The best part about Chinese smartphones is the fact that, more often than not, they’re ridiculously affordable relative to their specs, but that doesn’t mean much to American consumers, because they’re used to having their premium devices subsidized by their wireless carriers, which allows them to buy a $750 iPhone for a mere $200. However, this has started to change over the past couple of years, which makes it significantly easier for Chinese companies like LeTV and Xiaomi to expand to the United States.
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?
