[Opinion] Xiaomi: The Company that Made an iPhone X Clone, Now With an OnePlus7 Pro Clone

After the recent legal issues involving Huawei in the US, many have started to ask themselves to what extent Chinese smartphone companies are copying not only from one another, but also from the western world. When taking a look into this conversation however, it’s impossible to leave one major company behind: Xiaomi.

With smartphones that range from the MI8 (A blatant attempt at bringing the best of the iPhone X into the budget market), and the more recent K20 Pro (The company’s take on the One Plus 7 Pro), it is fair to say that Xiaomi has had an extensive history implementing ideas from other manufacturers into their own products.

I must make it clear however, I am in now ways suggesting that the company only has derivative ideas up its sleeve, in fact, Xiaomi has proved time and time again that it can innovate before anyone else. With the Xiaomi Mi Mix, Xiaomi not only stepped up the standards for what was then considered a premium phone, but basically started the bezeless trend that we see today. As if that wasn’t enough, with the Xiaomi Mi A2, Xiaomi brought not only an unique design, but a slew of features ranging from the capable processor to the potent cameras that were simply not seen in the price-range before.

Yet in many other ways, the company has also proven time and time again that copying the competition can be a great strategy. With the company’s most recent flagship, the MI9, Xiaomi has brought many design features that merge both the latest iPhone and the Huawei P30 Pro into a singular device. The company also has had a history with implementing certain technologies way after the competition, yet still announce them as ground-breaking. A great example of this would be the tried and true wireless charger, a technology that by the time the company finally got around to it with the Mix 2s, it had already become standard with most manufacturers.

When answering whether or not this is a good or bad thing, one must first consider the one aspect that all Chinese companies share in common: Their mission to deliver higher quality devices year by year, all whilst slowly decreasing their entry price point.

If this is to be taken from a manufacturing standpoint, it is cheaper, and safer to manufacture a technique that has already been tested by someone else, than to develop a brand new one. It’s through this strategy that companies like Xiaomi start being slowly forced to handpick what features truly matter, making cuts on areas such as the device’s uniqueness in order to meet the already established expectation for lower costs set by the Southeast Asian market.

Furthermore, in a company so focused about reaching wider audiences, as is the case with almost all Chinese manufacturers, creating unique designs may be seen as a way to distance possible consumers. Whilst technology enthusiasts may enjoy a device that doesn’t look like every other in the shelf, the average consumer may find comfort knowing that their latest budget device is somewhat similar to the latest iPhone they have most likely heard something about.

It must be made clear however, that Xiaomi is far from the only smartphone brand bringing features of its rivals into its own devices. In some cases, one may argue that a lot of Apple’s technology, from the dual camera setup to the OLED screen, were all overdone on the Android side before finally being implemented by the Cupertino giant. Even in the Chinese market, with companies like Oppo and Vivo introducing extremely similarly specced fast chargers around the same time frame, one can see what many now refer to as “ripping off” being done first handedly.

There’s also a point to be made that the politics behind this phenomena are where the issue lies. With IP infringement, and other law-breaching conducts being found in the modern smartphone industry, it’s hard to say that it is a fair game. In fact, if proper international laws, and regulations are ever to be seen in this industry, consumers may start to see more unique phones as patented technologies become harder to gain access to. This is an issue that believe it or not, impacts most modern smartphone companies, as reports of Huawei spies in Apple’s headquarters were published during February of this year.

But despite what politics may sway, this just adds more interesting flame on the technological side of things. On one hand, the extremely fast advancement of the budget market can be mostly attributed to this copying phenomena, as previously premium-exclusive features get overdone to the point where they are simply not too unique, losing value not only in the consumer’s eye, but in a manufacturing standpoint as well. Yet just as much as this loss of value can benefit the consumer, it ultimately results in products that could have been unique losing their chance due to increasingly more fierce competition - leading the smartphone industry to slow lose the innovative flair it once had.