Remember when Xiaomi said it wanted to “align” itself with the iPhone when it decided to name its new flagship phones the Xiaomi 17, 17 Pro, and 17 Pro Max? Turns out, that might not have been such a great idea. This is because, according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple’s base iPhone 17 is outselling the Xiaomi 17 in China.

iPhone 17 outselling Xiaomi 17 in China

Xiaomi recently launched its new Xiaomi 17 flagship series. However, it isn’t off to a great start. According to Kuo, it appears that the base iPhone 17 is outselling the base Xiaomi flagship. The analyst also claims that Xiaomi had initially intended to ship 10 million units of its phone. However, because of the lackluster demand, the company was forced to reduce shipments by 20%.

He also states that unless Xiaomi does some aggressive pricing strategies or marketing campaigns, those numbers could drop below 8 million, which is how many units of the Xiaomi 15 series the company shipped. The company reportedly envisioned the standard model to account for 50-55% of total series shipments. Instead, weaker than expected demand means it might only make up 15-20% of the total.

It doesn’t help that for this year, Apple made its base iPhone 17 an even more compelling buy. Apple not only bumped up the display size, but gave it a faster refresh rate. It also made its display brighter and bumped its ultrawide camera from 12MP to 48MP. All the while keeping the price pretty much the same.

Apple’s resurgence in China

Kuo suggests that if demand doesn’t pick up during China’s National Day Golden Week, Xiaomi might need to cut prices on some models to stimulate sales. That’s not a great sign for a flagship series that just launched with impressive specs like Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processors and massive batteries. The timing couldn’t be worse either, as Apple has been making a comeback in China after struggling against local competitors like Huawei.

It’s worth noting that the base iPhone 17 outselling the Xiaomi 17 is specific to China for now. We don’t yet know how the phones will perform globally. But in a market where Xiaomi deliberately chose to skip the “16” naming convention to go head-to-head with Apple’s iPhone 17 series, this isn’t the start the company was hoping for.
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Source: ndroidheadlines.com