Following Huawei, Xiaomi Launches a R&D Center in Finland

Healthcare, Technology, Financials Author: Cao Wenbo Jul 16, 2019 11:50 AM (GMT+8)

According to Finnish press, Xiaomi has lately established a research and development center in Tampere, Finland. This R&D center will focus on the development of camera technologies.

Helsinki at night. Image credit: Alexandr Bormotin/Unsplash

According to Finnish press, Xiaomi has lately established a research and development center in Tampere, Finland. The registered name was Xiaomi Finland Oy. This R&D center will focus on the development of camera technologies. David Arthur Felix, CEO of Xiaomi Finland, was appointed general manager of the new company.

Surely this camera research unit was set up for Xiaomi’s mobile phone business. Several days ago the company just brought out Xiaomi CC, a new series of smartphones targeting young people. Besides “chic and cool” “creative and colorful”, CC also means “Camera + Camera”, that is, both the front camera and the rear one are of high quality.

Thanks to the presence of Nokia, which was once the leading brand before Apple’s surge, Finland has abundant talent resources. Actually, Tampere, the site of Xiaomi’s new company was the origin of Nokia, which moved to Espoo afterwards.

Two years ago, Xiaomi has already signed an agreement with Nokia, allowing sharing patents between the two companies. This R&D center implies thus the further cooperation of Xiaomi and Nokia.

In 2017, Huawei also opened an R&D department in the same city and hired some former Nokia employees. The Chinese phone-maker began to cooperate with Leica, a German lense-maker as well in 2016.

Xiaomi, a Beijing-headquartered electronics company, has expanded now from handsets to IoT-related devices, manufacturing smart televisions, robotic cleaners, scooters and so on. However, smartphones remain for now its core business.