Xiaomi refunds customers the full price of Mi 1 as the first phone hits its 10th anniversary

Xiaomi is making a nice gesture to thank its earliest customers. To mark the 10th anniversary of the Mi 1 phone, the company announced it is going to refund the phone’s full price.

On Monday, Aug. 16, it will be 10 years since the phone that put Xiaomi’s brand on the map was released. Xiaomi announced on its official Weibo page that the Mi 1, which cost ¥1,999 (around $309 today) at the time, had initially sold 184,600 units.

After translating the Weibo post via Google Translate, it appears that the company expressed its gratitude to the customers who gave the first Xiaomi phone a chance. The company noted that after earning ¥370 million, or more than $57.1 million in today’s currency conversion, from the Mi 1 sales, it has since become part of the prestigious Fortune 500 company and has currently placed second as the smartphone vendor with the highest units shipped worldwide.

“This represents the gratitude of Xiaomi's 36,000 employees,” Xiaomi added. “We will always be grateful to all the friends and partners who have helped us!”

The Xiaomi Mi 1 was one of the first smartphones to enter the market with more affordable pricing compared to its global competitors. For its introductory price, it shipped with the dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S3 with a base clock speed of 1.5GHz and Adreno 220 GPU. It also featured a 4-inch TFT capacitive touchscreen. The device immediately became popular in China, and Xiaomi reportedly received more than 300,000 pre-orders in 34 hours after its announcement.

However, Android Authority reports that the Xiaomi Mi 1 refund may not be distributed in the form of cash. The company appears to be giving it away as a store credit. But considering its value today, it is still quite a generous act from the company.

Xiaomi was not exaggerating when it said that the company has been successful since launching Mi 1. The company has also branched out with several sub-brands, like Redmi and Poco, that became popular in other regions for its so-called flagship killer phones. Earlier this month, Counterpoint Research reported that Xiaomi was the number one smartphone brand worldwide after surpassing Apple and Samsung sales in June.

Photo by Christian Salas on Unsplash