Why Xiaomi smartphone dominance is increasing in India?

Chinese tech company Xiaomi has taken possession of the low-cost smartphone market in India within a few years. But how did this happen? They try to understand the things talked to the tech experts to understand.

15 minutes — This was the time it took to sell Xiaomi’s new smartphone, the Redmi Note 8 when it was put online for a ‘flash sale’.

This is not a new thing for the company, rather it is an important part of the company’s India strategy. Technology affairs journalist Suman Neer said, “You have to register online first and then keep an eye on these flash sales. You can shop as soon as it starts.”

However, Xiaomi’s mobiles are also found in offline stores. Most of the new models are sold online first which is more than half of the company’s sale.

Xiaomi came in the Indian market in 2015. According to Jayant Kola, partner of telecom research firm Convergence Catalyst, the company did not invest in building stores in India.

Instead, he focused on selling his products online. This reduced the distribution cost, due to which phones became cheaper.

Rajesh Kapoor says that “his online presence increased the number of people he liked in India. With this Xiaomi emerged as a big player in the country’s smartphone market.”

Chinese companies control more than half of India’s growing smartphone market. He has more than 45 crore customers here. That means Xiaomi has an eight billion dollar market in India.

Xiaomi, whose mobile brand is often called the “iPhone of the poor”. He holds a 28% market share in India. In 2016, the company’s stake was limited to just 3%.

Suman says, “Company brought phones that looked like iPhones. Their products were compared to the first batch of Apple products and the company was criticized for this.”

But it was not just that Xiaomi’s phones looked like iPhones. These phones had a lot of features and hardware, which made the Indians feel that their money has been recovered.

For example, he got a 64-megapixel camera on Redmi’s phone. These phones started from Rs 9,999 to Rs 17,999.

Indian customers went on pulling towards these phones, which looked like iPhones. But his price was one-third of that.

Kapoor says, “Everybody needs an iPhone, but until they can afford an iPhone, they work with a phone that looks like it.”

He explains that “His company found in research that when a person’s income increases, he buys a ‘better smartphone’. He is either Apple or Samsung.”

Says Kapoor, “The reason for their popularity in India is the lack of prices. Customers are getting better features than ever before.”

Siraj, a technology affairs analyst, says, “There was a time when India’s brand like Micromax was at the forefront of the market. But everything changed around 2016 and 2017 after 4G came to India.”

By the time 4G came to India, Chinese companies had achieved success by selling cheap 4G technology phones at home.

According to Shah, “So it became very easy for them to come to India from 3G to 4G phones overnight. It ended the Indian brand.”

But there is still a lot of competition in the Indian market and no single company is able to dominate it for much longer.

Since last year, the market share of Xiaomi has increased to 28 per cent. Korean tech company Samsung is slightly behind at 25%. Chinese brands like Realme are also becoming very popular among Indian customers.

Earlier this year, when the new series of ‘K-20’ phones came, Xiaomi was rolled.

In an interview with a newspaper in July, Indian director of Xiaomi, Manu Jain, says, “A few years ago the company’s share in India’s smartphone market was three to four per cent. Now it has increased.”

However, Kapoor says that if Xiaomi wants to reach Apple and Samsung equally, then the company will have to try more. He says, “If they do not bring new technology and new products, then they will continue to sell cheap phones.”

Originally published at https://www.mubahisa.in.