Through a post on its official Facebook page, China’s second largest Android smartphone vendor, Xiaomi Technology, has announced that it has managed to sell over one million handsets in India, the world’s third largest market for smartphones after China and the US. The number signifies a 45 percent QoQ growth since January this year, helping the company achieve its best ever quarter in the country in terms of total shipments since stepping into India last year with much fanfare. While the number is still just a drop in the proverbial ocean for Xiaomi, seeing as it aims to sell around 100 million devices globally this calendar year, it still signifies an important step towards establishing a presence in India, with China’s steep growth curve starting to plateau in recent times, and the company still not quite ready to step into the lucrative US market.
While one million in a quarter is not a large number by any means in India either, it pays to remember that the company eschews advertising, and does not sell through brick-and-mortar retail outlets, which account for a vast majority of smartphone sales in the country. To put things into perspective, the largest domestic smartphone brand in the country, Micromax Informatics sells over three million devices on a monthly basis, whereas Xiaomi managed to sell three million in the first twelve months of its operations in India. The company’s entry-level Redmi 2 Prime is currently assembled in India by Foxconn Electronics at its factory in Andhra Padesh.
Xiaomi of course, has been taking its India business extremely seriously since its wildly successful entry into India last year, and the country is already the company’s largest international market ahead of countries like Brazil etc. While Xiaomi sells its devices chiefly through its own website in China and most other markets it operates in, the company has a tie-up with online retailer Flipkart to sell its products in India. To get people accustomed to shop through its own portal though, the company recently came up with the novel strategy of offering its products on its webstore for only Rs. 1 ($0.02). The company is expected to launch its next generation flagship smartphone, the Mi 5, as early as next month according to a recent rumor, as a follow up to its current-generation flagship, the Mi 4.