Chinese brand Xiaomi will be launching more products under the 'Mi' brand this year in India. According to a new report, Xiaomi is aiming at establishing Mi as a brand for premium products in the Asian sub-continent. Xiaomi entered the Indian market back in 2014 with Mi-branded smartphones, but over the last three years, Redmi smartphones have been the face of the brand in India. Last year, we saw just one 'Mi' smartphone launching in India and that's the Android One-powered Mi A3. Since 2018, Mi brand has mostly been associated with non-smartphone products like televisions, fitness bands and other lifestyle products. In 2020, Xiaomi wants to change this by launching more Mi smartphones and other products in India.
Xiaomi Mi Mix Alpha May Reach the Indian Market
According to an ET Telecom report, the Chinese company is also looking at bringing its concept phone- the Mi Mix Alpha to the Indian market. That said, at the upcoming Mi Note 10 launch event, the company may showcase the Mi Alpha to the media and the actual launch of the phone might happen later this year once the phone enters mass production. The Xiaomi Mi Note 10 with 108MP Penta-camera setup is expected to reach the Indian market by the end of January 2020.
In China, the Mi branded products are aimed at the premium market, but in India, Mi smartphones like the Mi Mix 2 and Mi 5 failed miserably. This led Xiaomi to focus in the sub-Rs 20,000 price point with the Redmi brand. “In China, there are clear portfolios for Redmi and Mi. Mi stands for innovation and premium appeal. It has been missing from our portfolio here and we would want to set that up going into 2020,” Raghu Reddy, Xiaomi India Head of Online Sales, told ET Telecom.
Xiaomi used to launch Mi smartphones in India; The Mi Max and Mi A series of phones used to dominate the sub-Rs 20,000 segment. With the higher aspect ratio phones becoming a norm in the Indian market, we saw Xiaomi phasing out the Mi Max series entirely in China and India. This resulted in only the Mi A3 smartphone launch in India last year as part of the Mi branding.
Besides the Mi smartphones, Xiaomi will also bring more premium televisions and it will also venture into other categories as well. Yesterday, Xiaomi introduced Mi Portable Wireless Mouse at Rs 499 in India and there will be many more IoT products coming to the country later this year. In fact, Xiaomi may also launch the RedmiBook as well in the Indian market.
Xiaomi Will Kickstart 2020 in India With Mi Note 10
Xiaomi launched the Mi Note 10 globally at the start of December 2019. Right after the global launch, it started teasing the phone's launch in India, but surprisingly, the handset is yet to go official in the country. A few recent teasers from Xiaomi employees on Twitter hinted at a January-end launch for the device. The Mi Note 10 would be India's first 108MP camera smartphone and Xiaomi says it will disrupt the market with this phone.
Over the last 15 months, Xiaomi is facing stiff competition from Realme in India as the latter is launching smartphones in a tandem. The Realme X2 is the latest threat to Xiaomi in the sub-Rs 20,000 segment. Since the Mi Note 10 is a Mi branded smartphone, we are not expecting it to retail at an affordable price or anything less than Rs 20,000. In other news, we will also hear more from Poco this year, promised the company a couple of weeks ago.
