JOIN USMi is for Make-in-India, says China's Xiaomi
In a major boost to the ‘Make in India’ campaign, Chinese low-cost smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi launched its first Made-in-India phone in the coastal city of Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, on Monday.
Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu unveiled the first smartphone manufactured locally. Xiaomi is the third largest smartphone maker in the world, after Samsung and Apple.
It is now being rebranded as Mi, said Manu Jain, Chief Executive Officer, Xiaomi India.
Xiaomi has partnered with Taiwan’s Foxconn to set up a mobile phone manufacturing unit in Visakhapatnam to garner a major share of the Indian smartphone market.
“This is our second local manufacturing unit outside of China, the first one being in Brazil with Foxconn. We started our discussions with the government in February, and we have already started with the manufacturing,” Xiaomi Vice President Hugo Barra told reporters.
Last week, Foxconn had announced plans to invest $5 billion over the next five years in Maharashtra, which had given the company 1,500 acres of land for its plant. “We are here as part of a ‘Make in India’ programme. It allows us to cut down on costs and enables us to better our supply chain. Over a period of time, every single phone Xiaomi sells in India will be made in India,” Barra added.
Given that global smartphone sales are estimated to grow from 1.5 billion in 2015 to 1.7 billion by 2017, and India will become the second largest smartphone market by 2017, after China, Xiaomi is looking to expand its presence and increase its market share in the country.
The first Mi phone to be manufactured in India is Redmi 2 Prime, an enhanced version of Redmi 2 with 2GB RAM and 16GB Flash, which will be available for Rs 6,999 on Mi.com, and other partner sites (Flipkart, Amazon, and Snapdeal), starting Saturday.
Redmi 2 Prime features a Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 64-bit processor, 4G Dual SIM support, and a 4.7-inch HD display. Xiaomi became the largest smartphone vendor in China in 2014, and at the end of December 2014, it was the world’s most valuable technology startup, valued at $46 billion.
Following the Chief Minister’s visit to China earlier this year, Xiaomi has zeroed in on Visakhapatnam to launch its first Made-in-India smartphone. “It’s not only about designing for India, we want to make in India and be closer to our consumers. We are proud to be at the forefront of the ‘Make in India’ programme,” Barra said.