Chinese smartphone makers may be ready to come to America

China has no shortage of smartphone brands these days. Outside of the established players like Huawei and ZTE, who are already in the US, the newer players like Xiaomi, OnePlus, and Letv have all been hesitant to launch in the United States. Xiaomi and Letv both have online stores in the US but none of their phones are available; OnePlus phones are technically available in the US but can only be purchased with an invite. Nobody has yet been willing to dive headfirst into American waters. This is not without reason – until recently the American mobile market was dominated by carrier-subsidized phone purchases. America’s major carriers offered expensive plans with the price of a decent new phone every couple of years built in. This system allowed American consumers to buy even the highest-end phones – like brand new iPhones, for example – for just a couple hundred bucks. That made it virtually impossible for China’s smartphone startups to compete. If you can get an iPhone for US$200, why take the risk on some Chinese brand you’ve never heard of?