Xiaomi has confirmed that it will hold a U.S. press event in San Francisco on February 12, hosted by global vice president and former Google VP Hugo Barra. But before you get too excited, the news you’re probably hoping for isn’t coming… at least not yet.

Xiaomi’s has become insanely popular in China and other emerging markets for making attractive devices with impressive specifications and then selling them at affordable prices.

For example, its latest handset, the Mi Note, is a 5.7-inch stunner with curved glass on its front and back, a quad-core Snapdragon 810 processor, 3GB of RAM, and a 13-megapixel camera with optical image stabilization. In China, it sells for just $370 off-contract.

It’s no wonder, then, that consumers in the West want it to branch out into the U.S. and Europe. But if you think that’s what the company’s February 12 event is for, you’re going to be disappointed.

“We can also confirm that Xiaomi will not be launching in the U.S. or entering the U.S. market this time,” a Xiaomi PR representative told AndroidPolice, “but this is an opportunity to get to know the company and leadership a bit more.”

So, although this is a press event, it’s not really for the press. Instead, it’s more of an opportunity for Xiaomi to showcase itself and its products to potential partners. But if the company didn’t have U.S. expansion somewhere in its mind, the event wouldn’t have been held on U.S.

Xiaomi — and plenty of consumers — will no doubt be hoping, then, that the event leads to connections that will make a U.S. launch possible, or at least speed up the process. The company would surely be successful in the West, so it seems unlikely this isn’t part of its future plans.

But for now, at least, we’ll just have to wait and see what comes of it. But don’t be too disappointed; you can still pick up Xiaomi devices on Amazon and eBay pretty easily if you want them.

• SourceXiaomi