My impression is that Xiaomi is unapologetic about copying other products without licensing the associated patents &c., but is sticking to markets where they won’t be sued for it. Samsung, which did the same thing, has been embroiled in extremely expensive legal wrangling for years.
Moreover, most US phones are sold under the cheap-up-front-with-2-year contract model, something Xiaomi doesn’t do as far as I know. Getting phones sold through cell carriers takes a lot of wheeling and dealing. More generally, scaling out to new countries takes lots of work on regulatory compliance, advertising/sales, customer service, etc. which they might not be ready to tackle.
jacobolus|10 years ago
Moreover, most US phones are sold under the cheap-up-front-with-2-year contract model, something Xiaomi doesn’t do as far as I know. Getting phones sold through cell carriers takes a lot of wheeling and dealing. More generally, scaling out to new countries takes lots of work on regulatory compliance, advertising/sales, customer service, etc. which they might not be ready to tackle.