Xiaomi is reportedly planning to enter the PC market next year

With how poorly the PC market has been doing over the past few years, it’s common to see big-name PC manufacturers like ASUS and Lenovo expanding into the mobile market to make up for their shrinking sales. Xiaomi, on the other hand, is reportedly looking to do the opposite: expanding OUT of the mobile market and INTO the PC market. The company has risen to become one of the world’s top smartphone makers and continues to make billions off of the mobile market, so it’s strange to hear that sources with direct knowledge of the matter are claiming that Xiaomi plans to release it’s first-ever laptop early next year, with Samsung being one of the primary component suppliers. 

Xiaomi Corp. is considering the introduction of its first laptop early next year, people with direct knowledge of the matter said, opening a new front in its battle against Apple Inc. and Lenovo Group Ltd. Xiaomi’s notebook may go on sale in the first quarter to compete with such premium computers as Apple’s MacBook Air and Lenovo’s ThinkPad, the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter is private. Xiaomi has held talks with Samsung Electronics Co. to supply memory chips, and that initial agreement may extend to providing displays, the people said. Only five years after its founding, Xiaomi vaulted into the global smartphone industry’s top ranks by providing stylish devices with premium components at mid-range prices. Xiaomi getting into the PC business risks bringing additional cost pressures against industry leaders Lenovo, Hewlett-Packard Co. and Apple. Supplying Xiaomi, the fourth-largest smartphone vendor, will boost Samsung’s components business as its tries to reduce reliance on providing for its own Galaxy devices. Samsung and Xiaomi declined to comment in separate e-mails.