The telecom industry's largest event Mobile World Congress which is going to be held next month will not only see Samsung to not announcing a new device, but also China's Xiaomi - which reportedly will skip the event entirely.
Barcelona-based MWC attracts over 100,000 attendees every year since it is one of the largest events for the global mobile industry, and has a reputation as the place to show off the latest developments in mobile. Xiaomi's decision to not making any appearances to the event is rather unexpected since it is widely assumed that Xiaomi will be there, according to TechCrunch.
At last year MWC, Xiaomi introduced its flagship smartphone - the Mi5, through a live-stream press event. It raised its visibility during 2015 delegation in the West when Xiaomi Head of International Hugo Barra took part in an interview on stage.
The reason of this could be because of Barra has announced his departure from Xiaomi after 3.5 years to join Facebook in leading its VR efforts, reported WSJ. However, TechCruch also suggests that Xiaomi does not have new devices launching during the event and that the rumors of Mi6 impending launch on MWC are wide of the mark. Previously Xiaomi has launched a new smart TV and talked strategy at CES in Las Vegas earlier this month, showing no reason to retreat or allergic to events in the West.
2017 brought a challenging start for the company, with the statement from CEO Lei Jun who admitted that the company is entering a transitional period after growing too fast, apart from the exit announced by Barra. For the first time in its five-year history, Xiaomi didn't reveal how many smartphones that it sold last year.
In 2016, rivals Huawei and Oppo were among the challengers who rose up to knock Xiaomi off the number one perch for smartphones sales in China. Overseas, it remains unclear how its internationalization is faring. Xiaomi revealed it cleared $1 billion in revenue in India, its second-largest market behind China, last year, but nothing was said of its performance in the other 20-odd countries where its phones are sold.
