Xiaomi rumored to hold February 12 event in San Francisco

By Andy Boxall February 4, 2015

Xiaomi Mi Smartphone — Image used with permission by copyright holder

We’ll mark this one as “believe it when we see it,” but it’s still an interesting rumor. According to Android Headlines, Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi has scheduled an event for February 12, which won’t take place in China, but in San Francisco. Xiaomi has often been accused of being “influenced” by Apple, so should this be true, it’ll only add more fuel to that particular fire.

The report quotes anonymous sources inside Xiaomi, and mentions a social media message from the company’s co-founder about forthcoming news on its international expansion plans, as evidence of the event. However, it doesn’t state what the event will be about. Therefore, even if an event is set to take place, it may not be a media gathering for a new device launch, but something related to the business side and not of interest to the general public.

While it’s easy to jump to the conclusion a U.S. event for Xiaomi means the brand is about to launch its growing (and very popular) smartphone range locally, this remains unlikely. It goes against comments made by Xiaomi’s CEO late last year, where it was stated wide international expansion wasn’t on the cards until the firm was already topping the global smartphone market share charts. Rumors spread prior to CES 2015 indicated Xiaomi would launch a flagship smartphone at the show, but this never came true, and the company held a separate event in Beijing in mid-January to announced the Mi Note and Mi Note Pro.

We’ll keep you updated with further developments, but even though we’d like to see Xiaomi’s phones for sale all over the world soon, it’s probably still just a pipe dream.

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