This question relates to Xiaomi’s smartphone business (the phones, accessories and software) only. You have to substantiate your answers by indicating the sources of your information, both in-text and through a reference page. (a) Examine Xiaomi’s smartphone business operations, such as product positioning, product features, life cycle and the sales model. Determine the type of strategy (Differentiation, Low Cost or Rapid Response) that Xiaomi has adopted in the smartphone business. Discuss how this strategy is deployed. Besides substantiating the choice of strategy with examples, you must also give reasons or examples to explain why the other strategies are not chosen by Xiaomi. (10 marks) (b) Although China has a large market for smartphones, Xiaomi’s management intended for the company to go global. In an interview with The New York Times, CEO Lei Jun said: "We’re going to be a Fortune 500 company." Analyse Xiaomi’s smartphone products and determine the type of Global Operations Strategy (International, Multidomestic, Global or Transnational) that Xiaomi should adopt. Besides explaining the choice of strategy, you must also explain why the other strategies are not suitable. (10 marks) (c) Discuss three (3) implications of product quality that are important to Xiaomi. (6 marks) Examine the product information of Xiaomi smartphone model Mi4i, which was launched outside of China in April 2015. You may refer to http://www.mi.com/sg/mi4i/ or other relevant sources. State, using the template below, the product specifications or features, and explain how these would enable Mi4i to achieve the dimensions of product quality. The first dimension on Conformance is shown as an example