IT FEELS more like a rock concert than a press conference as the casually dressed chief executive takes to a darkened stage to unveil his firm’s sleek new smartphone to an adoring crowd. Yet this was not the launch of the new iPhone by Apple on September 10th, but of the Mi-3 handset by Xiaomi, a Chinese firm, in Beijing on September 5th. With its emphasis on snazzy design, glitzy launches and the cult-like fervour it inspires in its users, no wonder Xiaomi is often compared to its giant American rival, both by admirers and by critics who call it a copycat. Xiaomi’s boss, Lei Jun (pictured), even wears jeans and a black shirt, Steve Jobs-style. Is Xiaomi really China’s answer to Apple?

小米的发布会比起新闻发布会更像是一场摇滚音乐会。打扮随意的首席执行官登上深色的舞台向粉丝们揭开其公司最新的时尚智能手机。然而，这不是9月10日苹果的新iPhone发布会，而食中国公司小米9月5日在北京举行的小米3发布会。凭借其时尚的设计，炫目的发布会和用户被激发出的疯狂的热情，小米难免经常被崇拜者和批评者同美国的竞争对手苹果作比较，批评家称其产品为山寨货。小米的老板，雷军（如图），甚至穿着类似乔布斯风格的牛仔裤和黑色短袖。小米真的是中国的苹果吗？

Xiaomi sold 7.2m handsets last year, in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, earning revenues of 12.6 billion yuan ($2.1 billion). Apple sold 125m smartphones globally, earning about $80 billion of its $157 billion sales. But since it was founded in 2010, Xiaomi has grown fast. A recent funding round valued it at $10 billion, more than Microsoft just paid for Nokia’s handset unit. That made Xiaomi one of the 15 most heavily venture-backed mobile start-ups ever, says Rajeev Chand of Rutberg, an investment bank. In the second quarter of 2013 Xiaomi’s market share in China was 5%, says Canalys, a research firm—more than Apple’s (4.8%) for the first time.

去年小米在中国大陆，香港和台湾一共售出了7200万台手机，收入达126亿人民币（约合21亿美元）。苹果在全球卖出了1.25亿台手机，销售额为1570亿美元，收入达到800亿美元。但是由于小米始建于2010年，小米的增长速度极快。最近的一轮融资，小米估值达100亿美元，超过微软刚刚买下的诺基亚手机部门。投资银行Rutberg的Rajeev Chand表示这使得小米成为全球目前为止最值钱的15个手机公司之一。

Yet “we have never compared ourselves to Apple—we are more like Amazon,” says Lin Bin, Xiaomi’s co-founder, who once worked for the Chinese arms of Microsoft and Google. Apple sells its iPhone 5 for around $860 in China and has the industry’s highest margins. Xiaomi offers its handsets at or near cost: the Mi-3, its new flagship, costs 2,000 yuan ($330). Xiaomi sells direct to customers online, rather than via network operators or retail stores, which also keeps prices down. Crucially, its business depends on selling services to its users, just as Amazon provides its Kindle readers at low prices and makes its money on the sale of e-books. The idea is to make a profit from customers as they use the handset, rather than from the sale of the hardware, says Mr Lin.

然而，曾在微软和谷歌工作过的小米联合创始人林斌表示，我们从没有跟苹果对比，我们更像是亚马逊。苹果的iPhone5在中国的售价约为860美元，是行业中利润率最高的手机。小米提供的手机接近成本，新旗舰米3售价为2000元（330美元）。小米通过线上商店直接卖给消费者，而不是通过网络运营商或零售商店，这也压低了价格。最重要的是，它的业务依赖于将服务卖给用户，就像亚马逊提供低价的kindle阅读器，通过卖电子书赚钱。林先生表示，这个想法是通过用户对手机的使用赚取利润，而不是通过硬件销售。