Will consumers pay Rs 50,000 for Xiaomi’s Mi 10 in India?

Xiaomi's Mi 10

 

On May 8, 2020, Xiaomi India MD Manu Kumar Jain launched the company’s Mi 10 5G flagship via a virtual event. The Chinese tech giant considers the Mi 10 the crème de la crème of Android smartphones with its stunning OLED display, 108MP camera, Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 865 chipset and fast charging. While the specs and features were largely known, it was the Mi 10’s Rs 49,999 price tag that garnered a lot of media attention. And that’s just the base price for the new Mi 10, which could cost you as much as Rs 54,999 fully-loaded. With the launch of Mi 10, Xiaomi officially re-enters India’s high-end smartphone market, where it will compete with Apple, Samsung and OnePlus.

(video credit : Mi Youtube)

For a brand that is famous for its budget Redmi series, Xiaomi’s gradual shift to the premium segment in its most successful international market was long expected. Xiaomi had been trying to get into India’s high-end smartphone market for quite some time, though it never got real success. Its last flagship phone was the Mi Mix 2, which made its debut in 2017.

“The switch to the premium segment is not a huge challenge for Xiaomi in India,” said Rajeev Nair, Senior analyst at Strategy Analytics. “The brand [Xiaomi] attracts a lot of online audiences and these audiences are slowly graduating to the next level.”

Xiaomi MD Manu Jain along with his team members ahead of the virtual launch event. (Image credit: Xiaomi India/Twitter page)

While it’s true Xiaomi wasn’t able to resonate with premium smartphone buyers with its past devices, a lot has changed since 2017. The market for high-end smartphones, especially above Rs 30,000, has grown significantly in a short time in India. The rise of OnePlus as well as the runaway success of iPhone XR and iPhone 11 shows that consumers are willing to pay for phones if they offer real value. Secondly, Xiaomi is now a household name in India, thanks to the popularity of the Redmi Note series, Mi TVs and Mi Air Purifiers. In fact, in the mobile phone space, Xiaomi is the leading smartphone maker with a 30 per cent market, according to Hong Kong-based market research firm Counterpoint.

SOURCE :  INDIAN EXPRESS

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