Xiaomi is the leading smartphone brand in the Chinese market today, and has since started to expand outside of China to bring their devices elsewhere. While they are not currently available officially in the U.S., Xiaomi has previously stated that they do have plans to enter the U.S. market at some point, just not soon. They are however ready to expand into a market close to the U.S., which is the Brazilian market. As of today Xiaomi has announced that thy will be entering the Brazilian market for the first time with their Redmi 2, and the phone will only cost consumers BRL499. As part of this announcement, Xiaomi has partnered up with Foxconn International Holdings to have the phone manufactured in Brazil locally.
This is a pretty big deal since Xiaomi has never entered the Latin America market before let alone expanded outside of Asia and is the next step Xiaomi aims to take to widen their reach and move closer to becoming a globally recognized brand of devices. In just a short amount of time, under 5 years since becoming an official company, Xiaomi has risen to become the most valuable tech startup company reaching a total valuation of $41 billion back in December of 2014, and it has done so by continuing to introduce a range of devices from low-tier to high-end smartphones at competitive, lower prices than other brands. Brazil is Xiaomi Global VP Hugo Barra’s hometown, and he states that he and Xiaomi were proud to finally be able to bring Xiaomi’s brand presence to the country, mentioning that he strongly believes “Redmi 2 will be a game-changer in the Brazilian market, offering consumers a quality option never seen before in this price category.”
The Redmi 2 comes packing a 4.7-inch display with HD resolution, and it sports an 8MP main camera on the back with an f/2.2 aperture for some decent low-light performance. It’s also dual-SIM capable and supports Brazil’s 2G, 3G, and 4G data in both SIM slots. The Redmi 2 will be available in a Dark Gray color only, and sales for the device don’t start until July 7th, although registration for the device sales starts now at Mi.com where consumers can also find information on Xiaomi’s range of accessories being introduced to the region as well.