Xiaomi says no real impact of Coronavirus yet, got back-up inventory for few weeks

Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi said that there has not been a major impact on its operations in India as yet due to the spread of Coronavirus. In an exclusive conversation with Zee Business, Anuj Sharma – Chief Marketing Officer – Xiaomi India, said that the company is hopeful that the situation gets better in the coming days, but in any case, it has a back-up for a few weeks which should ensure smooth operations. 

“In India, things are still not that bad as some of the other countries. The number of infected patients is still less than 100 and hopefully, things will get better in the coming days. We usually have backups for a few week. Things in China are better too, some of our factories are running again…so, there is no problem as such,” Anuj said.

Xiaomi on Thursday launched two new smartphones as part of its Redmi Note series in India – Redmi Note 9 Pro and Redmi Note 9 Pro Max. Both the smartphones were launched online after the company decided to cancel the on ground event due to the concerns over COVID-19.

The Pro Max model is a new addition to the Note family with the company hoping to give more options to its customers.

"The Note 9 Pro picks up from where the Note 8 Pro left last year. We want to offer a better experience to our users and offer more options at different price points. That’s where the Pro Max model comes in. You get a 64-megapixel camera on it, a bigger battery and 33W fast charging support,” Anuj said.

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Both the smartphones from Xiaomi come with support for Indian Space Research Organization's (ISRO) indigenously developed navigation system, the NavIC. The Redmi Note 9 Pro price in India starts from Rs 12,999 while the base model of the Pro Max variant costs Rs 14,999. The line-up covers the entire Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000 segment with different variants. 

Asked how Xiaomi plans to differentiate the new smartphones from the already-in-the-market Redmi Note 8 Pro and Poco X2 (priced in the same segment), Anuj said that Poco is a separate company now and Redmi is ready to compete with it too.

“The Note 8 series did exceptionally well for us. Historically speaking, the smartphone sales in India go down immediately after Diwali. So, I was a bit worried. But, both the Note 8 series devices continue to sell even now. As far as Poco goes, we look at it as a separate company altogether now. It is up to them to decide what they want to offer to their customers. And at any point if we have to compete with them, we will,” he added.

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Interestingly, Poco’s first smartphone after going independent in India was last month’s Poco X2 – a rebranded variant of the Redmi K30 launched in China. However, Anuj confirms that Xiaomi plans to continue the ‘K’ series after the great response it got for the Redmi K20 and K20 Pro last year.

“How and when it happens is something we are yet to decide,” he said.

Asked whether we can expect the new smartphones in the series in the first half of 2020, Anuj said, “Well, it depends on a lot of factors. There are several things we need to look at but the Redmi K series will continue for sure.”

Needless to say that one of the deciding factors could be coronavirus.