Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi is expanding into the United States market but will only sell accessories, which industry experts say could be due to concerns over product quality and patent issues.
The company announced in San Francisco on Thursday its planned to open a website in the US in the first half of this year to sell products including health bands, mobile power chargers and headphones, but not smartphones and tablets.
Xiaomi's chairman Lei Jun has said the company would continue to expand globally, after entering six countries and regions last year, including Singapore and Taiwan.
It sold one million handsets in India last year, but had to halt sales of some models there towards the end of the year after telecommunications giant Ericsson took legal action over alleged patent infringement.
The similarities between Xiaomi smartphones and Apple iPhones has led the mainland firm being dubbed "the Apple of China".
Xiaomi president Lin Bin said the company had been filing thousands of patents because lawsuits were an inevitability. "This is something we expect to happen," he said.
