach its estimated target for power banks of 30 million. Instead, Xiaomi performed very poorly and sold less than half that amount. Key executives within the company are blaming Chinese OEMs for knocking off their products and distributing fakes in the market. It is still not clear what the counterfeit situation in India is, but considering the close proximity of the two countries it may not be wrong to assume that some counterfeits may already be available in Indian markets.
“There are many fakes. If there were no counterfeits, our sales would be double or triple. The product has been recognized by everyone.”- Lei Jun, CEO of Xiaomi
Xiaomi has witnessed tremendous growth over past five years and is currently valued at $45 billion making it the most valuable startup in the world. Xiaomi doubled revenue last year and more than tripled smartphone shipments to 61.1 million units. The Mi Power Bank devices are produced by Jiangsu, China-based Zimi Corp., one of the startups backed by Xiaomi.
Colour iPad anyone?
Ironically Xiaomi itself is known as the Apple of China. It gained media attention when some reviewers and designers commented that most Xiaomi products resemble Apple products. For example, the Xiaomi Mi3 and the Mi Pad closely resemble Apple iPhone and iPad respectively. MiUi, the company’s Android OS has also been heavily inspired by the design and elements from iOS. Xiaomi recently launched the Xiaomi Note 4G and Xiami Mi 4 in India.
Note: There’s a thread on the MIUI forum dated a year back which highlights this very problem and it also helped potential customers differentiate between the real and fake devices.
