Xiaomi to Launch Mi 10 in India Soon?

Xiaomi has removed Mi MIX 2 from Mi Store India, resulting in only 2 smartphones under Mi brand - Mi Mix Alpha and Mi A3. Now Mi Mix Alpha is a concept phone, and probably the price will be more than Rs 2 lakh, and not coming to market anytime soon, and on the other hand Mi A3, an Android One smartphone was launched in July 2019.

With resurrected Poco has launched its second device X2 at 16-20K, and that's not a flagship killer, only phone that is flagship from Xiaomi is K20Pro (Snapdragon 855). That K20 Pro is not a truly flagship (priced as Rs 25-28K), rather it's a flagship killer. 

We expect Mi 10 series Xiaomi is focusing on right now. This series will help Xiaomi to bring flagships/premium phones in India, and price war will begin. If Xiaomi does not focus on premium segment right now, that segment will be locked by BBK Electronics promoted OnePlus & Apple iPhone. Their budget segment is safe with Redmi branded phones but next leap is here, and Xiaomi should not miss that opportunity. 

Update: As per latest reports, Xiaomi India CEO Mr Jain hinted about bringing Mi 10 series, that'll be first Mi phone after Mi 5. He also tweeted about 'costly' Mi 10 series as these phones will be made in superior 'state of art' facilities in China. There was a controversy with pricing of K20, probably he wants to avoid that with Mi 10 series. So Xiaomi is rethinking its strategy for India for sure. It's true that realme, a sub brand of Oppo saw massive growth and that slowed down Xiaomi's sales figure here. IQoo, a forked Vivo brand will also be launched with gaming centric audience. I am expecting more gadgets of premiumly priced like Mi Note and Mibook to be launched in India if Mi 10 series sees a good sales.  

POCO to Launch Gaming Smartphone X2 on Feb 4th

Xiaomi has just spun off its Poco unit to be an independent company, and Poco India announced the second phone Poco X2 under its brand name in 10 days on January 27th, 2020. POCO X2 will be launched on February 4th in India. 

Though much details was not revealed of X2 so far, it would be a gaming centric smartphone, with reality flow 120MHz refresh rate (#SmoothAF). There will be a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor - but no further details was disclosed. 

The company will target all price brackets in coming days. 

Poco F1 was launched in August '18 and it's still in the market at Rs 14999-16999 (6GB+128GB/8GB+256GB) that's $210-238 approx. It is equipped with flagship chipset from Qualcomm - Snapdragon 845. It's still in demand from audience just like Xiaomi's Mi A3 (Android One), thanks to the high end processor and regular Android updates. 

Do Ads Helps Xiaomi to Launch Flagship Killers?

being EVIL ?

I was an early Xiaomi buyer, as I bought Redmi Note 3 in 2016. That time the hardware they packed inside it was good, and so is the software. From my point of view, Android device manufacturers should invest in software research and development, and Mi is doing this pretty fine till date on their home grown MIUI OS. 

However as I had upgrade to Redmi Note 4 and saw their rise in the Indian market with affordability and targeted smartphones to different users. 

They have so  many phones launched - Redmi for affordable phones, Redmi Note for bigger but affordable phones, Y series for selfie lovers, A series for mid range Android One program, Poco as flagship killer. Their top brand Mi and Mi Max did not get much success in India. Xiaomi has a different gaming phone brand too - Blackshark! 

However as I used my brother's newly bought Redmi K20 Pro, dubbed as another flagship killer with Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 855 processor, I felt MIUI is more stable (than the POCO MIUI) but there is too many intrusive ads coming from the Xiaomi's apps. Bloatwares can be manageable, but adwares are not. So I looked inside the settings, and found that Xiaomi by default keeps all of ad-gates open, but yes you can block most of them. 

Xiaomi Loosing Shine in India ? #ShRt

Xiaomi, whose first smartphone Mi 3 was launched in India in 2014 has perceived as poor man's Apple in the country. Top notch hardware, forked Android based MIUI operating system, flash sales and unbelievable low price made its Indian journey a great success since the very beginning. 

In the process of rise of Xiaomi, many handset makers got them flopped in the Indian market - special mention to Indian company Micromax, as well as Chinese counterpart Gionee and LeEco. Gionee had first mover advantages but without a proper strategy it is on the verge of shutting down sales in India. 

However sitting in October 2018, it seems Xiaomi is loosing its focus in India - their flagship Mi series had their last launch with Mi 5 in 2016. Xiaomi has launched several sub brands in India - 

• Redmi for budget segment (segmented as Redmi Note series as budget premiere and Redmi series as budget or first smartphone), 
• Mi A series for Android One program,  
• Redmi Y series as selfie focused smartphone,  
• Mi Max - phablet series 
• Mi Mix - full screen display series 
• Mi series - the flagships (probably no more Mi phones are coming to India)
• Pocophone - the flagship killer 

CMR Mobile Industry Consumer Insight (MICI) did a survey and the result was pretty interesting as people who are eyeing for a flagship update are looking for One Plus mostly, then Apple and lastly Samsung. 

Xiaomi should bring their innovative products to India, like AI based devices as well as laptops. 

Introducing #ShRt stories on my blog - which includes heat of the moment stories. 

Living with Redmi Note 3

I am always a fan of CDMA data - they are just smooth, like imported scotch! However using CDMA EVDO data on smartphone came to me a bit late. I started using a imported Boost Mobile HTC Desire 510 with my MTS connection since August 2015. The phone was good with few issues. Data is working flawlessly with Reliance CDMA and MTS both.

Why Redmi Note 3 then? Answer is why not! It supports CDMA, unofficially and runs on MIUI.

I planned for RN3 3Gi/32Gi but did not get one, thanks to Xiaomi's shitty flash sale. After 2 tries, I bang on RN3 2Gi/16Gi from Mi.com.

When I got RN3, I did not put SIM/RUIM in it, and started using it over WiFi. My Google got registered, contacts, Gmail and all Google apps synced without any problem.