For a company that launched its first phone in the country a little over nine months ago, Xiaomi has made quite an impact on the Indian market. While its inaugural launch, the Xiaomi Mi 3, targeted the big boys by offering specifications similar to Android flagships by Samsung, Sony, and HTC at one-third the price, the Xiaomi Redmi 1S redefined customer expectations in terms of what a sub-Rs. 6, 000 smartphone could offer.
The Xiaomi formula has struck a chord with the value-conscious Indian consumer, winning the company a host of’Mi fans’. It is now the fifth-largest smartphone vendor in the country, and India is Xiaomi’s biggest overseas market, indicating how far the company has come in the relatively short time.
However, the problem with offering a great deal to consumers is that there’s always a better one going around - as Xiaomi found with the launch of Mi 4. The smartphone launched in India with a price tag that was nearly 50 percent higher than Mi 3’s, disappointing value-seeking Mi fans who had come to expect that Xiaomi would pull the proverbial rabbit out of the bargain hat with every big launch.