In 2014 the company experienced unprecedented growth in its native China. Handset sales grew by 227% and cemented the company as one of the fastest growing handset manufacturers on the planet. And, in the spirit of striking while the iron is hot, Xiaomi has just completed its first round of funding in the US where it raised $1.1 billion and earned itself a market cap of $45 billion. Not bad a company that is just four years old. 

“Xiaomi sold 60.8 million smartphones in 2014 and is holding 14.97% of the market,” reportsAndroid Headlines. “Samsung is ranked second in this report, this Korean company has sold 58.4 million smartphones and has a 14.38% market share in China. I actually expected that the difference between the two companies will be even more pronounced considering that Samsung’s profits took a 50% dive in Q3 2014, as far as China is concerned, but Samsung is really close second.”

It’s not all sunshine and cider, though. In 2014 the company was also forced to stop selling its handsets in India until February 5 after a patent dispute with Ericsson. Xiaomi is being investigated by Hong King officials too, following claims the company sent user data without consent back to servers in mainland China. Still, company founder Xiaomi Lin Bin is very optimistic about the future –– and he has every right to be too.

Xiaomi's attempt to imitate Apple is almost slavish; the firm even holds Apple-like press conferences complete with a "Just one more thing" slide at their conclusion. Xiaomi's Android-based operating systemMIUI has, in its latest iteration, blatantly ripped off the look of iOS 7 and 8. However, while Xiaomi clearly wears its inspiration on its sleeve, it hasn't tried to clone Apple's hardware –– until now, that is. http://www.flipkart.com/mi4-16gb/p/itme3jfejqvgb4gw?pid=MOBE3JFC9UAFZ3QH&affid=kunal25kuhttp://www.flipkart.com/mi4-16gb/p/itme3jfejqvgb4gw?pid=MOBE3JFC9UAFZ3QH&affid=kunal25kuhttp://www.flipkart.com/mi4-16gb/p/itme3jfejqvgb4gw?pid=MOBE3JFC9UAFZ3QH&affid=kunal25ku