Xiaomi aping China playbook to win India’s market

Xiaomi, the world’s most valuable startup and China’s largest smartphone manufacturer, is upping its game with a redesigned version of its flagship Mi 4i phone that has been tweaked to fit the needs of its second-largest market.

“We have big plans for India,” Hugo Barra, Xiaomi’s vice president for global operations, said at a glitzy launch event.

“We are here to build an Indian company.”

Developed in a little over 18 months, the Mi 4i—with a relatively affordable price tag of Rs12,000 ($205)—is Xiaomi’s attempt to make deeper inroads into India, the world’s fastest growing smartphone market.

“In India, you need the largest possible battery,” Barra said. The Mi 4i has been designed to last for more than a day and a half, with a new processor designed in India by Qualcomm.

The Chinese firm had already worked its way to the fifth spot in the Indian smartphone market, with a 4% market share during the October-December quarter. South Korea’s Samsung is still the market leader, followed closely by India’s own Micromax.

Part of Xiaomi’s playbook is to build a cult following, even though its phones have mass-market reach in China and beyond.

The Mi 4i launch took place before a raucous crowd of 1,500 Xiomi fans at Delhi’s Siri Fort auditorium. They were the lucky ones who got a ticket of the more than 12,000 fans who registered for the event, according to a Xiaomi spokesperson.

The fans, sporting orange Xiaomi t-shirts, waited for almost three hours in the scorching sun. They included doctors, engineers, and business professionals.