In 2011, Apple made only $12.5 billion from China the entire year. The year before, it made only $2.8 billion. China's sales in the 2014 fiscal year totaled $29.8 billion. Along with iPhone, second-quarter Mac, iPad and Apple Store sales also were strong in China. Mac unit sales jumped about 31 percent, Cook said during the earnings call, while the App Store more than doubled to a record quarter. iPad sales in Mainland China also posted their best quarter ever. Strong sales in the region during the Chinese New Year holiday pushed Apple to report higher smartphone sales than Wall Street anticipated.

"I came on board thinking that Xiaomi needed a flagship phone for emerging markets," said Barra here at the launch of the Mi 4i late last week, "I've spent plenty of time in these markets and thinking a lot about this stuff in my previous job, I do think that price really matters and everyone should have a flagship."Through the 18-month journey of the Mi 4i's production process, Barra knew he wanted to make a phone specifically for India, and getting the project approved tropical jungle hibiscus flowers - floral iphone case was much easier than expected..

As Barra explains it, the Mi 4i built upon some of the concepts from Google's Android One plan to create low-cost smartphones, which launched last year. The former Android spokesperson may have had an inkling of some aspects of the Android One initiative, but Xiaomi has gone with a slightly more expensive, premium phone instead. It wasn't difficult to convince Xiaomi's co-founders Lei Jun and Bin Lin, Barra said. "We just spent a lot of time discussing what components we would use. They were very supportive from the beginning," he added.

Given that the company barely sold phones in India at that time, the decision to create a phone specifically for that market speaks of Xiaomi's far-reaching global ambitions, Founded in 2010, the company has already been working to expand into new markets where its low-priced smartphones and tablets are meant to appeal to budget-conscious buyers, The company is also trying to capitalize on a business model that revolves around selling products tropical jungle hibiscus flowers - floral iphone case at or near cost, While most would consider the Mi 4i's specs -- such as its Snapdragon 615 processor -- midrange at best, Barra is insistent that the phone is a flagship device, pointing out its full-HD, 5-inch display and large battery, features you'd normally find on higher-end phones, More telling is the fact that Xiaomi is using its Mi branding, instead of its budget Redmi line..

"There's nothing in this device that you can't point to as not 'flagship,'" Barra said. "The display quality, the battery capacity, the technology itself, the camera, the form factor -- everything is flagship.""The biggest thing here which we've heard since we launched the Mi 3, is it possible to build a flagship device and sell it under 15,000 rupees (around $235)? It takes a lot of work, as well as making no money," Barra quipped. And the Mi 4i shows a flagship phone for the emerging market can hit that price point without compromising on specs. Xiaomi claims that the phone's 3,120mAh battery is one of the largest you'll find in a 5-inch device, and to do so, it's using a new cell made by Samsung.