Xiaomi opens R&D office in Finland for smartphone cameras
Global technology leader Xiaomi has announced the opening of a research and development office in Tampere, Finland, which focuses on smartphone camera technologies such as camera algorithms, machine learning, signal processing, image and video processing.
This camera R&D team, the largest Xiaomi has established outside of China by far, is located in Hervanta, close to the technology campus of the Tampere University.
Xiaomi, founded in 2010, develops and builds products with a mission to let everyone in the world enjoy a better life through innovative technologies. This year, it has also become the youngest company on Fortune Global 500 list.
With the vision of making the world class smartphone cameras, Xiaomi has arrived in Tampere in summer. The Finnish city has been greatly contributing to camera and imaging related innovations of leading smartphone brands since the 1990s, and Tampere University’s technology campus has traditionally been strong in signal processing. In the past decade, this strength in imaging R&D has been adopted at local offices of some global giants, such as Intel and Microsoft. In addition, the local talent pool in camera technologies is a perfect match for Xiaomi, which seeks to employ highly skilled engineers.
“The setup of this R&D team in Finnish city Tampere is a milestone in our global expansion journey. In this journey, not only do we consolidate ourselves in operations and business, but also work with local talents to further improve our products with highly innovative technologies,” said Wang Xiang, Senior Vice President of Xiaomi, adding that “this move all the more highlights our longstanding commitment of ‘innovation for everyone’.”
“Our Tampere site is Xiaomi’s largest camera team outside of China. We’re focusing on camera technologies such as camera algorithms, machine learning, signal processing, image and video processing – technologies that are driving the R&D of mobile cameras. We are a compact team of around 20 people now, but we are quickly scaling up by building up this team, especially talents specialized in camera algorithm,” said Jarno Nikkanen, Senior Director and Head of Xiaomi Finland R&D.
“Xiaomi’s philosophy has been innovative and highly engaging. It’s all about empowering the teams and individuals to find solutions on their own. What we’re developing in Tampere will end up in the hands of hundreds of millions of users and Mi Fans around the world. That is really motivating,” said Jarno.
Xiaomi joins the rapidly growing Tampere Imaging Ecosystem organized by Business Tampere, the Tampere region economic development agency.
“Business Tampere and the imaging ecosystem have been a great help in setting up the business in Tampere. I have not had experience of making an entry to other countries, but my guess is that our process is among the smoothest ones. For example, we, as part of Xiaomi, are building a state-of-the-art camera lab to facilitate camera algorithms development and have been leveraging the local ecosystem and providers for the lab equipment,” said Jarno.
“We from Business Tampere are also delighted to welcome Xiaomi to the Tampere Imaging Ecosystem. We now have 2 of the top-4 mobile phone manufacturers in the world with R&D sites in Tampere. It proves that our region has one of the top imaging ecosystems in the world,” said Oliver Hussey, Senior Business Advisor at Business Tampere.
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About Xiaomi Corporation
Xiaomi Corporation was founded in April 2010 and listed on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on July 9, 2018 (1810.HK). Xiaomi is an internet company with smartphones and smart hardware connected by an Internet of Things (IoT) platform at its core. With the vision of being friends with its users and being the “coolest company” in the hearts of its users, Xiaomi is committed to continuous innovation, with an unwavering focus on quality and efficiency. The company relentlessly builds amazing products with honest prices to let everyone in the world enjoy a better life through innovative technologies. Xiaomi is currently the world’s fourth-largest smartphone brand, and has established the world’s largest consumer IoT platform, with more than 196 million smart devices connected to this platform, excluding smartphones and laptops. Currently, Xiaomi products are present in more than 80 countries and regions around the world and have a leading foothold in many of them. In July 2019, Xiaomi for the first time made the Fortune Global 500 list, ranking 468th among all, and 7th in the Internet Services and Retailing category. It is also the youngest Global 500 company of 2019.
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