Beijing/New Delhi: Bullishon the success of its Redmi series — especially in the Indian market —Chinese handset maker Xiaomi has announced it is making Redmi an independentbrand. The announcement essentially makes Redmi — originally introduced as abudget smartphone line-up by the company in July 2013 — a subsidiary ofXiaomi, like Realme of OPPO. “Xiaomi has announced to make ‘Redmi’ anindependent brand. The new brand has already scheduled a launch event onJanuary 10 in China where it will launch its first smartphone with a48-megapixel camera sensor,” Gizmo China reported late on Thursday,quoting Lei Jun, founder of the company.
Xiaomi’spocket-friendly Redmi and Redmi Note series have been the most popular for thecompany so far. According to Jun, the reason behind splitting up Redmi andXiaomi is the “focus”. “While the Redmi brand focuses onvalue-for-money budget smartphones, the Mi brand is focused on high-enddevices. Also, the Redmi devices are primarily sold through e-commerceplatforms while Mi devices are not e-commerce focused,” Lei was quoted assaying on Chinese micro-blogging site Weibo. Riding on the success of itsbudget Redmi series, Xiaomi touched a new high in the third quarter of 2018 inIndia.
Accordingto International Data Corporation (IDC), Xiaomi shipped 11.7 million units andbecame the top brand in the Indian market with 27.3 per cent share in the thirdquarter of 2018. Xiaomi grew to a new high on the back of its successful Redmi5A and Redmi Note 5 Pro series and refreshed Redmi 6/A/Pro portfolio, added theIDC report. Thanks to its robust sales in India and Europe, Xiaomi reported a49.1 per cent year-on-year increase in revenue for its third quarter of 2018 asnet profit reached 2.48 billion yuan ($357.23 million).
