Xiaomi ups offline play, to launch more products this year

NEW DELHI: Chinese tech major Xiaomi will expand offline presence in India and bring more products including air purifiers later this year to make a stronger push into the country's booming Internet ecosystem.

The company, which partnered Redington last year to mark foray into physical retail stores, said it will expand to "one more region in the country".
"We started with South India with select cities like Hyderabad and Bengaluru and are now present in thousands of stores in south. This year, we will add one more region," Xiaomi India Head Manu Jain told reporters here.

He, however, declined to share the details.

Xiaomi, which entered Indian market in 2014 in an online-exclusive model with Flipkart, now has Redington, The Mobile Store and Airtel as partners to sell devices offline.

"Currently, 90% of our sales in India are online and the remaining is offline. In steady state, in China, it is a 70-30 (online-offline) split," Jain said.
According to industry reports, one in three smartphones are sold online in the country. India is one of the fastest growing markets for smartphones, growing in double digits, even as mature markets and China are witnessing a slowdown.

He added the company is following a Direct to Retail (DTR) model, under which many levels of offline channels are eliminated to ensure significantly lower cost of distribution. Xiaomi Global Vice President Hugo Barra said the company is also looking at bringing in more products into the Indian market, including air purifiers later this year.

"Apart from smartphones, we are looking at bringing in an ecosystem of devices. We are an Internet company and the intent is to bring latest devices and services at the right price for the consumers," he added.

Xiaomi today launched its latest flagship device Mi5, priced at Rs 24,999 in Indian market.

First showcased at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona last month, the device will go up for sale on April 6 on Mi.com. In the following weeks, it will be available through other retailers.

The dual-SIM Mi5 features a 5.15-inch screen with curved 3D Ceramic glass, is powered by a 1.8GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor. The device has 3GB RAM, 32GB memory, 16MP rear and 4MP front camera and 3,000 mAh battery.

"We are bringing the device in India within a month of China launch. The USD 300 and above smartphone category is small at under six million units last year and is expected to be about 7.5 million this year. This segment is dominated by two players and we think we can make a mark in this category with our flagship offering," Barra said.