Smartphone giant Xiaomi opens R&D office in Tampere, Finland for smartphone cameras

Tampere is a top 5 global hub for mobile imaging innovation – a great match to Xiaomi’s current position as the world’s fourth largest smartphone brand, and its mission of bringing innovation to everyone.

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. The camera R&D team is located in Hervanta, close to the technology campus of 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. In 2019, it became the youngest company on the Fortune Global 500 list.

With the vision of making world-class smartphone cameras, Xiaomi has arrived in Tampere this summer. Tampere Region is known as a centre of high technology, and has been greatly contributing to camera technologies and imaging-related innovations since the 1990s. Its base has been set up at Tampere University’s technology campus, which has traditionally been strong in signal processing. The local talent pool in Tampere is a perfect match for Xiaomi, which seeks to employ highly skilled engineers.

“Setting up the R&D team in Tampere is a milestone in our global expansion journey. On this journey, we will gain strength in the operations and business, and work with the local talents to further improve our products with highly innovative technologies,” said Wang Xiang, Senior Vice President of Xiaomi.

“All this demonstrates our continuous commitment to ‘innovation for everyone’,” concluded Xiang.

“The Tampere site is Xiaomi’s largest camera team outside China. We’re focusing on camera technologies, which are driving the R&D of mobile cameras; camera algorithms, machine learning, signal processing, image and video processing. We are a compact team of around 20 people now, but quickly scaling up with talents focusing on camera algorithms,” said Jarno Nikkanen, Senior Director and Head of Xiaomi’s R&D in Finland.

“Xiaomi’s philosophy is 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,” continued Nikkanen.

Xiaomi joins the rapidly growing Tampere Imaging Ecosystem organised 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. According to my experience, the process has been among the smoothest anywhere. For example, we are building a state-of-the-art camera lab in Xiaomi’s Tampere office, and have been leveraging the local ecosystem and providers for the lab equipment,” said Nikkanen.

“We are delighted to welcome Xiaomi to the Tampere Imaging Ecosystem! We now have two of the four leading 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.

About Xiaomi Corporation

Xiaomi Corporation was founded in April 2010 and was 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. The company relentlessly builds amazing products at 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 made onto the Fortune Global 500 list for the first time as the youngest Global 500 company of 2019.

For more information about Xiaomi, please visit the blog at http://blog.mi.com/en/