Lei Jun hat alle Vorhersagen von Apple vorausgesehen.
Xiaomi has decided to skip "16" and directly upgrade to Xiaomi 17.
On September 15th, Lei Jun, the founder of Xiaomi, posted on social media that the Xiaomi 17 series features a generation - spanning upgrade in product capabilities and will comprehensively target the iPhone, engaging in a head - on competition.
Screenshot from Weibo
The Xiaomi 17 series will include three products: Xiaomi 17, Xiaomi 17 Pro, and Xiaomi 17 Pro Max. In terms of product positioning, this series will directly correspond to Apple's iPhone 17 series. Specifically, Xiaomi 17 corresponds to iPhone 17, Xiaomi 17 Pro corresponds to iPhone 17 Pro, and Xiaomi 17 Pro Max corresponds to iPhone 17 Pro Max.
Just three days after the frenzy of snapping up iPhones, Lei Jun made a precise move. As the former "Chinese Jobs", perhaps no one understands Apple better than him.
Choosing to engage in a radical head - on collision at the peak of the opponent's momentum, Xiaomi and Lei Jun have their own profound intentions.
01 Apple Reclaims the Dominance
Before the press conference, hardly anyone was optimistic about the iPhone 17.
At least, that was the case on social networks.
Before the press conference, through various spy photos and leaks, netizens had a pretty good understanding of the new iPhone. The back cover of the Pro series, which is a combination of metal and glass, had such a "peculiar" design that it was quickly labeled as "ugly and tacky" by netizens.
Staying up late to watch the press conference was more about verifying the authenticity of various leaked information and getting ready to start mocking and complaining right away.
At least, in the past two years, most netizens followed this pattern, habitually witnessing the annual mediocre iterations.
Then, the time came to 8 p.m. on September 12th.
Pre - orders began.
The world instantly changed. The reversal of public opinion from "dislike" to "sold out if you're slow" was extremely dramatic and utterly real.
Apple's official website, app, web pages, JD.com, and Tmall. Almost all channels experienced varying degrees of "slow loading" at the same time.
"Can't get an iPhone 17". These five words quickly topped the Weibo hot search list.
Screenshot from Apple Store
Actually, even before the official sale, the total pre - order volume of the entire series had already exceeded 7 million. One minute after the sale started, all models were "out of stock". The Tmall flagship store followed suit, and within two minutes, everything was "sold out". The originally promised delivery date of September 19th soon became a promise that wouldn't be fulfilled until October.
Online, there was a flood of data, while offline, there were real crowds. At the Apple store in Beijing's Xidan Joy City, even though customers couldn't get the real phones that night, the store was still full of people. The store employees were already used to this and even sighed with a touch of "mystery": "Many people managed to get an iPhone 17 online. Maybe it's some kind of mystery."
A scalper said that although the iPhone 16 series had its prices drop last year, he was very optimistic about this year's iPhone 17. "The configuration has really improved a lot. And many people didn't change to the 16 last year. This year, the 17 is so sincere, so there will be more people wanting to change their phones. The demand for the first - batch models this year is higher than last year."
Even many overseas Chinese students started "reverse overseas shopping", looking for purchasing agents to buy an iPhone 17 from other regions. iPhones from countries and regions like Australia and Europe support physical SIM cards and eSIMs, which are the best choice for students studying abroad.
"Never won online, never lost in reality." Many Apple fans commented on the outstanding performance of the iPhone 17 in this way.
On the night of the pre - order, Apple's stock price soared by nearly 1.8%, and its total market value firmly stood at a high of $3.47 trillion. The popularity spread to the A - share market, and "Apple concept stocks" remained active. Core suppliers such as Luxshare Precision and Foxconn Industrial Internet had their shares reach the daily limit.
Primus Financial Holdings believes that Apple's iPhone has entered a strong product cycle again. This year's iPhone Air and next year's foldable screen will drive the iPhone into a new innovation cycle.
Even competitors have shown their approval.
"They really squeezed out a lot this time." Lu Weibing, the president of Xiaomi, commented on the iPhone 17 in this way.
The 60Hz screen, which had been criticized by users for years, has finally been upgraded to a 120Hz ProMotion high - refresh - rate screen on the standard version. The stingy 128GB base capacity has also jumped to start at 256GB. This is equivalent to a disguised price cut of 1,000 yuan while maintaining the starting price of 5,999 yuan.
Even because of the existence of the Air product line, known as the "thinnest iPhone in history", China's three major telecom operators are considering introducing eSIMs. This is a level of influence that no domestic mobile phone brand has ever achieved.
The familiar Apple seems to be back.
02 The "Echo" of History
Xiaomi's radical moves always seem to be closely associated with Apple's glorious moments.
Let's rewind the clock to 2022. That was the first time Xiaomi clearly stated that it would target Apple.
That year, Apple was also in the limelight. Its fiscal - year revenue set a new record. In the fourth quarter of 2020, Apple only had an 8% market share in the Chinese market. Thanks to the high sales of the iPhone 13 series in 2021, by the fourth quarter of 2022, this figure had skyrocketed to 22%.
As soon as the new iPhone 13 went on sale, it triggered a buying frenzy. Apple's official website even crashed. Netizens joked that the "iPhone 13 charm" still held. In 2022, the iPhone 14 Pro series was in short supply. Its unique "Dynamic Island" design sparked heated discussions in the market and was imitated by competitors. Its reputation and sales performance were extremely strong.
It was at the end of that year that Xiaomi officially and clearly defined "high - end development" as the group's strategy at a new - product launch event and clearly stated for the first time that it would "fully target Apple".
However, neither Xiaomi nor Lei Jun could have imagined that right after they declared to "fully target Apple", Apple would fall into chaos.
At that time, Apple's products had a serious split in reputation. The entry - level models, the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus, suffered a severe sales slump, while the iPhone 14 Pro series was in short supply. The MacBook series was accused of "incremental updates", the improvement of the M2 series chips was not significant, and the pricing strategy of the MacBook Air was also questioned.
In 2024, Apple's market share in China dropped sharply from 19% in 2023 to 15%, and its ranking slipped from first to third, being overtaken by vivo and Huawei. Cook, who had always been good at understanding global consumers, suddenly lost his edge.
Even in January 2024, during the peak sales season for new iPhones, Apple surprisingly launched an official price - cut promotion.
On January 15, 2024, Apple's official website launched a "Limited - time Spring Festival Promotion". It announced that from January 18th to 21st, a "Limited - time Spring Festival Promotion" would be held, and many Apple products would see price cuts, with a maximum reduction of 800 yuan. This was an annual New - Year - crossing promotion for Apple, but it seemed particularly "urgent" at that time. Different from previous promotions of old models, Apple included the latest iPhone 15 series in the promotion list.
By this time, Xiaomi's approach had completely changed.
Lei Jun and other Xiaomi executives started to emphasize on different occasions that Xiaomi's Pengpai OS would fully support Apple devices, and the cockpit of Xiaomi's cars would also be deeply compatible with Apple CarPlay. "Let Apple users integrate into the Xiaomi ecosystem."
In addition to showing a conciliatory strategy, Xiaomi also shifted its strategic focus to the automotive business.
"I've decided to lead this project myself. This will be the last major entrepreneurial project in my life." "I'm willing to stake all my past achievements and reputation on Xiaomi's cars." Lei Jun said with emotion at the launch event of the Xiaomi SU7.
During that period, Lei Jun focused all his attention on Xiaomi's cars. He frequently updated short - videos, held live - streams, participated in auto shows, and personally told the story of Xiaomi's "comeback" in the automotive industry. He became an absolute top - stream in the automotive circle.
In 2025, when Apple announced its strong comeback with the iPhone 17, Xiaomi almost immediately raised the flag of "head - on competition" again.
Screenshot from Weibo
If the iPhone 17 had continued the decline of its predecessor, it would have been difficult to motivate Xiaomi to skip the number 16.
To set a target, you need a powerful enough object.
03 Must Win, Can't Lose
Is Apple really in full control?
Not necessarily.
The pressure first comes from the Chinese market.
Huawei, a once - dormant competitor, has made a full - fledged comeback at an unimaginable speed. For scalpers, Huawei's flagship phones have been more like hard currency in the past two years. Especially the "tri - fold" phone launched last year, which was even sold at sky - high prices in the second - hand market.
According to IDC data, in the second quarter of 2025, Huawei reclaimed the top spot in China's market shipments with an 18.1% share. Apple, on the other hand, slipped to fifth place with a 13.9% share.
Image from IDC
In the past few years, Apple's "easy win" in China's high - end market was largely due to the situation of "Huawei's decline, Apple's gain". Now, a group of domestic mobile phone brands are closing in.
"To put it bluntly, we just want to attract Apple users and give them another option." Liu Zuohu, the chief product officer of OPPO, once said straightforwardly to the media.
All of a sudden, every well - known mobile phone brand was thinking about how to divert customers from the iPhone.
What might worry Apple even more is the "hidden danger" in the supply chain.
Shifting part of the supply chain to India was a helpless move under geopolitical circumstances, but it might turn into a nightmare for the manufacturing industry. The Financial Times pointed out that at an iPhone parts factory operated by the Tata Group, the pass rate was only 50%. This means that the actual cost of manufacturing an iPhone 17 Pro in India is a staggering 42% higher than in China.
This is a disastrous financial black hole, an unacceptable figure for Cook, who is good at precise calculations.
To offset this black hole, Apple has no choice but to sell more phones in the efficient, high - quality, and high - profit Chinese market. It needs to use the increased sales volume to fill the gap left by the inefficient factory on another continent.
This directly determines that the iPhone 17 must be a product that Chinese consumers can't resist.
Finally, there's AI.
In an era when global tech giants are frantically investing in large models, Apple's Apple Intelligence has been delayed in its implementation in the Chinese market due to requirements such as compliance and data localization. As a result, it is in a passive position for the first time in the future narrative of software and ecosystem.
Google launched the new Pixel 10 phone in August and made a great comeback in the AI field because of the high - performance image - processing ability of Nano Banana. Domestic mobile phone manufacturers such as Huawei, Xiaomi, OPPO, and VIVO have also long regarded AI as one of their core focuses, and their layout has entered a stage of deep integration with the mobile operating system from single - point exploration.
Apple urgently needs a "visibly significant" hardware upgrade to temporarily cover up all this embarrassment and buy itself some time to catch up.
Therefore, the success of the iPhone 17 is inevitable. It's Apple's last - ditch effort on the edge of a cliff.
And Xiaomi, or rather Lei Jun, may have just foreseen all this and made a series of subsequent moves accordingly.
He is well - versed in Internet marketing. Years ago, his words "Are you OK?" at an event in India were edited by Bilibili users into a popular meme song and went viral on the Internet. Instead of avoiding this slightly mocking "negative popularity", Lei Jun bought the copyright and let people have fun with it. He instantly turned potential negative public opinion into positive brand assets.
After all, Lei Jun is the one who can save Xiaomi hundreds of millions in advertising fees on his own. Although Apple won the first battle, Xiaomi may take all the subsequent attention. The outside world is waiting to see the real performance of the Xiaomi 17 series.
Some images are from the Internet. Please contact us if there are any copyright issues.
This article is from the WeChat official account "Source Media Hub". Author: Keji de Ke. Reposted by 36Kr with permission.