For a short period of time, I was wrong about Xiaomi. I was wrong because I thought the company would innovate. I thought the company was serious about what it does. I thought so because I saw a good man from Google join Xiaomi. But then, I was wrong. I was wrong about their innovation and their strategy to get more users.
Xiaomi’s latest offering, the MiPad, is something that proved that they also follow the I-also-copy-Apple-for-a-living bandwagon. The MiPad is nothing but the iPad Mini with the colors of iPhone 5c. Yes. The same device that Apple made for markets like China.
Xiaomi has been accused of copying Apple with the latest release of the device. And interstingly, the company’s CEO, Lei Jun admitted publicly that the device they unveiled might surpass or come close to the iPad Mini.
As he mentioned, right from the configuration to the look of the device, it’s strikingly similar to the iPad Mini. It has the same display size as that of the iPad Mini and even the display resolution is exactly the same. Is this called the pixel-by-pixel copying?
It doesn’t end here. The copying goes to the level of designing the website for the product. Xiaomi has made sure that there is no difference between Apple’s iPad Mini website and their’s.
The only thing that is different is the pricing of the device. If you have been following the company for a while, Mr. Lei Jun has also been copying Steve Jobs’s dressing sense for a while.
Good job Xiaomi. We can’t wait to see products like these in stores. For now, the MiPad is available only in China. But the company is planning for an international expansion this year.