Xiaomi has announced the launch of Surge S1, the telecom company's first in-house chipset, in an attempt to revive the prospects of its ailing smartphone business.
Though notable by its absence from the year's biggest phone show, Mobile World Congress, Xiaomi's has unveiled the Surge S1 processor to power its latest smartphone, the Mi 5C.
"The ability to create its own chipsets is the pinnacle achievement for any smartphone company," Lei Jun, chief executive and co-founder of Xiaomi, said in a statement.
"For Xiaomi, the move is an essential next step in our development. In order to deliver on our promise to make innovation available to everyone, we need to master the core technologies of our industry," he added.
Tactical change
The launch of the Beijing-based phone company's first in-house chipset represents an attempt to reduce its reliance on industry suppliers such as Qualcomm.
Xiaomi's new strategy means it follows rivals Apple, Huawei and Samsung as the world's fourth telecoms company currently designing its own silicon internally. The company had stopped posting annual shipment numbers in 2015 amid reports the group's smartphone sales had dipped below 70 million units.
Xiaomi's domestic rival, Huawei, recently displaced Samsung as the world's second largest phone maker after the Seoul-based tech giant continued to wade through political scandals and the dismantling of its corporate strategic office.
