Lei Jun, chairman of Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi, holds up the latest models of the Xiaomi Note at a press event in Beijing, Thursday. Pic: AP.

China’s Xiaomi takes aim at Apple with new phone

By Tech Wire Asia | 16 January, 2015

Lei Jun, chairman of Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi, holds up the latest models of the Xiaomi Note at a press event in Beijing, Thursday. Pic: AP.

BEIJING (AP) — Rising smartphone star Xiaomi is moving upmarket and taking aim at Apple.

The Chinese manufacturer on Thursday unveiled a new model that chairman Jun Lei said has processor performance comparable to Apple’s iPhone 6 but is thinner and lighter. The 16-gigabyte model starts at 2,299 yuan ($375), less than half the iPhone’s 5,288 yuan ($865) price in China.

Xiaomi, founded in 2010, passed South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co. last year as the best-selling smartphone brand in China by number of handsets sold.

The new phone could add to competition for Apple in China, a market the company says should become its biggest in coming years.