Mi Pad Leaves the Shelves: ‘Most User-Friendly’ Android Tablet is History

Mi Pad, once promoted as the “most user-friendly Android tablet,” is being retired from sale this week.

Users found that Xiaomi removed the Mi Pad from its website on October 24, and searches for the term only found accessories. Though the Mi Pad 3 appeared in the search results, it could not be purchased from the product page. Internal sources said Xiaomi has decided to close the product line.

“Xiaomi will probably stop producing Android tablets,” a Xiaomi employee who would not be named told Jiemian Media.

The first generation Mi Pad with a Nvidia Tegra K1 processor was released in 2014. At that time, there was a boom in low-priced tablets in the domestic market competing for the space between mobile phones and PCs.

Within a short time, manufacturers like Ramos, Teclast, and Cube launched their respective products, which pushed tablets into the mainstream electronics market. Due to the low cost, the products could not meet requirements for quality and user experience.

Given the advantage of the processor and MIUI system, the Mi Pad made up for many of Android’s shortcomings in terms of ecosystem and hardware. Some 50,000 Mi Pads sold within the first four minutes of release, setting a record for tablet sales that year.

However, with upgrades to Xiaomi‘s product line and a blurring of brand position among consumers, tablets have become marginalized.

One year after releasing its first-generation tablet, Xiaomi was confronted with a “dilemma” in its mobile phone business. Looking back at 2015, Xiaomi did not achieve its sales goals and met a bottleneck in its product lifecycle. Moreover, it was mired with patent issues. It was a turning point in Xiaomi‘s history.

That September, Apple published its first-generation iPad Pro. It was a distinct product from its 9.7- and 7.9-inch iPads and targeted a more specific group of users. At the same time, smartphones with screens larger than 5 inches went mainstream. Both the Galaxy Note and iPhone with bigger screens were well-received in the market. More people realized they didn’t need a tablet.

When tablets were at their peak, many users compared the iPad mini with Mi Pad. When we look back at them today, both are representatives of that age. Today, they share the same fate of being abandoned by market.

What will follow the Mi Pad?

The Mi Max series may be the only answer.