Asustek Computer reportedly is seeking cooperation with Xiaomi's upstream partners such as earphone designer 1more Design and software designer Cheetah Mobile, to strengthen its smartphone competitiveness, according to sources from the upstream supply chain.

Asustek shipped about eight million smartphones in 2014, despite a great improvement from 2013, the company's performance was still far off compared to Xiaomi, which shipped 61.12 million units in 2014, up 227% from 2013.

The sources believes Asustek's shipment growth was mainly thanks to its aggressive promotions, software/hardware technology R&D and improved brand recognition, but enormous expenses from these moves still generated large losses to the company.

To strengthen its competitiveness, Asustek is looking to adopt a strategy similar to that of Xiaomi and has been secretly meeting their upstream partners to learn.

1more Design is said to be looking forward to its cooperation with Asustek and expects their partnership to increase the company's brand recognition in the worldwide market.

Asustek is also planning to pre-install Cheetah Mobile's Clean Master tools suite into its ZenFone series products.