New Delhi: Xiaomi has launched Redmi Note and Redmi Note 4G phablets in India at Rs 8,999 and Rs 9,999, respectively.
Redmi Note will be available exclusively on Flipkart starting December 2. Registration will start November 25 at 6pm. Redmi Note 4G will be available in the second half of December.
Xiaomi claims that it will offer more than 50,000 units during the first sale.
Redmi Note sports a 5.5-inch 720 p IPS display, has a 13MP primary camera and 5MP secondary camera. The phablet runs on 1.7GHz MediaTek MT6589T octa-core processor, and has 2GB RAM. It also offers its users 8GB of internal storage and can hold microSD cards of upto 32GB. Powered by Xiaomi’s MIUI OS, Redmi Note has 3100mAh battery and is priced at Rs 8,999.
The 4G version of the Redmi Note is powered by a 1.6GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 quad core processor. The other specifications are similar except that the Redmi Note 4G is a single sim phone.
Xiaomi informed it has sold 10 million units of the Redmi Note across the world.
Xiaomi has also partnered with Airtel to sell Redmi Note 4G through its 100 flagship outlets in six cities. Buyers will also need to register online to pick up the phone from the Airtel store.
During its launch in Singapore, 5,000 units of Redmi Note, priced at S$199 (Rs 9,600 approximately), were sold out in just 42 seconds.
Xiaomi – the new No.3 smartphone vendor in the world
China’s Xiaomi has become the world’s third-largest smartphone vendor just three years after first hitting the market, trailing only Samsung Electronics and Apple, according to a new industry study.
Strategy Analytics said Xiaomi accounted for 6% of all 320 million smartphones shipped during July-September. It replaces LG, which is now the fourth-biggest manufacturer with 5% market share. Samsung made up 25%, down from 35% a year earlier due to rising competition from several directions. Apple, the second-biggest smartphone maker, saw its market share dip from 13.4% to 12.3%.
“Xiaomi was the star performer,” Strategy Analytics executive director Neil Mawston said in a statement.”Samsung continues to face tough competition from Apple at the higher-end of the smartphone market, from Xiaomi and Huawei in the middle-tiers, and from Lenovo and others at the entry-level.”
Xiaomi has been the top seller in its home market of China and recently entered India, where it sells phones exclusively through e-commerce site Flipkart.
Vice president Hugo Barra told Reuters in Bangalore last month that the company aimed to sell 100,000 phones a week in India in October when the country celebrates Diwali.
