Xiaomi's global vice president Hugo Barra is leaving the company

I might be too sentimental (knowing that it&#x27;s PR speak and therefore downplayed) the last paragraph strikes me as sheer hell.<p>&quot;What I&#x27;ve realized is that the last few years of living in such a singular environment have taken a huge toll on my life and started affecting my health. My friends, what I consider to be my home, and my life are back in Silicon Valley, which is also much closer to my family. Seeing how much I&#x27;ve left behind these past few years, it is clear to me that the time has come to return,&quot;

Xiaomi strikes me as one of the very few Chinese gadget companies I would buy from. Their phones always look polished and their specs are always fantastic for the dollar spent.<p>I have no idea about their quality but some day I will take the plunge and buy.

I wonder if he&#x27;s been poached to work on Andy Rubin&#x27;s new high-end Android handset startup. Timing and his background would seem to align...

I have noticed this is common pattern for Sr execs placed in Indian subsidiary by parent US companies. Mostly people of Indian origin go to India for few years, fulfill their yearning for homeland, parents, friends etc and then come back to US when a new opportunity shows up.<p>In this case, Hugo is not even of chinese origin so it must be specially hard for him.

One thing fundamentally broken on xiaomi phones is GCM. So if you are not whatsapp or Facebook (they have pre configured exceptions) and you need push notifications, you have no options. You can&#x27;t even have a persistent connection because your app is killed whenever. The user needs to specifically turn off restrictions for your app which do not persist across updates. Users don&#x27;t really understand all that so your app is &quot;broken&quot; for them.

Sure, maybe what he said is true. Or maybe the food&#x2F;water&#x2F;pollution issues are what drove him away.<p>But, more often this kind of departure is a prelude to either more departures, accounting issues, or the sudden public disclosure of previously hidden away infighting in the executive suites.

Xiaomi turns out to not have a big moat. And run on extremely thin margins. Top line growth has been flat. And the writing on the wall is that we might be seeing revenue contraction ahead.<p>I wonder what their private market valuation is doing?

Good share.