Lenovo's 'Fancy Maker' brand to compete with Xiaomi via a similar online business model

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Xiaomi, once a small Chinese manufacturer has now emerged as the world's fourth largest smartphone maker. The company has managed this feat just by operating online, through exclusive tie-ups with a number of online retailers worldwide. Looks like Lenovo is taking some pointers from Xiaomi as the company Senior Vice President, Chen Xudong announced last Thursday that it would soon launch a new brand called the 'Fancy Maker' which will operate via online channels only. The name sounds unlike any other smartphone brand that we have heard recently. It could offer features like the Motorola's Moto Maker which allows users to customize a number of aspects of a smartphone like the final finish, color accents and so forth. Lenovo has been trying to compete with Xiaomi through budget models like the Lenovo K3. But so far, its smartphones have failed to create a buzz like Xiaomi's Redmi 1S and Mi-3 models. This new Fancy Maker brand could be Lenovo's new strategy to compete with Xiaomi. The company will reportedly debut the brand on 1 April 2015. Apart from the name 'Fancy Maker', Lenovo has not officially revealed any other details like Malaysia release dates or pricing about its upcoming smartphone brand but it could come to Malaysia eventually.

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