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THE INVESTOR] Xiaomi founder and chief executive Lei Jun is expected to visit Seoul this week to have a meeting with
Samsung Electronics executives possibly on components partnership, industry sources said on July 13.
This is the first time that the chief of the hot-selling Chinese smartphone-maker is visiting Korea, home turf of its archrival Samsung.
Xiaomi founder and CEO Lei Jun
According to sources, the CEO will meet Jeon Young-hyun, president of Samsung’s memory chip business division who oversees chips for smartphones.
Except mobile application processors, Xiaomi is outsourcing chip products such as the crucial memory chips with high-density capacity.
He is also speculated to meet Samsung Display executives. With the planned organic light-emitting diode display adoption by Apple, other smartphone-makers, including those from China, are expected to use OLED display screen for their next high-end models.
Currently, Samsung dominates more than 90 percent of the mobile OLED market.
Partnering with Xiaomi, dubbed as “China’s Apple,” is also a boon for the Korean tech giant as it could diversify clients in the all-important China market beyond Apple and Samsung phones.
By Lee Ji-yoon (
jylee@heraldcorp.com)