Meizu has apparently managed to raise no less than 20 billion Yuan (about $3.23 billion) to sell more devices, GizChina is reporting.
Said funds will be used to boost R&D efforts, and make more and better devices. On one hand, Meizu plans to launch its next flagship, MX4, this year; and on the other hand, it will unveil more affordable devices that could the firm reach market segments it used to ignore. Moreover, the company is one of very few Canonical partners that will launch an Ubuntu-powered phone later this year. Perhaps Ubuntu’s promise of convergence is what drove investors to pour out significant funds in the Chinese firm?
Meizu came to prominence with its first MX smartphone, which quickly became famous as the world’s best iPhone clone. In recent years, they moved away from copying Apple and have developed their own platform (Flyme) that runs on top of Android.
While Meizu had a head-start, other vendors were quick to join the game and have quickly grabbed market share from the company. These days, it’s Xiaomi rather than Meizu that is the third best known Chinese vendor, after Huawei and ZTE.
With that in mind — and considering the new influx of cash — we expect wonders from Meizu. The mentioned Ubuntu phone has the potential to change the mobile market, and I personally can’t wait to try it out.
We’ll make sure to keep up with “everything Meizu” and get back to you as soon as we have something new to add. Stay tuned in the meantime, k?