Xiaomi in big-screen phone push with Mi Max

 An emerging trend of mobile firms calling hordes of 'fans' to their press conferences today saw the crowd turning unruly at an event of Chinese handset maker Xiaomi and police had to intervene in the matter.

While the event was attended by around 2,000 so-called 'Xiaomi fans', the space constraints led to protest by some of them at the event, which was being held for launch by Xiaomi of Mi Max, which the company claimed is the first mobile phone with 6.44 inch display.

The matter was settled after intervention by the police. A Xiaomi publicity team member said that the company did not call the police and the matter was settled amicably.

Many mobile companies have been calling such 'fans' at their launch events these days, while some of these functions are being held in stadiums and auditoriums.

At the launch of its new phone aimed at cashing on an expected growth in video and online shopping services on 4G network, Xiaomi's Global Vice President Hugo Barra said, "I think this category is ill-served by wrong products. People are buying 7-inch tablets and using it as phone.

"We are daring to create this new category. Here we are creating new category of large screen smartphones under Rs 20,000."

Experts have been sceptical about adoption of smartphones above 5.5 inch screen as it may not fit even in the pockets.

"When we launched first Redmi Note product year and half ago, there was no 5.5-inch tablet or phablet under Rs 10,000. Very quickly Redmi note was a huge success. We created a new category with 5.5 inch device under Rs 10,000. Mi Max is just 7.5 milimeter thick and it can fit in to front pocket as well," Barra said.

The company has sold over 6 lakh units of its Redmi Note 3 within two months of its launch in March 2016.

As per market research firm IDC, Xiaomi was third largest in online sale with 10.3 per cent share in first quarter of 2016.

Xiaomi unveiled two models of the new 4G smartphones, Mi Max with 3 GB RAM and 32 GB internal memory and Mi Max with 4 GB RAM and 128 GB RAM for Rs 14,999 and Rs 19,999 respectively.

Both the phones are built on Qualcomm's Snapdragon chipsets and have external storage expandable up to 128GB, 5 megapixel front camera and 16 MP rear camera. The phones have 4850 mAh battery which the company claims can support up to 14 hours of online video streaming on single charge.

Barra said that demand for video, online shopping and professional work like image editing etc are going to push adoption of large screen.

Mi Max 3GB RAM version will start selling on Xiaomi website Mi.com from July 6 and on other online portals from July 13. The company did not announce date for sale of high end Mi Max model.