Xiaomi (OTCPK:XIACF) (OTCPK:XIACY) is planning a new high-end chip for its smartphones but won’t release one on an annual basis like Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), CNBC reported, citing a company executive.
Xu Fei, vice president at Xiaomi, discussed the Chinese company’s semiconductor ambitions, and provided details about its roadmap for the product, the report added.
Xiaomi did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Seeking Alpha.
Xu said that the company was “planning ahead” for its next generation of chip, but said she can’t promise it will release a new SoC each year.
“We are a newcomer here, we need to learn and we need to plan,” said Xu.
In May, Xiaomi’s Founder and CEO Lei Jun said that the company had started mass production of its in-house developed advanced mobile chip, Xring O1. In June it was reported that the company may have started development of the new XRING 02 chip, with a leak revealing that the trademark for the silicon has already been filed.
Xu told the media outlet that 1 million units of the XRing 01 will be shipped but Xiaomi would need to make 10 million units per chip release for it to be a breakeven part of the business, the report added.
“So for us, we know we probably need to have 10 years patience for the SoC to finally break even,” said Xu, according to the report. “So at the first time, we just need to make sure the experience is good enough, the performance is good enough.”
The Xiaomi 17 smartphone, which was launched this week, features Qualcomm’s latest System on a Chip, or SoC.
“For Qualcomm, MediaTek, they are super, extremely good partners. We’ve been working them for 15 years, so we will continue this path. And at the same time, we’ll select … [the] right product to try our own chipset. We are going with two solutions at the same time,”said Xu.
Xu added that the company has made it clear to its partners “don’t be too worried at all,” the report added.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) first unveiled its own chip in 2010 under the A series. It has released a new A series chip each year, with the latest one, known as the A19 and A19 Pro, seen in the iPhone 17 models.