Xiaomi is expected to launch its Mi 5C smartphone with own-developed Pinecone V670 CPU in China, according to a Chinese-language Economic Daily News report (via Digitimes). The new smartphone is expected to be released in March, at the earliest. However, for the Indian market, Xiaomi can only market smartphones equipped with Qualcomm CPUs because of patent issues. For India, the Mi 5C smartphone will feature a Snapdragon 625 CPU. The Pinecone V670 CPU was developed and will be manufactured by Beijing Pinecone Electronics, a Xiaomi subsidiary company according to the WSJ.
Xiaomi Technology is not the first smartphone vendor in China to use in-house developed CPUs, as Huawei has also developed its own CPU brand.
According to Counterpoint, for 2016 Xiaomi shipped 61 million smartphones, which was a drop of 15.6% from 2015. According to IDC, Xiaomi’s smartphone shipments in China were 41.5 million in 2016, although this only represented fifth place in the domestic smartphone market.
Analyst Comment
Reports say that the decision was made to avoid issues with supply. The use of a Qualcomm processor in India, where Xiaomi is quite successful does suggest that the company knows that it is not complying with Qualcomm patents in China. (BR)
