[Fnoord]

If their goal is marketshare and then profit, then step 2 is raising the price. Be it slowly (so it is less apparent to avoid bad publicity) or quick (guaranteed uproar, but only once).

An alternative theory could be their business case is related to "Xiaomi Can Silently Install Any App On Your Android Phone Using A Backdoor" [1]. One could come up with a theory their business case is related to that kind of behaviour. Ie. a front for Chinese government.

[1] https://thehackernews.com/2016/09/xiaomi-android-backdoor.ht...

[petra]

And even without being a malicious front, you can see them as part of the Chinese economic strategy, moving away from manufacturing to innovation/marketing .

And it looks quite nice: Xiaomi build a phone brand. Uses brand to become a consumer electronic start-up hub(offering startups, Chinese startups, a great supply chain, marketing, IP protection - all the hard things for those startups) as a way to rapidly scale. And they will have better access, and preference to Chinese silicon suppliers(think the esp32 , a great chip, afaik it's only inside Chinese products) rising that industry.