Poco is now an independent brand in India, confirmed Xiaomi. After keeping the brand silent for more than 15 months, the Chinese company gave an update regarding Poco. Going forward, Poco will act as an independent brand in the Asian sub-continent and this an important change in the company's structure for 2020. Already, Xiaomi confirmed that it would be bringing more Mi smartphones to India this year, so it makes complete sense for the company to make Poco a standalone brand. To recall, Poco started operations in India as a sub-brand of Xiaomi and disrupted the sub-Rs 30,000 segment with the one and only Poco F1. The Poco F1 was launched way back in August 2018 and it is still one of the most popular phones in the market, thanks to the current price tag of Rs 14,999.
Poco is Now an Independent Brand in India: What Does it Mean?
The brand Poco became instantly popular with the Poco F1 smartphone. Since then, fans have been questioning Xiaomi regarding the launch of Poco F2 or any other smartphone from Poco. Thanks to the success of Poco F1, Xiaomi made it an independent brand. This applies to India, but there's no information regarding Poco acting as an independent brand globally. For the unaware, globally, Poco is known as Pocophone. The first phone from the company was named as Pocophone F1, whereas in India, it's called the Poco F1.
"With this restructuring, Poco will run independently of Xiaomi with its own team and go to market strategy," said Xiaomi in a press statement.
Addressing the announcement, Manu Jain, Xiaomi Vice President and Xiaomi India Managing Director, said, “What started as a sub-brand in Poco has grown into its own identity in a short span of time. Poco F1 is an extremely popular phone across user groups and remains a top contender in its category even in 2020. We feel the time is right to let Poco operate on its own now, which is why we’re excited to announce that Poco will spin-off as an independent brand. Join me in wishing the Poco team the best!”
Poco F2 Launch Date Yet to Be Revealed
So, we now finally know that Xiaomi is not killing the Poco brand. Over the last six-eight months, rumours were rife that we might not see any more phones from the Poco brand as Xiaomi wants to take the affordable flagship segment forward with the Redmi brand. In the Poco F1, Xiaomi brought the Redmi K20 Pro as its only flagship device to the Indian market last year. The Redmi K20 Pro impressed many, but Xiaomi was unable to achieve the price tag of Poco F1, which disappointed a lot of users.
With that said, the successor to the Poco F1 may soon arrive and we may see the brand venturing into other price points as well. With the Poco F1, Xiaomi offered the Snapdragon 845 SoC at Rs 20,999 (now available at Rs 14,999). We are expecting that the Poco F series may remain the company's top-tier range, followed by other series like the rumoured Poco X. In other news, Xiaomi's Redmi K30 4G variant is expected to reach India as Poco X2. We are excited to see what Poco has in store for us this year.
