Chinese handset maker Xiaomi on Tuesday announced its foray into the Indian market with the launch of its flagship Mi 3 smartphone in an exclusive partnership with e-commerce marketplace Flipkart. Mi3 has been priced at Rs 13,999 and will go on sale on July 22.
The pre-registration for the smartphone is now open at Flipkart and only those customers who register till July 21 midnight will be eligible to purchase the device on the sale day.
Xiaomi has sold 10 million units of Mi3 – its highest performing smartphone ? so far. Its Android-based platform ? MIUI ? is a live operating system constantly improving with frequent software updates.
Powered by its customised Google Android user interface, MIUI V5, Mi 3 smartphone has a 5-inch Full HD 1080p LCD touch display and sports Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 800 2.3GHz processor, Adreno 330 450 MHz GPU, 2 GB RAM, and eMMC 4.5 flash memory of 16 GB. The smartphone has a 13 megapixels rear camera and a 2 MP front camera with both supporting HD video recording and has a 3050mAh lithium-ion battery.
In addition, Xiaomi, which is touted as the Apple of China, also announced that it will launch the affordable Redmi 1S smartphone and Redmi Note over the next few weeks. The 4.7-inch Redmi 1S, which will retail at Rs 6,999, is likely to be launched in the first part of August and the 5.5-inch Redmi Note, set to be available in the later part of next month, will be available for Rs 9,999.
Talking about their India foray, Bin Lin, co-founder and President, Xiaomi, said, ?We see India as a huge opportunity for us and are excited about bringing Mi products to this market. Just like in our other markets, we will strive to provide users with incredible value, and the best customer experience possible.?
Speaking to reporters on bringing their flagship device to India, Hugo Barra, Vice President, Xiaomi Global, added: ?Mi 3 is the fastest Mi phone ever. We are very excited to offer one of the world?s most powerful smartphones in India at an incredibly affordable price point. We hope Indian users will love MIUI, our super intuitive Android-based operating system.”
Localisation will be key to Xiaomi’s fortunes in India, where it will have to convince users to turn away from the apps and services they are used to and adopt Xiaomi’s own system.
Talking about the company?s India operations head, Manu Jain, said ?We are starting with 36 service centres across top 20 cities, two exclusive centres in Bangalore and Delhi, a hotline that operates 7 days a week and our partner Flipkart, with its world-class technology and customer service, will be key to providing good experience of our products.?
Commenting on the partnership, Flipkart co-founder & CEO Sachin Bansal, said, ?We are a technology-focused company with innovation as part of our DNA ? and this complements what Xiaomi stands for globally. Mi3 has the potential to make a difference in the smartphone market? We look forward to launch of the device next week and other products soon.?
Xiaomi was founded in 2010 by entrepreneur Lei Jun. The Beijing-headquartered company, which brought together several top executives from Microsoft, Google, Kingsoft, Motorola, Yahoo and other IT companies, has become one of China’s biggest electronics companies that designs, develops and sells smartphones, mobile apps and other such consumer items.
Xiaomi became the world’s sixth-largest smartphone vendor in the first quarter of 2014, according to data firm Canalys. The company, valued at $10 billion last year. In the first six months of 2014, Xiaomi sold 26.11 mn handsets with 271% growth. The company sold 18.7 million handsets last year.
