Xiaomi, a company that makes a case for the quickest, most widely accepted and preferred company in India since it’s launch in 2014, has revealed that it has sold over 200 million smartphones in India till date.
The company announced the sales number at a media conference on Wednesday, where it also pledged future commitment to the Indian market, which not only is the second largest smartphone market in the world, but also one of Xiaomi’s largest cash generators. Xiaomi has been consistently leading the Indian smartphone market since the year 2017, courtesy their competitive product quality offerings in the lower to upper midrange segments, which is the range where a vast majority of Indian smartphone consumers prefer to spend their money in.
Xiaomi has logged in impressive sales numbers, in an environment that hasn’t been the most conducive to their presence in recent times. The Central Government has been cracking down on various Chinese smartphone manufacturers like Vivo, Oppo and Xiaomi, accusing them of tax evasion practices. While the companies have expectedly denied any such operations, the matter even caused the Chinese embassy in India to take a stance, as it said that actions like the ones being taken by New Delhi “impede the improvement of [the] business environment,” and also makes other foreign conglomerates hesitant towards making major moves in the Indian market.
Over the last two years, the diplomatic relations between India and China have not been perfect. Over this time period, India has seen multiple ban waves for Chinese apps like TikTok and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. Galwan Valley military standoff only worked towards worsening the situation, as the one thing predictable about the Indian public is, they have a marked respect for their armed forces.
While it is certainly practical for India to reduce, if not complete eliminate, it’s reliance on Chinese developers for software, the lack of high quality metallic and semi conductor raw materials presents a close to unsolveable bottleneck when it comes to local hardware manufacturing. Despite that, India has been making moves to improve in that regard. Recently, Apple increased the number of iPhone models being manufactured in Indian factories.
Bringing foreign smartphone manufacturers to set up shop locally has been a slow process, and Indian smartphone manufacturers like Micromax, Karbonn and Lava have fallen well behind the race in terms of innovation and quality.
Ever since Xiaomi launched in India in 2014, it has quickly diversified from just smartphones, becoming a significant player for smartphone accesories like Battery banks, true wireless earphones, chargers and more. It has also introduced it’s AppleTV and Amazon Fire TV rivals Mi TV Box and Mi TV stick. The company also manufactures budget range QLED TV panels among other things.
