Though Xiaomi has established a very strong presence in India and China, it is still to make an entry into the US.  However, the Chinese smartphone giant has reportedly said that it has plans to enter the US smartphone market by late 2018 or early 2019.

The logo of Xiaomi is seen inside the company's office in Bengaluru, India. Image: Reuters

Xiaomi recently opened its first store in the Spanish capital, Madrid, thereby inserting its first official presence in Western Europe. The company's flagship Mi Mix 2 and its Android One offering Mi A1 were at the helm of this opening. As per a report by The Verge, Xiaomi said that it had seen a great fan following of its products in Spain, which made the country a gateway of sorts to the rest of the European markets.

As per The Wall Street Journal, Xiaomi Chairman Lei Jun said that “We’ve always been considering entering the US market. We plan to start entering the market by end 2018, or by early 2019.” Xiaomi has been selling a number of products in the US including Mi TV, Mi Headphone and its Android TV set-top box via various WalMart outlets throughout the country, says the report.

However, since the maximum purchase of smartphones happens via mobile carriers in the US, Xiaomi will have to partner up with them to sell more devices. The Verge says that Chinese smartphone maker ZTE has already got a market share in the country after striking a deal with major US carriers.

Huawei, on the other hand, has gotten off to a rocky start in the US after AT&T canceled its partnership with the company at the last minute. Though reasons are still unclear, the fall out was largely due to security concerns by the FBI, NSA, and CIA over user data being exposed to the Chinese government. Huawei has repeatedly denied the allegations and Huawei’s CEO Richard Yu also gave vent via an unscripted criticism of the US carriers at CES 2018. In any case, it will be an uphill task for Xiaomi to convince US carriers to sell its products.