Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi on Thursday said it plans to launch its data centre in India by later this year or by early next year as it looks to address data security concerns of Indian authorities. The company unveiled its first ‘Made for India’ smartphone Mi 4i, priced at Rs. 12,999, signifying the increasing importance of India for the Chinese firm.
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Mi 4i will be available from April 30 in India, before any other market. Though the device will not be launched in mainland China, it will be sold in markets like Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia later in May.
The Mi 4i comes with a 5-inch 1080p display, an 8-core 64-bit Snapdragon 615 second gen. processor and a 2 GB RAM. The device was launched with Android Lollipop operating system.
The phone is 7.8 mm thick, weighs 130 grams with a 3120 mAh battery and will be available in 5 colours — black, white, orange, light blue and pink.
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“This is a flagship product that has drawn a lot of inspiration from India. A lot of tweaking has been done keeping in mind the Indian consumers and is made for India,” Xiaomi Vice President Hugo Barra said.
In October last year, Xiaomi had announced that it will set up a local data centre in India to cater to the domestic demand here, following concerns raised by Indian Air Force and security solutions provider F-Secure about data protection of user data.
“We are still committed. We said by first half [of the year], we will have details ready. We are looking at launching it later this year or early next year,” Xiaomi Vice President Hugo Barra told PTI .
Mr. Barra had earlier said an infrastructure team from China was coming in to explore the options.