Having consolidated its position in the smartphone segment in India, Chinese smart phone brand Xiaomi is mulling an increased thrust in the non-phone market in India, where it is exploring the possibility of either customising or developing new ‘smart’ products.
‘A different market’
“Although the two countries have some commonalities, India is a different market from China,” said Manu Jain, vice-president Xiaomi and managing director, Xiaomi India. He added that the company was “now closely evaluating the products that it should bring here.” Aside from the smartphone segment in which it has a strong position, Xiaomi sells fitness bands, power banks, air purifiers, audio products and selfie-sticks in India.
It is now looking to expand this list to include a range of ‘smart’ products. Not willing to divulge more details, Mr. Jain said this may include “anything that you see around you .. we just make it smart.”
Mr. Jain, who was here to unveil an entry-level smartphone at ₹4,999, said: “We are trying to gauge Indian habits and preferences and we may either customise or develop new products (in multiple segments) for the Indian market.”
The company is now scaling up capability at its Bengaluru R&D unit, where it has put in place a team to engage in this project which may involve re-engineering existing products or developing new ones.
It already has two teams working on software and hardware segments at the Bengaluru R&D Centre.
Mr. Jain said that Xiaomi had a 23.5% share in the Indian smartphone market. In the June to September 2017 quarter, Xiaomi India sold 9.2 million handsets, making it the company’s best quarter since its entry in 2014.
In India, the firm had already turned profitable, crossing $1 billion dollar in revenue between January and December 2016. It had invested $ 0.5 billion dollar till January 2017. Xiaomi phones are manufactured at two facilities in Sri City in Andhra Pradesh, with the third unit making power banks. All other products of the company being sold here are imported.
“The products being made here are all under Prime Minister Modi’s ‘Make in India’ initiative and we will focus on this for our non-phone products too,” Mr. Jain said.
