I don't spend too much time on the VX side of things, but QUIK did say they may have another tablet slot to carry $$ well info '15.

The tablet wars continue with a new  player in 15

will track along....

November 28, 2014

Xiaomi Ready to Shake China & India Markets with $100 Tablet

Yesterday we reported that Apple's iPad crushed all of their tablet competitors in China in Q3. In that report we presented a chart illustrating China's Xiaomi ranking fourth with 5.3% market share. News out of China today reveals that Xiaomi is planning a massive attack on the low-end tablet market in 2015 against the iPad mini, though it's bound to hurt Samsung even more considering that they're already struggling to get their mobile house in order.

According to the report, Xiaomi Technology, which nabbed third spot in smartphone rankings with low-priced phones, is now targeting the low-priced tablet market. On Nov. 26, Xiaomi unveiled a 9.2" tablet PCs that will go on sale in the US$100 range in Q1 2015.

One of their ultra-low-cost tablets will have 1280x720 resolution displays, an Adreno 306 GPU, and a 1.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 backed by 1 GB RAM. It will be able to store 5.8GB of data, and have 8GB memory and a dual camera. It is expected to be a WiFi and LTE-enabled product.

The report noted that some industry experts attending the unveiling stated that the new tablet PC could exert a huge influence in the tablet market, since the model is similar to the iPad Mini's performance while being 25 percent cheaper.

The release of ultra-low-cost tablets by Xiaomi can be interpreted to mean that the Chinese company is aiming at becoming a major player in the tablet market using a high-spec and low-price advantage. Xiaomi is running its own operating system MIUI, and the number of users is estimated at more than 70 million people. The Chinese tech firm is planning to feature MIUI in smartphones, tablets, and TVs, thereby increasing the number of users to 200 million by 2015 or 2016.

This is going to be more of a headache for Samsung as Xiaomi is likely to push Samsung out of the number two spot in tablets as early as next year in China. In the bigger picture, Xiaomi will be attacking Samsung further in the future as they'll be aggressively pushing into India with the assistance of Foxconn and FIH.

Even though Apple and Xiaomi traded barbs last week during the World Internet Conference, it still appears that Xiaomi is going to be much more of a major headache for Samsung in China and India where they both vie for the low to mid-ends of the market.

And with Tim Cook palling around with Alibaba's Jack Ma, Rupert Murdoch and Hugo Barra of Xiaomi during a recent Wall Street Journal event, I think that Apple may be secretly cheering Xiaomi on while their main focus is on Samsung. Yes, as the saying goes, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.