Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi more than doubles sales as it begins international expansion

Samsung, HTC and Motorola are likely to be looking a little nervously over their shoulders as Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi more than doubled its year-on-year sales. The company announced (via TNW) that it sold 26.1M phones in the first half of this year, more than it sold in the whole of 2013.

These are impressive sales for a company which sold its first smartphone just three years ago, and whose sales were initially limited to China. Its growth has been fuelled by expansion into Singapore, Malaysia, India and the Philipines, with the company now eyeing up Latin America as its next market … 

Xiaomi’s international expansion has been led by former Google VP Hugo Barra.

CEO Lei Jun said that the company’s revenues of CNY33B ($5.3B) were up 149 percent year-on-year, and that it had increased its forecast sales for the year from 40M to 60M handsets. He said that he expects the company to hit 100M sales in 2015.

Xiaomi started with cheap-and-cheerful devices, but is now known for high-spec phones priced below the market leaders. Its flagship handset is the Mi 3, and it announced its first tablet, the cheekily-named Mi Pad, in May.