[jmomo]

Not to get all anti-Chinese here, because I'm not, but Xiaomi is a big-time GPL and intellectual property/license violator. Not like that's unusual with Chinese companies, but Xiaomi in particular has been publicly called out a number of times on the issue.

http://www.thepowerbase.com/2012/11/android-community-demand...

If you thought some of Samsung's early Android phones were too close to copying the iPhone, you've seen nothing. Xiaomi phones blatantly rip off design of other manufactures, especially Apple. They are not even coy about it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/05/business/global/in-china-a...

As far as the OSS comunity goes, this is probably a career limiting move by Barra right here.

[nl]

Xiaomi phones blatantly rip off design of other manufactures, especially Apple. They are not even coy about it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/05/business/global/in-china-a... .

That's NOT what the linked article says at all. It says the the founder, Lei Jun, is is positioning himself and his company as figurative heirs of Mr. Jobs by carefully cultivating a Jobsian image here, right down to his jeans and dark shirts.

It does say He is also selling millions of mobile phones that look a lot like iPhones, but they only look like iPhones in the sense they have rounded corners. If you look at a pic of a phone (eg http://p.www.xiaomi.com/zt/130718/images/m2s_26.jpg?130809) you'll see they are a lot less similar than many phones sold today - specifically the two-color shell makes it immediately obvious they aren't a complete iPhone clone.

[ZeroGravitas]

Indeed, from that shot it seems like the rumoured iPhone 5C (the C is rumoured to stand for "China") is copying the highly succesful Chinese brand Xiaomi, not the other way round.

http://www.trustedreviews.com/news/budget-iphone-5c-release-...

[Cookingboy]

I really don't want to sound arrogant or rude, but this comment really worries me a bit since it represents the kind of arrogance that's prevalent in the American tech industry. Stories like this represent a global shift of power, financial resource, and more importantly, talent. This trend is only accelerating as far as I can tell, whether people like it or not. The global competition in tech space is heating up to an unprecedented degree.

Yet not even about Android or the mobile market in general, a comment about the feeling of OSS community gets voted to top...

[cageface]

This is also a great strength of Android, IMO. Closed mobile OSes like iOS or WP8 don't give third party vendors the same opportunity to develop deep, system-level expertise that Android does. Everybody outside the parent company is essentially a software sharecropper with no real rights or understanding of internals.

So, as this balance of power shifts to Asia, it's going to be Android that reaps the benefits, not other platforms. Of course, it remains to be seen to what extent Google also benefits from this but at least they will have accomplished their goal of preventing a single company from locking down mobile and boxing their services out of that platform.

[beachstartup]

i was confused by the grandparent comment - when a "ripoff" company tries to hire innovators, they get shit on? okay...

isn't that what they're supposed to be doing?

we should at least see how this plays out, maybe he'll quit in a fit of rage because they won't listen to him. who knows.

[epoxyhockey]

I recently sat in on a meeting between one of my small-biz clients and a lower-level, and very young, employee of a Chinese company. Prior to the meeting the employee had gone on a shopping spree as evidenced by the many shopping bags accompanying him.

During the course of the meeting, it was my client that was kissing butt for a shot at getting some business in the Chinese market, and would pay this Chinese company for the privilege.

At the end of the meeting, my client quipped "don't spend too much [money here]" to which the Chinese visitor responded, "I'm Chinese, of course I spend too much."

The whole meeting was definitely a wake-up call for me, especially after hearing what came from a Chinese national in their early 20's.

EDIT: I will also note that things weren't all roses for the Chinese company trying to operate in a capitalistic fashion. There is a lot of (probably justified) paranoia that the Chinese government would come knocking and severely interrupt their business.

[kailuowang]

What do you think Hugo Barra can bring to Xiaomi? I mean as you said in the other comment, culture in Chinese tech industry is completely different from in U.S. not to mention Google. So I am curious on your opinion about this. Honestly speaking, given Xiaomi's marketing style, I wouldn't be surprised if there is a brand image consideration of this high profile hiring. What do you think?

[Cookingboy]

Brand image would definitely be important, but not for the Chinese market there. I doubt that many people in China know who Hugo is. I even know quite a few people who don't know what Google is. If I have to guess, it's for building infrastructure (connections) of Xiaomi breaking into the North American market. Xiaomi's CEO is extremely ambitious and there is no way he'd sit out of THE most profitable mobile market in the world. So he starts by making a high profile hiring first, good PR move and a practical move.

[ZeroGravitas]

From Hugo Barra's G+: "In a few weeks, I'll be joining the Xiaomi team in China to help them expand their incredible product portfolio and business globally — as Vice President, Xiaomi Global."

https://plus.google.com/u/0/+HugoBarra/posts/BzZMqRht1xQ

So expansion outside of China seems to be the reason.

[sirkneeland]

Ironically, the social network from which he posted is blocked in China.

[rickjames28]

You're probably getting a little emo about things here. I'm not sure why that comment should "really worry" you. And you're extrapolation of the story into

Stories like this represent a global shift of power, financial resource, and more importantly, talent.

is just plain wrong. If you it makes you feel any better, you're not the only one around here that makes those kinds of emo analysis.

[HowardMei]

About Link #1: The license violation issue is true in China, though I'm not sure whether Xiaomi touched kernel code or just reworked in userland.

GPL license simply does NOT work in China for two reasons. 1)IP protection is sadly ineffective due to the impaired legal system. In practice, GPL=Appache in China. 2) Consumers hate to pay for pure services without goods delivered due to misconceptions from long lasting low cost of human labor. In practice, free full version software plus charging for premium human support does not work.

These two things are changing slowly but any one interested in China market should never ignore them, especially the 2nd one. Xiaomi will be sued outside China if they violate the GPL license. That's a risk they can't ignore.

About Link #2: For a lot of overseas Chinese like me, NYTimes is notorious for holding biased views towards China. This actually undermines its credibility compared with less biased media like BBC.

I bought a Xiaomi phone for my father recently and I've been Samsung and Apple client for a long time.

IMO, Xiaomi has done a very impressive job to improve Android OS for non-geek people. One of those nice built-in features is seamless fine grain privacy/access control of each app. Another is built-in 3G traffic optimization and metering which is important because 3G data plans provide smaller quotas in China.

Xiaomi brings a lot of merits from IOS to Android not by simply copying designs. They did a good job to solve the pain points for their audiences, who are mostly first time smartphone users. They mainly compete with feature phone vendors other than Samsung or Apple before Xiaomi gains huge traction.

My father was very glad to switch to Xiaomi after my several failed attempts of replacing his beloved feature phone :)

Even I myself plan to buy a Xiaomi to replace my buggy Samsung S3 (never-rooted, less than 1 year) if it's going to release a high-end model.

[seanmcdirmid]

For a lot of foreigners in China like me, Xinhua/People's Daily/Chinadaily are notorious for holding biased views for China. This actually undermines its credibility compared with less biased media like NYTimes.

[HowardMei]

That's true ：） Most Chinese don't trust them either. That's why Weibo/Forums/SNS come to act as new media.

As for traditional media, BBC has a good reputation in my circles.

[seanmcdirmid]

Ya, the government then wonders why "rumors" are so quickly transmitted on wechat and no one trusts the official press.

I prefer the nytimes, any newspaper that gets blocked by the great firewall of china must be doing something right. The article about Xi Jinping's family using their family relationships to get rich was spot on, but then that story could be applied to any official's family. They have actual standards and refuse to be intimidated by the CCP. The BBC is too harmonious in comparison, useless to me when I need real news about the country I'm living in.

[Sagat]

What makes you think the NYTimes isn't also biased?

[seanmcdirmid]

I never claimed nytimes wasn't biased, just nowhere near as biased as Chinese news media, which is all the propaganda you would imagine in an authoritarian communist country. Chinese media is so bad, actually, they make foxnews look respectable in comparison.

[est]

> Xiaomi phones blatantly rip off design of other manufactures, especially Apple

Here is the original Xiaomi phone

http://imgur.com/a/nWsOW

It's iPhone copycat because obviously it has Round CornersⒸ.

There are tons of MIUI roms out there available for download, try it yourself and see if you can find iOS there.

[AJ007]

The parent poster links to a story that alleges licensing violations with regards to the Linux kernel. Hardly sounds like a joke to me.

[yareally]

It's more than alleged if you're into the Android modding scene. MIUI extensively rips off Cyanogenmod, contributes nothing back to them (including source, not that they have to under Apache 2.0, but they should) and also completely ignores the GPL for things like the kernel for every version of MIUI they release for any phone. Just do a quick search on XDA developers to see what I mean.

As already mentioned, their only redeeming quality is their phones are easy to mod, but they ignore licensing obligations and have as long as I can remember.

[chmike]

Licensing for what ? Using round corners ? Rectangular speaker hole on top of screen ? How original and inventive are these features ? Is that all what makes an Apple iPhone ? I mean is this copying iPhones ?

[yareally]

I'm not sure what you're referring to, but I am guessing you meant to reply to a different comment than mine? I'm referring to following software licenses (such as the GPL and the Linux Kernel) and Xiaomi has always ignored them comes to MIUI.

I could care less what phone looks like what and not even sure why it's getting so much focus. The more important issue is Xiaomi and their scoffing at the GPL when it comes to the Linux Kernel.

[icebraining]

Licensing of the Android software.

[est]

Yeah that kind of sucks. MIUI copied more CM than AOSP.

However, every Xiaomi phone can be rooted freely and you can switch to CM or whatever you want. That's one of its advertised selling point in the M1Plus phone.

[CitizenKane]

I'm not so sure. My fiancee owns a Mi Two and I've used it pretty extensively. There are some parts that really copy iOS, but most parts of the MIUI don't look or feel like iOS at all. It's a great OS and has a lot of polish to it.

[levosmetalo]

MIUI is probably the best Android based OS available. I switched to it from Cyanogen and after two years I still keep my old Desire since I can't bother to change to any other OS and then hassle with rooting it. My next phone might just come with MIUI out of the box.

[girvo]

Interestingly, this thread and my frustration with how... boring 4.3 is on my Xperia S has made me download and flash MIUI on it.

I forgot how awesome it actually is. So very well done.

[Volpe]

> ... Not like that's unusual with Chinese companies ...

So you did want to get all anti-chinese here. Your statement would have been just as valid without the 'chinese' qualification.

[Sagat]

I'd rather have a license violator than American tech companies selling my personal information or making it freely available to their government.

[jnbiche]

Do you think that Chinese companies offering web services don't share their user information with the Chinese government upon request?

If you look at my comment history, you'll see that I'm highly critical of US companies' attitude toward privacy, but it's naive to think that the same thing isn't happening in China.