EkaLore has written about possible strategies Dynamic India could pursue to attain global excellence in key global technology markets. The Smartphone market space is of particular interest because of India's unique cultural and linguistic environment. This release looks at the background and the strategic choices facing Dynamic India in these markets.
Dynamic India is working to leverage its unique combination of talent, multilingual experience, and resources to create a homegrown mobile OS. The previous article detailed several highly funded visible failures in this regard. This post continues the list of companies that have tried and failed to build their unique, successful mobile OS.
Xiaomi MIUI
Xiaomi is a leading Chinese manufacturer of consumer electronics products including smartphones. Xiaomi MIUI operating system was started in 2010 with the founding of the enterprise. Xioami considers itself a software enterprise with multiple hardware device product lines. Venture rounds saw Xioami raise USD$347M thru 2012 and then an additional USD$1.1B at a valuation of USD$45B. By 2014 Xioami was selling 60M smartphones per year. By 2021 Xiaomi was a leading smartphone manufacturer in many markets including India.
Xiaomi MIUI is an Android-derived operating system with major changes by Xiaomi. The operating system is related to Android updates and releases though it does not revise software products as often as other Android variants. MIUI is primarily a version of Android with a custom user interface and key apps specific to Xiaomi. In the early period, MIUI repurposed ideas from Apple iOS and then evolved in its own unique direction. Xiaomi has China specific and international versions of MIUI. Google cooperation and integration vary by market locale. Search integration varies depending on the internationalized version of MIUI. Google Play access and Google Mobile Services are available in a Google Certified version when not in China. Chinese variants integrate a variety of other search engines available in China.
Xiaomi hardware is split up across multiple brand lines, feature/price points, and marketing targets. Holitech Technology Limited (Fujian China) is the leading manufacturing partner for Xioami. With an investment of more than USD$200M a Holitech manufacturing site was started in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India. This enables Xioami to claim "Made in India". Xiaomi is rapidly diversifying hardware and consumer products to many markets from SmartHome products to electric vehicles.
Clearly Xiaomi has invested USD$B's in gaining a high market share and presence in many countries with its products. This has occurred over more than 10 year time period even for an enterprise seeing the MIUI operating system as a clear product differentiator and product. Regulatory problems have limited Xiaomi's penetration of key markets like India and the USA. The expansion of Xiaomi's MIUI specific products and technologies is an ongoing effort with a high level of investment required.
HP/Samsung Tizard
(The wreckage of failed operating system investments by two dominant suppliers in computing and semiconductors)
NTT TRON
(The wreckage of failed operating system investments coordinated by government actions)
Ericsson/Sony
(Insufficient monies even by gigantic global enterprises competing with colossal enterprises.)
Symbian
Nokia failures to move from feature phones to smartphones OS. The dogma that Graphical UI's would always be more expensive has been proven a false assumption after Firefox OS. The dogma of easy-to-use utility without the Internet has been proven a false assumption protecting legacy investment. The dogma of the dominant market position being unassailable (even by Microsoft) is proven false.
BlackBerry
BlackBerry is a singular example of a highly successful product and service in the marketplace that failed to continue acceptance as a global user, and unrelated technologies matured.
Intel (hardware)
Multiple attempts, including communications modems, hardware chipsets, ecosystems, and complete devices (compute, modem/network, storage)
Modem failure sold to Apple
IP Failure licensed off
Networking Failures turned to stone (silicon)
Ecosystems failures (never commercial)
The different marketspaces requiring
Hardware (chipsets, radio, production)
Software (OS, eco-system)
Applications (languages, eco-system for apps, paygo)
Failures in Business Models, money, technology
App distribution (the rise of security requirements)
OS distribution (free isn't free enough)
User training (even the children and elderly can figure out a smartphone)
Carrier-Based Subsidies (even Sprint and Softbank didn't have enough money)
Sponsorship (even the governments couldn't sway the marketplace at 1B TAM units)
Money isn't enough
The next post will provide lessons learned for the Indian efforts to build a mobile OS.
You can read this and other posts about Dynamic India at www.ekalore.com/india-business
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