Hugo Barra, Xiaomi

“First, let’s begin with the name,” said Hugo Barra to me, in his first extended interview since he was named new head of global for Xiaomi a little over two weeks ago. “Think of ‘show me,’ and then pronounce the first word as if it was ‘shower.’” (source infra)

Hugo Barra Talks About His Future at Xiaomi and Why He Left Google - Kara Swisher - Mobile - AllThingsD: "“There is no question the phone business is very low margin today, but they want to get to a place where they can sell the device at cost and then sell high-margin services to make that phone experience even better,” said Barra. That’s easier said than done, especially as Xiaomi moves into more markets. While he would not get into specifics about what products he hopes to first move abroad, that’s why Barra said he would be focused on more rapidly developing ones first. “I think that’s the sweet spot for Xiaomi — places like India, Russia, Indonesia, Latin America, Thailand,” he said. “It’s where the equation of quality and affordability works, because it’s in those markets you can replicate what the company has done in China.” Still, Barra knows that Xiaomi has to also rate in the “trend-setting countries,” like the U.S. and Europe."

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