Budget smartphone maker Xiaomi made it clear that they will not be entering U.S. territories anytime soon, but recently have announced that one of their units will be available in Brazil.
GSM Arena reported that six months after announcing that they will be launching in Brazil, the Chinese smartphone maker stayed true to their words. The China-based tech giant made a deal with Foxconn, which has a manufacturing facility running just outside Sao Paulo.
"We offer high-quality products at incredibly aggressive prices, so we're starting with larger developing markets where people are very price-sensitive," said Hugo Barra, Xiaomi's global vice-president. "One of the difference makers in being able to offer high tech products at highly competitive prices is direct sales to consumers via the Web site and advertising only via social networks virally, without investing in other media,"
Wall Street Journal added that Xiaomi will finally launch the Redmi 2 in Brazil. The plan to sell outside of China and enter Brazil's booming electronics market could serve Xiaomi positively. This also marks the first time the company will sell outside Asia or manufacture their device outside the country.
"It's a major undertaking because up until today, we didn't have that complexity in our supply chain. It requires re-architecting a lot of our supply chain-from the components suppliers to financial systems to everything else," Barra added.
The breakthrough company was just founded back in 2010 and now stands as the third's largest phone manufacturer in the world next to Samsung and Apple. They also developed their own MIUI operating system which serves around 100 million of their customers.
Back in 2014, the Chinese budget smartphone maker was able to sell 61 million units of mobile devices. The startup company is estimated to be worth $45 billion.
The Redmi 2 is already available in India and Indonesia. The phone features an 8-megapixel camera and HD recording option. It also has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor. Barra mentioned that the phone will be available for purchase beginning July 7 with a $160 pricetag.
The low price for their phones comes in handy in Brazil especially since they are selling their units online. In the meantime, the Redmi 2 is only available via online retails as the company doesn't have plans to distribute their phones on retails stores just yet. Xiaomi's entry to Brazil is also considered a trial process to gauge whether they will be able to draw an audience outside of China.