Last spring, the United States proved to the whole world that its president can cross out any large business with a stroke of the pen, as was done with Huawei. Not that the Chinese were forced to wind down their affairs for good, but that they had a hard time arguing, I think, is pointless. Not only was the company deprived of access to the US market, which brought it at least a small, but quite stable income, but it was also banned from using the developments of American enterprises. This was a good reason for many to start preparing for something similar.
Xiaomi does not exclude that the United States will impose sanctions on it, and therefore is actively preparing for this
Despite the fact that so far Xiaomi does not even have a reason to think that what happened to Huawei can happen to her, she fully admits the development of events according to such a scenario, and therefore actively prepares for yourself an alternate airfield. This is admitted by Abi Go, Product Manager Xiaomi. According to her, the company admits that something similar can happen to it, and therefore invests a fair part of its income in equipment suppliers from China, so that in case of anything it can refuse the services of American partners without any interruptions in production.
What will happen to Xiaomi under sanctions
Xiaomi do not hide that they are afraid of US sanctions and do not want to repeat the path Huawei
“We are still assessing the situation. But to date, there are no signs of an impending threat. We still work side-by-side with American companies like Qualcomm for semiconductors or Google for the Internet of Things. But in any case, if something happens in the future, we have a 'B' plan. Among other things, we invest heavily in semiconductor manufacturers from China. However, we believe that our current business strategy should not have anything to do with the decisions made by politicians. Therefore, we decided to leave everything as it is and equip our devices with only the best components, ”Guo emphasized.
It turns out that Xiaomi fears a repetition of the situation with Huawei, especially since as the company's position strengthens, such an outcome becomes more and more likely. But, on the other hand, Xiaomi is obviously doing too little to be able to survive in the event that the United States suddenly turns against it and imposes its own sanctions. After all, Huawei, unlike Xiaomi, initially had its own production of processors, which, although it helped her not to lose her face, still did not allow her to keep her position at the former level. And all because today it is not hardware technologies that play a significant role, but software ones.
Xiaomi without Android
If you refuse to use Android the company Xiaomi is completely optional, since you can continue to use the free version of the OS without any special difficulties, the lack of your own alternative to Google services can become a serious problem. After all, if the brand's smartphones are disconnected from Google Mobile Services, they simply won't be able to continue to send notifications, save a backup copy and update applications, not to mention everything else. Therefore, it would be logical for Xiaomi to start developing the Xiaomi Mobile Services project, and with it its own application store.
Am I sure Xiaomi doesn't do this? Not at all. Rather, the opposite is true. Another thing is that the Chinese are not stupid enough to publicly announce right now that they are doing an alternative to Google services. In this case, the company risks attracting unnecessary interest from the media, which will immediately trumpet that Xiaomi is under threat of sanctions, and Google, having learned that the Chinese are doing something to it counterweight, is unlikely to be happy, which will almost certainly affect their relationship. Nevertheless, Xiaomi already now admits that abandoning American developments will become a problem for her, because in this case she will have to sacrifice the quality of her products, which she does not want to do. But in case of damage to relations with the United States, she will have no other choice.