Xiaomi Puts The Heat On Apple In China, Unveils iPhone 6 Plus Competitor - Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)

In a span of three years since its inception,

has achieved a feat few could have believed possible. It’s now the world's third largest smartphone maker behind tech giant

Apple Inc.AAPL

and Samsung.

The company unveiled its new smartphone model Xiaomi Note in China on January 15 to compete against Apple’s flagship product the iPhone 6 Plus.

CNBC

’s Eunice Yoon reported on this new phone recently.

'Little Rice' Has Big Plans

“So, Xiaomi translates to 'little rice', but this Chinese company does have big ambitions,” Yoon said.

“It’s the third largest smartphone maker in the world behind Apple and Samsung and how did they do that? By selling cheap phones, but the smartphones are of decent quality.”

Xiaomi Wants To Take On Apple

“Now, the company says that it’s going to go after the premium brands. Today, the CEO announced its latest phones: this is called the

Xiaomi Note

and they said that this phone is going to go directly head to head with Apple’s

iPhone 6 Plus

. Now, the phone itself packs a lot of punch, a lot of new features. They say that it’s going to have a 13 megapixel camera, also 5.7-inch screen; another feature is going to be a hi-fi audio.”

Xiaomi Note Specs

She continued, “Another thing is that generally they were saying this phone is going to be thinner, lighter and just a bit shorter than the iPhone 6 Plus. The price is also attractive at $371 for the base model. But for the pro version, which is seen as the higher-end model, that’s going to go for $532, which is cheaper than what the iPhone 6 Plus goes for here in China.” “But at the same time, it’s much more expensive than what the phones at Xiaomi [are] known for here, and it’s just another way that we are seeing Xiaomi really go ahead with Apple and Apple’s second largest market [China].”

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