Xiaomi has hinted at releasing its Wi-Fi 6 router in India, and while Reddy didn’t confirm outright, it is possible Xiaomi will try its hand once again given that everyone is working from home now. Another product that didn’t quite meet Xiaomi’s scale is the Mi Air Purifier. Xiaomi is the dominant player in this category, but Reddy mentioned that the air purifier category as a whole accounted for just 250,000 to 300,000 sales in India last year.
As for long-term strategy, Reddy mentioned that Xiaomi plans to launch two to three “easy” ecosystem products in India a year; products that don’t need any additional customization and don’t have to go through a lengthy certification process, like the Mi TWS 2 and the Redmi-branded true wireless earbuds.
In addition to this, Xiaomi is leveraging its crowdsourced platform — Mi Crowdfunding — to bring a few products to India that don’t necessarily fit into its broader market play. We’ve already seen the introduction of the Mi Screwdriver Kit, and the Mi Electric Toothbrush T100 is now live on the platform for just ₹549 ($7.25). Interestingly, Xiaomi went the crowdsourced route for the Mi Robot Vacuum as well, and while that particular product didn’t meet its initial plan of 10,000 backers, Xiaomi updated the goal to 3,000 units and has ensured backers that they will get their hands on the vacuum.
All of Xiaomi’s ecosystem products — from the robot vacuum to the water and air purifiers and smart lights — connect to the Mi Home app. It serves as the hub for all of Xiaomi’s IoT efforts, and it already has 40 million MAUs (monthly active users) — with a majority of users located in China. By bringing the ecosystem products to India, Xiaomi is now looking to diversify its brand and position the Mi label as more than just a phone brand.
Ultimately, Xiaomi is being very strategic about what sort of products it brings to India. The Mi TV illustrates this point well: the smart TV segment in India accounted for just 15% of all TV sales prior to the debut of the Mi TV back in 2018; that number is now at 50%. Reddy mentioned that Xiaomi isn’t necessarily looking to be the first in a category, but if it can provide enough differentiation with its products, it will bring them to India. What that means is that you can look forward to a lot of exciting products to make their way to India over the coming months and years.
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