New Tablet Competition for Samsung and Apple -- Xiaomi

Consumer Electronics

Published: May 15, 2014 6:37 am

A Chinese company will take the long shot that it can compete in a tablet market completely dominated by Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Samsung. New challenger Xiaomi has at least one advantage, which is its presence in the Chinese smartphone market. That is hardly enough for it to successfully attack a consumer electronics segment in which the top companies have been in place for years.

NextWeb reports:

Xiaomi CEO and co-founder Lei Jun took to the stage at an event in Beijing today to unveil the Mi Pad. The device is 7.9-inches, available in six colors, and it looks very much like an Apple iPad. The Mi Pad sports a 2048 x 1536 screen — from Sharp and Youda — and is powered by a 2.2 Ghz Tegra K1 processor, making it the first tablet to use the Nvidia processor.

And:

The device includes 2GB RAM, a 16GB ROM, and will support up to 128GB via a memory expansion card. It is equipped with an eight-megapixel camera on the back and a five-megapixel camera on the front.

The Mi Pad will be retailing from 1499 yuan ($240) for a Wifi-only 16 GB version, while the 64GB is 1699 yuan (around $273). Xiaomi did not mention a cellular (or 4G) version of the tablet, and neither did the company confirm a hard launch date for the device.

While Xiaomi may have financial resources, its name is barely known among global consumers. It has not had the decades of brand investment that Apple and Samsung have. It also does not have a relationship with consumer electronics retailers and wireless carriers. This puts the company at an insurmountable disadvantage.

Xiaomi can join the long list of companies, which includes Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) and Barnes & Noble Inc. (NYSE: BKS), that have tried to gain market share in the tablet business. None has succeeded, and that will not change.

READ MORE: Will the iPad Survive?

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