Little Mirejun, Target global.

The New York Times Online edition of the Monday article says that by imitating Apple, Millet has been a huge success and is becoming one of China's fastest-growing smartphone companies.

The following is the full text of the article:

When Lei, the head of millet, talked about Steve Jobs, he was always full of praise and a little jealousy. Millet is becoming one of the fastest-growing smartphone companies in China.

"When Jobs was alive, he was the best," Lei said in a recent interview. No one can surpass him, nothing can surpass the iphone. ”

In China, Apple and its founders have no shortage of challengers, not to mention imitators. Analysts expect China to overtake the US this year as the world's largest smartphone market.

Among Apple competitors in the Chinese market, Millet is the leading player. The company's newest millet 2 phone will start selling this month, at a price of 1999 yuan (about 320 U.S. dollars), less than half the iphone 4S Chinese market. The price of the iphone 5 in the Chinese market is not yet set.

The establishment of millet is less than 3 years, but has become China's smartphone market a rising star. Millet is expected to sell nearly 7 million handsets by the end of 2012, and revenues will reach 10 billion yuan. This is a remarkable achievement for a company that launched its first smartphone in August 2011.

Millet's launch in August this year was reminiscent of Jobs's Apple product launch. Jobs died last October. In the 798 Art district in Beijing, Lei dressed in black polo shirts, jeans and black Marina sneakers, wearing a dress that doesn't differ much from jobs ' iconic attire. At that time, lei for fanatical millet fans released the Millet 2 mobile phone.

Shanghai Jiaotong University Science and technology industry expert Wei, Millet marketing strategy relies on "apple worship" and the founder of this worship. "Many Chinese consumers have branded the Apple brand and millet has offered similar products at lower prices," he said. ”

Millet's fans and critics call the Millet smartphone "China's iphone". In a Beijing China Unicom Business Hall, a salesman called millet "Apple's little brother." And consumers are willing to accept such propaganda. "Millet is a real shanzhai," says Oliver Jin, a university student in Shanghai, Oliver Kim. But he still wants to buy a millet phone.

Apple opened its first retail store in China in 2008 and has been selling iphones in China since 2009. Apple is set to open 25 retail outlets in China by 2012, but so far it has opened only 6. Apple has suffered a series of problems in China, such as copycat manufacturers imitating iphones and the proliferation of unlicensed "Apple Stores".

Despite a series of challenges, Apple is still getting a big boost. China is now the second largest market for Apple, after the United States. The Chinese market contributes 1/5 to Apple's revenue. In the first 9 months to the end of June, Apple's Asia-Pacific market, excluding Japan, has revenue of $25.7 billion, up 60% per cent year-on-year.

However, there is still a lot of room for growth in the Chinese market. China's smartphone market will double its shipments this year to at least 150 million, up from 76 million in 2011, according to Gartner.

Analysts believe that Lei himself is a difference between millet and competitors an important factor. Lei, a billionaire and engineer, was the co-founder of Jinshan more than 20 years ago and is still chairman of the company. He has also successfully invested in a number of startups in China. Another company, founded by Lei, was bought by Amazon in 2004 with 75 million dollars.

Lei claims to be a fan of mobile phones, with more than 60 handsets, including the original Motorola "Brick Phone". Lei, who used the Nokia phone in 2004, said he had made 1500 suggestions for improved handsets to friends at Nokia, but Nokia was indifferent. In addition, smartphones are replacing computers. These factors are the main reasons to induce lei to create millet.

The difference between millet and other smartphone companies is that millet allows users to customize their operating systems. Every Friday, millet will release MIUI customized system software updates. In a few hours, the Millet forum fans will give the use of reports and other feedback.

In the past, Millet also investigated the memory usage of their mobile phones among fans, their views on the thickness of the phone, and whether the back of the phone should be integrated with flash. "Apple is very conceited," says Lei. Their attitude is, ' I don't need any feedback '. ”

Lei hopes to attract investors with smartphone business. This June, Millet completed a round of venture capital, the company's valuation reached about 4 billion U.S. dollars, less than half of Nokia's current market value, and Rim's market capitalisation. The company's investors include Temasek, the Singapore sovereign Investment company, and China's IDG and Qiming ventures.

Shong, the founding partner of IDG, said: "Millet surpassed our initial expectations." I think other investors have a similar view, so just look at the data and see. Millet revenue grew from 0 to 8 billion yuan in 1 years. ”

The real challenge for millet will be the extent to which the handset is accepted outside the Chinese market. Millet executives say they plan to launch products in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore by the end of the year. But the goal of Millet is not limited to this. As for the rest of the world, Lei said: "We will step forward." ”