Product portfolio expands through branding of hardware made by partner companies

On a recent afternoon in northern Beijing, Chinese 20-somethings lean over a long blond-wood table in a retail store, examining colorful smartphones and fitness bands. The white walls and spare space recall an Apple Store, but on display is a wider, and more curious, range of products: "smart" rice-cookers, hoverboards, robot vacuum cleaners, digital bathroom scales and electric air purifiers. A tall salesman in a bright blue T-shirt says they are planning to soon cordon off an area to demo Xiaomi drones.

The brightly lit store is one of 36 locations across the Chinese mainland operated by Xiaomi Corp, a Beijing-based technology products maker that began as a smartphone vendor. Xiaomi has been frequently touted as the "Apple of China."