“Chinese budget smartphone maker Xiaomi unveiled on Thursday its first tablet, expanding its product lineup to directly challenge established rivals Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Apple Inc.,” Paul Carsten reports for Reuters. “The MiPad, which comes in six colours, will have a 7.9 inch screen, the same size as an iPad Mini… It comes equipped with wireless internet, front and back cameras and a built-in memory capacity of 16 gigabytes or 64 gigabytes. But it is priced cheaper than comparable iPad Mini and Samsung Galaxy Tab models at 1,499 yuan ($240) for the smaller version. The company did not say anything about a 4G version… Xiaomi lists Sharp as a supplier and said it had provided the displays for the tablet.”
“‘We wanted the hardware to come close to, or even surpass Apple’s iPad,’ Xiaomi’s founder Lei Jun said at the launch event in Beijing. Xiaomi’s flagship smartphones, which are among the fastest selling in China, resemble Apple’s iPhone,” Carsten reports. “Lei said an initial version of the tablet would be available for testing by the public in mid-June, but he declined to specify a launch date or sales targets. It was also not clear if the MiPad would be sold outside China.”
“Xiaomi said its MiPad will have a plastic case and run on its own Android-based operating system,” Carsten reports. “‘Xiaomi has a different business model than Apple or Samsung,’ said Ben Thompson, founder of Stratechery.com, a technology and strategy website. ‘Apple makes it profits on the hardware, while Xiaomi claims they will make their profits on services.'”
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MacDailyNews Take: More fake iPads – plastic fragmandroid garbage – destined for the world’s landfills.
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