THE IDC, or "International Data Corporation", last Thursday announced that Xiaomi has shipped 11.7 millions of devices in India in the third quarter of this year and which stands in first place among smartphone manufacturers with 27,3% market share, leaving second place the giant Samsung. A great achievement for Xiaomi in a country that has recently been experiencing a moment of monetary crisis not indifferent: in fact some time ago the Indian rupee suffered a sharp devaluation and this led to a general price increase, including Xiaomi mobile devices. A week ago, Xiaomi India announced:
"As you know, the rupee has depreciated against the dollar by almost 15% since the beginning of the year and this has led to a significant increase in production costs for us. To offset this gap some of our products will suffer price increases compared to those announced during their launch in September ".
Among the devices in question were Redmi 6, Redmi 6A, Mi TV LED 4C Pro 32 "and Mi TV LED 4A Pro 49". This question obviously it did not concern only Xiaomi but all the companies present in the Indian territory included Realme and Samsung.
But let's go back to Guinness World Record: today Xiaomi India does not celebrate properly for the sale and export of smartphones in the country, but because the 29 October 500 retail stores were opened simultaneously in 14 countries on the continent. But the expansion does not end here! In fact, the plans are to open up 5000 throughout the 2019!
For this occasion Manu Kumar Jain, Vice President and Managing Director of Xiaomi India, shared a thought for the success achieved:
"It's a very special moment for Xiaomi India because it is celebrating yet another world record of Guinness after having reached only two months ago: sWe were the first smartphone brand in India for 5 consecutive quarters. Over the past few quarters, the offline segment has been a great success for us, with our offline market share growing by about 40 times in a year. While our Mi Home & Mi Preferred Partner stores have performed exceptionally well in metropolises and large cities, our presence in smaller towns and villages has been negligible until now.
The sale offline is still a huge segment in our country with almost 40% of the market focused in rural regions. As a brand, we strive to ensure that all of our MiFi fans can easily access and make the most of our incredible products of the highest quality at incredibly honest prices. With these new retail measures, we are taking a further step forward and acting as a gateway to building a "smarter India" where all Mi Fan and consumers across rural India also have the power to exploit the better than technology. We believe this move will transform many lives for the better and we promise to continue to bring them the best of innovative products and an innovative brand experience. "
The importance of this goal is our awareness that Xiaomi is expanding not only in densely populated metropolises like maybe Bangaluru (where the biggest Mi Store was opened recently), but also in rural areas. This is very important for the philosophy of Xiaomi as it brings the brand at the same time to get closer to more users and make understand that the devices can be accessible to all, without difference in social status, employment and salary. Personally I think this is a strong point of our beloved brand, which tries hard to break into the market to open the eyes to the average user and make them understand that the quality at a good price is there and is reachable.
For the moment we can not help but wish India a good fortune for the recovery of the monetary situation, also hoping that the prices of the devices will all fall and return to the figure they had before. We Italians ... well, we can also celebrate for two reasons, even if we have not reached any record: in fact today at 14.00 Xiaomi has officially opened the online sale through the site Mi.com, making sure that all users unable to reach physical stores, from today can buy smartphones, accessories and appliances with the Italian guarantee. Second reason to celebrate is that a few days ago has opened the new Mi Store in the evocative setting of Venice.
[…] Simultaneous opening of 500 points of sale in India; [...]