 "Xiaomi says 75% of phones sold in India made locally")
Seven months since it launched assembly unit in Vishakhapatnam, Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi today said about 75% of its phones sold in the country are now 'Made in India'.
In August last year, Xiaomi had partnered Taiwanese firm Foxconn to set up local assembly of its phones to cater to one of the world's fastest growing smartphone markets globally.
"Within months, we have seen the unit being ramped up and now 75% of phones are Made in India. It is a herculean feat that we have been able to do," Xiaomi Global Vice President Hugo Barra told PTI.
He, however, declined to disclose details on sales and production numbers.
India is one of the largest markets for Xiaomi globally
. The company assembles devices like Redmi 2 and Redmi Note in India.
Xiaomi also launched its latest device Redmi Note 3 here, priced at Rs 9,999 onwards. The device had made a global debut in November last year.
The company has already sold one million units of Redmi Note that was launched in 2014.
The Redmi Note 3 features Qualcomm's Snapdragon 650 chipset and will come in two variants - 16 GB (with 2 GB of RAM) and 32 GB (with 3 GB of RAM) for Rs 11,999.
With its price tag, the handset will compete with the likes of Lenovo's Vibe K4 Note and LeEco's Le 1s.
The device will go on sale on March 9 on Mi.com and Amazon.in.
Barra said Xiaomi will launch its Mi5 handset in the next one month. It also unveiled a bluetooth speaker for Rs 1,999.
With a 5.5-inch display, the 4G dual SIM handset runs Android-based OS MIUI 7 and includes a fingerprint sensor. It also has a 4,050 mAh battery and measures just 8.65 mm at its thickest point. It also has a reading mode to help prevent eye fatigue.
Armed with a 16 megapixel rear camera and 5 MP front camera, users can click selfies with the rear camera using the fingerprint sensor to shoot the image.
"The device also supports LTE band 5 (as well as 3, 40 and 41) to ensure customers can have the best Voice over LTE quality, an innovation that was done only for the Indian market," Barra said.
It also comes equipped with Infrared capabilities which can be used to control household devices like TVs, ACs and DSLR cameras.
According to research firm IDC, shipments in India grew 28.8% in 2015 Y-o-Y to 103.6 million units compared to 10.1% growth for the global market.
