Xiaomi South Africa said it can keep its prices low, even as memory and storage costs climb around the world. Country manager Tianshi Lv and national training manager Jared Ferns spoke during a sit-down in Rosebank, IOL reported.
According to IOL, the rise of artificial intelligence has pushed up the cost of memory and storage. Industry insiders call this the “Rampocalypse”. The report said it is raising the retail prices of smartphones, laptops and streaming boxes.
“Xiaomi’s advantage is that we invest heavily in research and development,” Lv said. “We have developed advanced smart manufacturing capabilities not only for smartphones, but also across our electric vehicles and smart home appliances.”
Lv said this manufacturing scale gives the company “a distinct efficiency advantage”. Lv said it helps Xiaomi absorb supply chain shocks and keep what the company calls honest prices.
The report said running AI models on a device takes a large amount of active memory. Phone makers are adding more RAM to their top models. IOL said this has tightened supply lines and pushed up production costs.
Lv said the local business is still small next to the global company. “We are still small here compared with what Xiaomi is globally, but we are building our brand in South Africa and see immense potential,” Lv said. “We actually consider South Africa an important and strategic market.”
IOL said many South Africans still see Xiaomi as an up-and-coming smartphone brand. The report said the company holds third place in smartphones globally. It also sells smart home appliances, wearables, streaming devices and air fryers.
The report compared prices in the streaming box market. It said Apple’s new Apple TV 4K costs R6,299, about the same as an entry-level 50-inch smart TV. Xiaomi’s TV Box S (3rd Gen) sells for roughly R1,500.
Lv said the company’s mission is “innovation for everyone”. Lv said Xiaomi wants to build products with honest prices “so people can enjoy a better life through technology”.
The company also pointed to its Redmi Note 17 Pro Max 5G. IOL said the phone has a 10,000mAh battery that can last three full days on one charge. The report said Apple’s iPhone 16e starts well above R14,000.
Ferns said fitting a battery that size into a slim phone needed a change from standard lithium-ion designs. “It comes down to the 16% silicon-carbide composition integrated directly into the battery cell,” Ferns said. “Through this chemistry, we significantly reduced the physical footprint while simultaneously minimising internal heat build-up.”
Heat was the main engineering problem, especially during long sessions of mobile gaming, according to the report. “One of our primary concerns with a battery of that scale was sustained thermal dissipation,” Ferns said. Ferns said little heat can be felt on the back of the phone.
Source: this article is based on reporting by IOL Technology. Image: IOL Technology. Written with the help of AI and published by the Tzaneen Voice Technology desk. See our Editorial Standards.
Werner Jacobs covers technology for Tzaneen Voice. Werner reports on mobile networks, data prices, internet access, smartphones, apps, AI, cybersecurity and South African tech companies. Each story explains what a new product, price change or policy means for ordinary users in South Africa.