Chinese phone Xiaomi flexes muscle with 3 devices in India

Xiaomi, a Chinese phone brand, today announced its three new smartphones — Mi 3 at Rs 13,999, Redmi Note at Rs 9,999 and Redmi 1S at Rs 6,999.

The other top Chinese phone brands in India include Huawei, ZTE, Lenovo, OPPO, etc. Many Indians are already using several Chinese phones because domestic smartphone vendors like Micromax, Karbonn, Spice, Lava, etc. are importing phones or main components.

Xiaomi has tied up with ecommerce retailer Flipkart to sell the phones in India. While the Mi 3 will go on sale starting July 22, Redmi Note and Redmi 1S will be available in August, the company said at a press meet in Delhi.

Earlier, Flipkart tied up with Motorola to bring a series of smartphones in India. Flipkart also introduced its own tablet in the country at a time when the tablet market started facing slow growth. Flipkart enables smartphone vendors such as Xiaomi to avoid huge spending in distribution network. However, some of the mobile retail channels are up in arm against online commerce portals.

The main skepticism faced by Chinese phones was the lack of sales support across the country. Xiaomi is starting with more than 35 service centres across top 20 cities, a hotline that operates 7 days a week, and a Mi India Facebook page to connect with the customers.

Analysys Mason earlier predicted that there will be 3.9 billion smartphone connections worldwide in 2018, a growth of 136 percent over the next five years.

The large scale entry of Chinese phones is set to challenge the dominance of established players such as Samsung, Micromax, Karbonn, etc. This is primarily due to the cost effectiveness of these phones and innovation they bring to the table, said analysts.

Some of the Chinese phone vendors will be successful in India because they prefer to spend on marketing activities. They also give thrust on cost effective phones. Recently, Huawei, a rival of Xiaomi, has tied up with Bangalore Royal Challengers Cricket Team to promote its smartphones and other mobile devices in India.

Xiaomi India launch

Analysys Mason says Chinese smartphone manufacturers will dominate the worldwide market. 1.3 billion smartphones will be sold in China in the next 5 years. Assuming an average selling price of $50–100, the Chinese smartphone market will generate between $D65 billion and $130 billion.

China’s smartphone vendors like Coolpad, Meizu, Oppo and Xiaomi will use this revenue to drive international expansion.

OPPO, one of the latest entrants in the Indian smartphone market, had earlier announced plans for an aggressive sales and service network expansion in India with a target of over 200 service centers in the next one year. OPPO is targeting a mix of at least 10 products that cover the price range from below Rs 10,000 to around Rs 40,000 this year.

Bin Lin, co-founder and president, Xiaomi, said: “We see India as a huge opportunity for us and are excited about bringing Mi products to this market. Just like in our other markets, we will strive to provide users with incredible value, and the best customer experience possible.”

Baburajan K
[email protected]