Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi recently has started to work on obtaining licenses from intellectual property providers while forming a chip production team, the Commercial Daily reported on June 10. Xiaomi unveiled its first chip in 2017 and has launched an image signal processor for its first foldable smartphone recently. It remains to be seen whether the company will likely design chips and outsource the manufacturing process to its partner(s) instead of in-house manufacturing. Global 5G smartphone shipment volume is estimated to reach 538.2 million units and account for 39.3% of the global smartphones in 2021, according to MIC (Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute), a major government think tank and leading IT research institute in Taiwan. MIC states the increase in market share of 5G phones is due to major brands’ pricing strategy. Several brands have launched mid-to-entry-level smartphones for price-sensitive consumers. Among them, Chinese brands have been most aggressive. MIC predicts Xiaomi will ship 70.6 million 5G phones and account for 13.1% of the total in 2021, next to Vivo and Oppo.