Europe Hears Call of Chinese Phones
Established 1961 15 Technology Thursday, June 7, 2018 From beep to boom: Europe hears call of Chinese phones OnePlus, Xiaomi comes as users avoid spending $1000 on phones PARIS: China’s smartphone makers have long been ing make the switch. “I had already bought more confined to their enormous local market but this is fast expensive phones before and didn’t see the need to changing, with a growing number of western European spend so much money,” Judy Grayland, a 36-year-old users opting for a relatively cheap but still sleek Xiaomi Redmi 4X owner told AFP. Chinese-made upgrade. Chinese top-range phones are “I am really happy with it. It works really well and it often around half the price of those made by US and looks nice,” said the Madrid-based translator and Korean rivals, with many devotees swearing by the mother of one. Hearing the call of European consumers, quality of their devices, insisting they are just as ele- Xiaomi recently opened its first flagship store in Paris, gant, functional and durable as any other model. and OnePlus’ phones have gone on sale in the cata- The aggressive expansion into western Europe- logues of French operator Bouygues Telecom. Both mainly Spain, Italy and France brands, complete with acces- for now-of Chinese firms sories, are widely available OnePlus and Xiaomi comes as online. users grow less willing to fork “We have to go to market out around $1,000 (850 They step by step. We’re already in euros) for a new device. At Spain and Italy and we’ve the same time the Chinese face stiff learned there for the other market reaches saturation European markets,” Xiaomi point, according to Roberta competition vice president Xiang Wang Cozza, an analyst at American said.
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