Xiaomi Will Stop Making 4G Smartphones By The End Of 2020

27 May 2020, 10:50

Xiaomi will stop making 4G smartphones by the end of 2020. This is something the company's CEO confirmed in a recent interview. Lei Jun was interviewed by Xinhua, a Chinese publication.

Lei Jun talked about 5G, but also about 6G, satellite internet, and more. We'll go over the highlights here, though do note that all of this has been translated from Chinese.

Xiaomi plans to stop making 4G smartphones by the end of 2020, to focus on 5G ones

Lei Jun said that most of the company's new smartphones in China are 5G-enabled. He did say that Xiaomi will stop making 4G smartphones by the end of 2020, in China, though that probably applies to every other market as well.

Xiaomi also started researching 6G already, well, Mr. Jun referred to it as 'pre-research'. Xiaomi is also developing satellite internet, it seems, which is quite interesting.

Xiaomi's CEO sees 5G as a great revolution, basically. He thinks it will revolutionize the industry for a number of reasons. As some examples, he mentioned apps that support 4K / 8K video conferencing, cloud gaming, and so on.

Both Xiaomi, and its sub-brand, Redmi, have been launching 5G smartphones like crazy in 2020. The two companies have launched quite a few 5G-enabled devices in order to ramp up the adoption of such phones.

Xiaomi's supply chain was severely affected by the recent outbreak

Lei Jun did admit that the coronavirus outbreak did affect the company's supply chain, quite a bit it seems. For that reason, Xiaomi's supply of 5G smartphones was depleted for a while.

Xiaomi did decide to ramp up production of 5G smartphones in order to catch up, though, and things seem to be under control now. Mr. Jun said that Xiaomi plans to halt the production of 4G phones so it can focus entirely on 5G handsets.

The company will also be focusing more on IoT (Internet of Things). Xiaomi also plans to work with the Chinese government to build disaster warning systems, and various other public service systems which rely on 5G.

All in all, Xiaomi has big plans ahead, that's for sure. Lei Jun did not mention the company's foldable smartphone, though. He demoed that device last year, and Xiaomi was expected to announce it by the end of 2019.

That did not happen, however, so we're expecting it to arrive at some point this year. We're still not sure about it, though, as we haven't heard anything about that device for quite some time now.

It is possible that Xiaomi postponed the whole project due to the outbreak, or something of the sort. We'll hopefully get more information in the near future.