Hyderabad: China's smartphone maker Xiaomi Inc. launched its first made in India phone, the Redmi 2 Prime, and announced a tie-up with Taiwan contract manufacturer Foxconn to assemble its handsets in the country.
Redmi 2 Prime, an enhanced version of Redmi 2 with 2GB RAM and 16 GB flash memory is priced at Rs 6,999.
Launching the product in Vishkhapatnam Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said that his government was providing the ideal eco-system to make Andhra Pradesh (AP) a manufacturing hub for hardware.
Naidu also hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ‘Make in India' initiative saying, “Xiaomi's entry would boost the image of the State as a investment destination.”
Xiaomi will produce smartphones at Sri City near Tada and will sell phones with 100 per cent indigenous production within 14 months.
Xiaomi Global Vice-President Hugo Barra said manufacturing smartphones locally was a significant step towards incorporating Xiaomi into the fabric of India.
Xiaomi clocked sales of 3 million devices by July-end to be among the top seven smartphone vendors in India and may be the only handset vendor to start making phones in the country within a year of entering the market.
Xiaomi-India head Manu Jain said they had lot of plans for India without specifying their investment roadmap for future.
The facility will focus only on manufacturing smartphones.
“We would make smartphones to cater to the local demand and we are not looking at exporting smartphones now,” said Jain.
Jain also said the company may consider exporting devices from India, while focusing on Make in India for now.
Xiaomi has sold 61 million handsets in its first four years. It also diversified into Mi Note Pro, Mi Note, Mi TV, and other products.
