Credit: David Imel / Android Authority
- Xiaomi is reportedly aiming to ship between 240 million and 300 million smartphones in 2021.
- It’s believed that the latter target likely won’t be achieved due to supply chain constraints.
Xiaomi has enjoyed a stellar 2020 thus far, owing to the combination of the COVID-19 pandemic, Huawei’s US-induced slide, and a focus on new markets. The company has passed Apple for third place in Q3 2020, and it seems to be closing in on Huawei too.
Now, Nikkei Asian Review reports that the firm has some incredibly ambitious goals for 2021. The outlet reports that Xiaomi has been talking to suppliers to order parts for up to 240 million smartphones, citing sources close to the matter.
It’s believed that this number not only exceeds Xiaomi’s annual shipments to date, but would be roughly equivalent to Huawei’s record high of 240.6 million smartphone shipped in 2019.
An even higher internal goal
Xiaomi allegedly told some suppliers that its internal goal was to ship as many as 300 million smartphones in 2021. By comparison, Samsung shipped 298 million units in 2019, according to Counterpoint.
A source told the Nikkei Asian Review that the goal of 300 million units shipped isn’t likely to be achieved though, as chipset suppliers Qualcomm and MediaTek aren’t able to deliver such large volumes.
“Xiaomi is setting a much more aggressive goal for suppliers as it hopes to expand the market before other rivals catch up — and it also hopes to book and secure more parts to avoid any disruption from the current supply chain bottleneck and component shortage,” the source was quoted as saying.
For what it’s worth, it was recently claimed that Samsung was planning to supply its budget Exynos chips to Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo next year. Nevertheless, it’s unclear whether Samsung’s potential contributions would be enough to cover any shortfall by Qualcomm and MediaTek.
Hitting the more conservative goal of 240 million units shipped in 2021 could potentially mean that Xiaomi puts some distance between itself and Apple. But it could also result in Xiaomi firmly occupying second place if Huawei is still subjected to US sanctions next year. Huawei’s sale of its Honor sub-brand will also lead to reduced shipments in theory.
