[THE INVESTOR] Xiaomi founder and chief executive Lei Jun is expected to visit Seoul this week to have a meeting with Samsung Electronics executives possibly on components partnership, industry sources said on July 13.

This is the first time that the chief of the hot-selling Chinese smartphone-maker is visiting Korea, home turf of its archrival Samsung.

According to sources, the CEO will meet Jeon Young-hyun, president of Samsung’s memory chip business division who oversees chips for smartphones.

Except mobile application processors, Xiaomi is outsourcing chip products such as the crucial memory chips with high-density capacity.

He is also speculated to meet Samsung Display executives. With the planned organic light-emitting diode display adoption by Apple, other smartphone-makers, including those from China, are expected to use OLED display screen for their next high-end models.

Currently, Samsung dominates more than 90 percent of the mobile OLED market.

Partnering with Xiaomi, dubbed as “China’s Apple,” is also a boon for the Korean tech giant as it could diversify clients in the all-important China market beyond Apple and Samsung phones. 

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)