Xiaomi is planning to launch new products during Diwali to ensure that the festive season is utilized to the fullest. Not just new handsets, the Chinese phone maker is looking to expand its product categories in India as well, offering value for money products across segments. This move is mainly to reduce the timeline between product launches, especially in India which happens to be the company’s biggest market outside China, reported Economic Times.
To ensure service and product delivery is perfectly taken care of, Xiaomi is also hiring a lot of people across functions. With the new product launches fixed around Diwali, there will be a strain on the resources to provide the level of service they are known for and ramp up the production process to keep up with the sales numbers. Amongst categories, one could see the Mi Box (turns any TV into a smart TV), routers, air and water purifiers, drones, laptops, and even smart rice cookers, being launched during the festival season.
Manu Jain, Head of Indian operations at Xiaomi mentioned, “We’re considering launching some of these products in India. It purely depends on how ready the market is and also our capability of giving availability and after sales service.” That is the reason the company is hiring across product categories, where different teams will be designated for sales, marketing, after-sales and technical support in each category since the logistics and expertise needed are different.
Xiaomi is crunching some serious numbers in India as well. Launched in July 2014, the company now sells in excess of 1 million per quarter; this year the Redmi Note 3 has been the hottest selling product, with 1 million units having being sold since mid-March and 600,000 units in the 2 months prior to that. The company managed to sell 150,000 units of the Redmi 1s and 150,000 powerbank units during its first Diwali outing, and their numbers last year were very similar.
Manu Jain also spoke of the Diwali sale from Xiaomi, speaking about the plans, saying “We’re considering launching some of these products in India. It purely depends on how ready the market is and also our capability of giving availability and after sales service.” There are also plans for launching both the Redmi 3 editions through an open-sale model on August 9 and August 14. The units are to be made at their plant in Sri City, Andhra Pradesh.