The company launched Xiaomi 14 Ultra priced at Rs 99,999 apiece and Xiaomi 14 for Rs 59,999 per unit
New Delhi: Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi on Thursday marked a shift in its business strategy to move towards premiumisation of its portfolio with the launch of the most expensive Xiaomi 14 series smartphones from its stable in India.
The company launched Xiaomi 14 Ultra priced at Rs 99,999 apiece and Xiaomi 14 for Rs 59,999 per unit.
“We have come out with a multi-year game plan. We realise that the market is changing. GDP is growing, people have a lot more disposable income and a lot more aspirations.
“We need to be someone who can tap into that aspiration. Our multi-year goal right now is to be aspirational Indians’ most preferred and pioneering smartphone into AiOT brand,” Xiaomi India President Muralikrishanan B told PTI.
He said that the new strategy of the company will have three approaches, comprising end-to-end premiumisation.
“The first goal is to engage in total premiumisation of the entire business. The second is to drive and integrate Smartphones into the AIoT (artificial intelligence-based Internet of Things) ecosystem. Now, we are getting to the 5G era, which is an era of convergence,” Muralikrishanan said.
He said consumers and markets are changing from 3G, which was about connectivity, then came 4G, which was about experiences like buying food, mutual funds etc from phones and now 5G is about the convergence of various devices.
“Aspiring Indians, who have money to spend, will spend on a connected smart lifestyle. This is a multi-year goal,” Muralikrishanan said.
He, however, said the Rs 10,000-25,000 smartphone segment will continue to be much larger in terms of business than premium devices.
According to Cybermedia Research, Xiaomi led the smartphone market in the December 2023 quarter while Samsung was the market leader for the entire calendar year.
Xiaomi has collaborated with German high-end camera company Leica for the Xiaomi 14 series.
Xiaomi Ultra will come with a professional 50-megapixel quad-camera setup, 1.6 days of usage, supported by 5000 mAh battery, 16 GB system memory, 512 GB internal storage capacity and will go on mass sale from April 12.
The mass sale of Xiaomi 14 will begin on March 11.
