China’s Xiaomi, the world’s third-largest smartphone company, released its new smartphone 12S series on the 4th.
It features a total of three types (Xiaomi 12S, 12S Pro, and 12S Ultra), collaborating with German luxury camera company Leica. The top 12S Ultra has a huge camera module that fills about a third of the back of the smartphone. It reminds me of a high-end DSLR camera.
Xiaomi is the first to install an image sensor for a large 1-inch (2.54cm) smartphone developed jointly with Sony. Usually, the larger the size of the camera’s image sensor, the more light it receives, and the clearer the image quality can be. Some consumers say it is a “camera with a phone function.”
With the smartphone market flowing to competition for camera performance, Chinese smartphone companies are recently choosing a strategy to join hands with luxury camera companies. It is joining hands with famous brands to obtain a premium image amid “anti-China sentiment” around the world due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and border clashes between China and India.Oppo, a Chinese brand, also introduced the ‘Find X5’ series of smartphones that collaborated with Swedish camera company Hot Cellblad in February. The company is a famous camera brand used by NASA. The camera Neil Armstrong used when he landed on the moon is the company’s product. As if showing off, Oppo engraved the logo of “HASSELBLAD” on the back of the product.
This is the result of the interests of Chinese smartphone companies that want to obtain premium images like Samsung and Apple, and professional camera brands that are looking for a way to live as the camera market has rapidly shrunk. In fact, Sony recently predicted that the photo quality of smartphone cameras will surpass that of professional cameras by 2024According to China Economic Week, Xiaomi recently started producing smartphones in earnest at its DBG technology plant in Tai Nguyen, Vietnam. The entire plant site is about 200,000 square meters, and the investment is about 80 million dollars.
Xiaomi plans to export products produced at its plants to Southeast Asia such as Malaysia and Thailand in addition to Vietnam. This factory produces not only smartphones but also components such as data transmission equipment and circuit boards.
Samsung ranked first in Vietnam’s smartphone market with 34% as of the first quarter. Xiaomi came in second with 22 percent.
China Business Week said, “Xiaomi has produced smartphones in China and India. It will gain a foothold in the growing market of Vietnam and follow Samsung Electronics of Korea, which has the largest market share.”
Sophia Kim
ASIA JOURNAL
