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'Apple Of China' To Establish Foothold In India(dpa-AFX International Compact Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) BRASILIA (dpa-AFX) - Xiaomi Corp, the smart phone maker that outsmarted Samsung and Apple premium brands in China, is all set to establish a toehold in India, on a wider plan to conquer other parts of the globe. The decision of the Chinese smart phone maker to establish research and development division in Bangalore is vital as India, along with China and Brazil would account for one third of smart phones users by 2015. India's smart phone market has been growing at a very fast pace for the last two years. It is estimated that, India and China would have 508 million phones by end of 2014, when the worldwide smart phone users would reach 1.75 billion. According to market projections, total mobile users would be around 4.55 billion in 2014, that would cross 5 billion by 2017. The growth of India is really amazing when you analyze smart phone penetration statistics for the last two years. In 2012, UAE topped with 61 percent smart phones, while Australia and UK were just behind with 52 and 51 percent respectively. China's market penetration was only 33 percent at that time, when India had a meager 4 percent market share. In the first quarter of 2013, India recorded 163 percent growth year over year, and the rest of the world grew by only 35.9 percent. Hugo Barra, global vice president of Xiaomi Wednesday said in New Delhi that the brand managed to sell more than 90 thousand Xiaomi Mi3 smart phones through flash sales on Flipkart e-commerce site since its launch on July 15. The sixth sale of 20 thousand units were polished off in seconds. Featuring a high end Snapdragon 800, the pricing of Mi3 Android with a 5-inch HD display is INR 13,999 or $234. Xiaomi's new budget phone Remi 1S with a price tag of INR 5999 or $99, will be available in India by September 2. The company is not planning to advertise in print media or to run television commercials to stick on to competitive pricing. The four-year-old smart phone company with its base in Beijing, emerged to the first spot with 15 million shipping in 2014 and managed to hold 14 percent of market share at its homeland in the second-quarter compared to 5 percent in the prior year. Samsung, which has been the leader in smart phone business in China, recorded 13.2 million shipping but had only 12 percent market share in the second quarter with a sequential decline of 6 percent. Xiaomi is also planning to spread out in Russia and Brazil. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX |