Apple's iPhone becoming the top smartphone brand in China in Q4 2021 has lit a fire in the belly of Xiaomi's CEO Lei Jun who has vowed to topple Apple in the high-end smartphone category over the next three years.

Jun noted in a Weibo post earlier this week that in order to continue to grow in the future they had to enter a "war of life and death" with their competitors in the high-end of the smartphone market; a market that Apple absolutely rules.  

Jun pledged to invest US$15.71 billion in research and development over the next five years to help achieve its goal of toppling Apple.

At present, Xiaomi's president Wang Xiang said in a conference call in November that the supply-side problems were relatively bigger than weaker demand in China. He further noted that the unstable supply of components makes it a challenge to plan production. Supply Chain management has always been a winning strategy under Apple's CEO Tim Cook.

For Xiaomi, their focus will likely be more about pushing "volume" shipments to achieve their goal over Apple and Samsung. While they claim that they'll win in the high-end of the smartphone market, it'll likely be their cheap lines that will push them into the top smartphone leadership position.

Xiaomi is known for their slick high-end marketing of "future" smartphones like the Mi MIX Alpa as presented below. How well did that sell? They produced just enough to show they did it, but it never really came to market.

Xiaomi's marketing went to town on an in-home in-air wireless charger. Where's that now? So when Lei Jun pounds his chest claiming that Xiaomi is declaring war on Apple, it really doesn't mean much. I'm sure that every Apple competitor claims such things in private every year.

As For Apple, they were number one in volume in the key fourth quarter of 2021 and more importantly, were number one in profit, something that Xiaomi will never achieve. Without profit, volume shipment alone will never make Xiaomi a true leader in smartphones.

In November, Xiaomi announced an ambitious retail infrastructure program that will see it roll out 20,000 new retail stores over the next three years across China’s countryside and it's here, in volume, where they really plan to become the #1 smartphone maker.  For more, read the full report by the South China Morning Post.