Xiaomi Corp (小米) is to start selling smartphones in Brazil this month, its first market for the low-priced devices outside Asia.
Xiaomi’s Redmi 2 is to sell for 499 reais (US$160) online as the company’s first handset made outside China, Xiaomi vice president for global operations Hugo Barra said in a telephone interview from Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Sales in Thailand, Vietnam and Russia might start within the next 12 months, he said.
Photo: EPA
Tapping Taiwan’s Foxconn Technology Group (富士康) unit FIH Mobile Ltd (富智康) to assemble the Redmi 2 in Brazil portends more manufacturing outside China, Barra said.
“We do have plans to manufacture in India through our partners,” Barra said, declining to name the companies it would team up with. “We probably will make an announcement in the next few months.”
Manufacturing in Brazil, which began this week, took more than a year to organize in conjunction with FIH Mobile, Barra said.
The Redmi 2 has a 4.7-inch screen and an 8-megapixel rear camera.
Xiaomi sells directly to consumers online, bypassing telecoms in most markets, to reduce costs, it said.
Xiaomi has no timeline for when it might sell phones in the US, with Mexico and Colombia more likely to be its next markets in the Americas, Barra said.
He did not give a time frame for sales in those countries.
Meanwhile, Taiwan-based smartphone vendor HTC Corp (宏達電) might find an alternative sales source in booming India to offset the impact from escalating competition in other global markets.
On Monday, a report by India’s ETTelecom.com said that HTC has signed an agreement with contract manufacturer Global Device Network Co to roll out entry-level and mid-range smartphones in India.
The trial production run is expected to start later this month, making HTC the second international brand to produce smartphones in India, after South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co.
HTC did not confirm the report, but the company on Tuesday said it would sponsor NorthEast United Football Club, a team in the Indian Super League, for the second consecutive year.
In a statement, HTC chairwoman Cher Wang (王雪紅) said that in the first quarter of this year, HTC’s sales in India rose 150 percent from the prior year.
Additional reporting by CNA
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