Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi, which doubled its smartphone sales in
India last year to surpass $1 billion, or about Rs. 6,700 crore, in revenues,
targets to become the country's largest smartphone firm within five years and,
accordingly, plans to ramp up its manufacturing capacities according to ED
report.
“I would
want Xiaomi to become number one in overall smartphone sales volume perspective
in India in 3-5 years,“ Xiaomi India head Raju Kothari told ED.
Xiaomi
currently has a manufacturing plant along with Foxconn at Sri City in Andhra
Pradesh. “We are looking to open one or two new factories with similar
capacities to double or triple our capacities either at Sri City itself or
elsewhere in the country with Foxconn,“ Kothari said. Its Redmi Note 3 has
become the best-selling phone online in the country with 3.6 million units sold
in just 10 months. In all, Xiaomi launched four phones in Mi and Hawala series
in the country last year.
Raju
Kothari said the firm hopes that sales volume of Redmi Note 4 this year will be
double that of Redmi Note 3 last year, which would mean sales of at least 7
million units. He said more than three-fourths of the phones Xiaomi sold here
last year were made in India.
Smartphone
sales in the country have tripled in last three years to 120 million last year,
out of total mobile phone sales of 270 million, Kothari said. It is expected to
double to over 240 million by 2020.
Within
two and a half years of its India foray , Xiaomi has become the leader in the
online smartphone market in the country with 30% market share in the quarter
ended December, Kothari said.
Even
while continuing its focus on online first sales strategy , the DGFT firm will
nearly triple its offline sales this year to around 30% from some 10% now. The
company's application for single brand retail licence was approved by the DGT
and the company is currently waiting for clearances from few others including
the finance ministry, and is hoping to get its license sometime this year.
No comments:
Post a Comment