Seven years ago we visited one of the Xiaomi stores in China. It was the Mi Home in Shanghai, and we found a space full of devices, without much glamor from the outside and full of ‘gadgets’ that we did not yet have in Spain. Things have changed a lot in these years. The Xiaomi store is now surgical, from the outside we see the company’s cars and the space is an ode to good taste.
The most interesting thing is not that: it is that almost everything we see is going to reach Spain.
Store/experience. In one of the shopping centers on Dongdan Avenue in Beijing, you will find one of the several Xiaomi Stores in the Chinese capital. If you’ve ever been to an Apple Store, the concept is the same: a neat space, employees who don’t harass you if you don’t ask for assistance, and a sea of devices to fiddle with.
Image | WorldOfSoftware
Image | WorldOfSoftware
For a technology lover, having the Xiaomi 17 there displayed and within reach was a joy. You can try any of the models, but you also have tablets, computers and even speakers. One of the employees told me I could connect my cell phone to see how they sounded.
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They also have technology that we have not yet seen here, such as the Xiaomi AI Glasses that are going for the Meta models and that are very discreet in person.
Image | WorldOfSoftware
Home. But despite all the junk, what impressed me most was the catalog of home devices. We have already seen televisions, vacuum cleaners and even air conditioning here, but in China the catalog expands greatly.
At a time when some insist that we not cook at home, the range of gadgets The kitchen that Xiaomi has is unfathomable.
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Again, we have many of them in the Spanish store, but for every rice cooker sold here, they have three other models there. And the same with devices such as the food processor, warming jugs of all kinds, mixers, thermoses, faucets, water (and air, many) purifiers…
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It is a legion of devices for the home. And, sharing the same space, curiously there are two that will soon arrive in our country. If a few lines ago I was talking about the air conditioning that opened the gap, now I mention both the washing machine and the refrigerator.
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A few months ago they confirmed their arrival to the West with a single objective: that our entire home remains within its ecosystem.
Pride. Because entering that store makes you realize that, while my house must be controlled with four or five different applications for different devices, in China you need… one. That of Xiaomi Home, in this case. But Huawei is working towards something similar, a sign that the ecosystem is what the Asian giant’s companies are taking most seriously.
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And, within this strategy, is the pride of the store. In plural, better: cars. A couple of Xiaomi SU7 Ultra and another two or three Xiaomi YU7. The same thing: you can touch them, ride wherever you want, ask and an expert will appear to tell you the benefits. It’s a dealership experience.
Image | WorldOfSoftware
Image | WorldOfSoftware
Image | WorldOfSoftware
Lifestyle. And if all the devices are within the same ecosystem (something that even the CEO of Ford has fallen in love with), to round out the experience is the ‘Xiaomi Life’ wall. Here you already have “toys”, such as mugs with the colors of the cars, bags, amazing replicas of the cars, caps, t-shirts and a lot of other accessories for the vehicle.
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It’s… another bummer, but if seven years ago we couldn’t even dream of the arrival of a quarter of what we saw in Shanghai, today we can say that, sooner or later, everything I saw will be here over the next few months.
Xiaomi already has its first official store in Spain, a first step for cars that already have a launch segment to disembark. And once the most ambitious product in the company’s history is here, nothing prevents everything else from also appearing in the store.
P.D. Sony. But hey, although I found the Xiaomi store amazing, I have to say that other stores in the shopping center (one of the shopping centers on the avenue) were just as impressive or more impressive.
Sony’s thing is also impressive. Image | WorldOfSoftware
Huawei also had a car parked in its store, for example, and Sony has another megastore with movie theaters to take a look at its cutting-edge TVs and speakers… and even miniatures so that customers can try out the benefits of their cameras.
I can only say one thing: I left that street overwhelmed. And thinking that I should have bought the Xiaomi 17 Ultra because it was at a VERY good Price. What I did want to Buy is the Pixar-style lamp shown a while ago: the PIPI Lamp.
After asking about her, no one knew how to answer me until another girl appeared who – sadly – cleared my doubts: it was an experiment and there is no evidence that it can even be ordered from stores.
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In WorldOfSoftware | I have asked for water from the first humanoid robot working in Beijing. It’s a weird vending machine.
