While the buzz was all about Xiaomi’s latest flagship phablet, the Mi Note, the folks at Xiaomi Global also had some bad news for some of you who had been waiting for the Mi 4. Xiaomi Global VP Hugo Barra has confirmed that the Xiaomi Mi 4, the company’s current flagship smartphone, will not be coming officially to Malaysia.
Announced in the middle of last year, the Mi 4 was Xiaomi’s flagship smartphone which had been earmarked for an aggressive international rollout in Xiaomi’s foreign markets, including Malaysia. In China, the Mi 4 was actually available in 3G, 4G TD-LTE and 4G FDD-LTE variants, where the latter was the only LTE version compatible with international LTE bands.
The FDD-LTE Mi 4 went on sale sometime in September 2014, after which it had been expected that Xiaomi would be selling this much-anticipated device in its international markets. As it turns out, Xiaomi will not be selling the LTE-enabled Mi 4 anywhere outside of China.
The reason has a lot to do with the hardware embedded inside the Mi 4. Barra noted that the Mi 4 was designed for the Chinese market, and some of these hardware optimisations made it impossible for Xiaomi engineers to redesign the internals for an international Mi 4 variant that supports all LTE bands in the markets Xiaomi is in. He also stated that Xiaomi Global discussed at length whether to bring the 3G-only model into countries with advanced LTE penetrations such as Singapore and Malaysia, before pulling the plug on the idea.
The only other international market that will be getting the Mi 4 is India, where a launch event will be happening at the end of this month. With its low LTE penetration, Xiaomi will be selling the 3G-only model of the Mi 4. For other markets including Malaysia and Singapore, Barra says that the company will channel its efforts into the Mi Note instead, which supports all FDD-LTE bands globally.
The Mi Note will be available in Malaysia and other South East Asian markets in the second quarter of this year.
Thank you xiaomi, you’ve just screwed us up eventho we’ve given our loyalty to you.
LOL…just a phone guys
It may be just a phone for you but for for this guys, xiaomi is love xiamo is life 😛
Xiaomi getting lansi? Now at the top, increasing its ‘flagship’ pricing, and pulling the plug on a quite anticipated device here in Malaysia + Singapore.
Lets see how the Mi Note (and Mi Note PRO?) will be a hit or not.
Ofcox they are not going to launch new devices here, Malaysia is for them to dump all the old phones.
Maybe they WILL, but after they done launching the Mi5 or Mi6 first. cheers!!
I think it’s an understandable decision given that they plan to send the Mi Note our way at a decent time. Probably aimed at avoiding poor Note sales as most people will opt for the Mi4.
Q2 2015??? Oops… The price need to include GST as well…
I guess I’m fine with this. I’m not as disappointed as I expected to be.
i prefer mi note more than mi4
If because of hardware issue I think it is OK not bring buggy phone here
Fucking liar Hugo Barra who said Mi4 will be available in Malaysia before end of 2014.
xiaomi fag…
I don’t really like the Mi note, becoz of the screen size is big for me. As I am using Mi3 and iPhone 6 right now, becoz of the right size for me. Quite sad with this news.
Hahahaha, told you guys that Hugo is kaki kencing!
we cant do much as this is their marketing strategy to sell mi note instead of mi4 which is cheaper. Look’s like they want to widen the product range in worldwide (higer end mi note and low end redmi), mid-range phone a lot of competitor in worldwide and it is wise marketing plan to exclude that.
Of course, they need to make money. Bye-bye cheap price soon.
Almost like the song, “tipu-tipu Malaysia”