Xiaomi Note: A touchstone for Xiaomi’s entry into the mid-to-high-end market

Although I had a hunch that Xiaomi would not release the Mi 5 before the conference, I still had some expectations in my heart. What if? But when I entered the Xiaomi conference venue, the big "Mi Note" sign instantly shattered my luck. Xiaomi already has Redmi and Redmi Note in the 1,000 yuan price range, and the flagship Mi 4 in the 1,000-2,000 yuan price range. Why launch a new flagship Mi Note? What is its market positioning?

The Xiaomi Note, with its double-curved glass front and back, is 0.15mm thinner, 0.2mm narrower, 3mm shorter, and 11g lighter than the iPhone 6 Plus, and its screen is larger than the iPhone 6 Plus. At the beginning, Lei Jun compared the Xiaomi Note with the iPhone 6 Plus, which was completely different from Xiaomi's previous press conferences. I also felt that something was wrong, but I couldn't put my finger on it. Until the configuration of the Xiaomi Note came out, it had a 2.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor and 3GB of memory; dual SIM dual standby dual 4G supporting China Mobile 4G and China Unicom 4G; and a 5.7-inch Sharp/JDI full HD retina screen. This configuration was far superior to the Xiaomi 4, so it was definitely out of the question to buy it within 2,000 yuan. Sure enough, the price was announced, 2,299 yuan. At this time, my first impression was: it was too high! As for why, I will explain it to you later.

When I thought that was all, Lei Jun played a "surprise" and launched the Xiaomi Note top version. Its configuration is: 2560*1440 pixel 2K resolution Sharp/JDI screen; equipped with the most powerful 8-core 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor launched in China, equipped with Adreno 430 graphics processor; 4GB LPDDR4 RAM; 64GB eMMC 5.0 ROM; supports LTE-CAT9 standard with a maximum FDD downlink speed of 450Mbps. The price is 3299 yuan. Both the top version and the ordinary version are equipped with the same 13 million rear camera and no protrusion at all. The other two models are equipped with Xiaomi's newly launched HiFi system.

Xiaomi Note, a regular version and a premium version, are priced at 2299 and 3299 respectively. The two models cleverly cover the 2000 and 3000 markets, which are the hottest domestic mobile phone markets. These two markets should be relatively unfamiliar to Xiaomi, because its mainstream price is still below 2000. I mentioned above that when I heard that Xiaomi Note was priced at 2299, my first reaction was "too high". In fact, everyone present may have this idea. Of course, this is related to Xiaomi's previous surprises at press conferences. Mi fans have been accustomed to the ultra-high configuration and ultra-low price model. Now that it has suddenly crossed the 2000 red line, it will give Mi fans an unacceptable gap in their hearts.

The Xiaomi team should have anticipated the gap between Mi fans, and the mission of Xiaomi Note is to ease the psychological gap between Mi fans. Among all Xiaomi's product lines, there has never been a Note version, and some are just conventionally named 1s and 2s. Therefore, the author boldly speculates that Xiaomi Note is a touchstone for Xiaomi's brand premium ability. In other words, Xiaomi urgently needs to get out of the price quagmire and improve its own brand premium ability, but it lacks full confidence in the market. At this time, it needs a new product to test the market's reaction, and Xiaomi Note is undoubtedly the best choice.

On the other hand, among domestic mobile phone brands, brands like OPPO and vivo have achieved high premiums by making their own unique features to the extreme, which is exactly what Xiaomi lacks. So we can see that this time Xiaomi Note tried to add HiFi system to improve the music experience of the phone, and there is a trend of developing special features. Different from other domestic mobile phones trying to use sub-brands to segment the market, Xiaomi may be trying to use product lines with different attributes to meet the needs of different Mi fan groups to achieve high premiums.

Of course, at the end, we have to mention the Xiaomi ecosystem. At the beginning of this press conference, Lei Jun gave a simple diagram, that is, all smart devices in the future home can be remotely controlled with a Xiaomi mobile phone. To this end, Xiaomi has developed a universal smart module and provided it to all manufacturers at cost price. A huge Xiaomi ecological map has been looming. From the cooperation with Midea, we can also get a clue that Xiaomi's ecological construction has reached a certain scale and it is time to realize the ecological value. And it is precisely at this time that Xiaomi has the confidence to get rid of high cost performance and pursue high premium. As for the market feedback, let's wait and see the report card of Xiaomi Note.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.