Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi has announced its intentions to launch its products in the North American market with a launch of one of its devices in the continent. The company which has been valued at a whopping $45 billion by investors will attempt to penetrate the market by offering its Redmi Note 4 to consumers in Mexico.
Xiaomi has announced the stores that will have the Redmi Note 4 on retail – they include Best Buy and Sam’s Club stores, and they will be stocked by the end of May. The products will also be available to purchase online via Amazon, Best Buy, Elektra and Walmart. The launch of its budget, but impressive phablet phone will retail at $287 – but it plans to introduce a number of different devices in the near future.
Xiaomi has sold products in Mexico before, but did so via partners, this is an independent push from the Chinese smartphone maker and will provide a deeper push in the region for the company. In addition to this announcement, it was further disclosed that Xiaomi intends to bring its Mi Community application to the Mexican market as well. The app has become very popular in China, and Xiaomi is confident it can repeat the success it has enjoyed domestically at an international level.
The smartphone giant has operations in Brazil, and has previously spoken of its plans to expand to other Latin American markets soon. However, the organization suffered a blow last year when its former international head Hugo Barra left to lead Facebook’s VR team. Other issues with taxation and manufacturing forced management to downsize operations in Brazil.
Director of Product Management and Marketing at Xiaomi, Donovan Sung said Mexico was a very, very important market for Xiamoi. He said: “Mexico is a really important market for us and acts as our starting point to reach the rest of Latin America.”
Head of Global Strategy at Xiaomi, Wang Xiang, boldly claimed that the Chinese firm will be selling phones in the US market by 2019, and also stated that he felt fans would travel from America to Mexico in order to get their hands on its devices.
There’s no doubt that its strongest market is at home, but it has become under increasing pressure from a series of Android rivals, most notably Huawei and Vivo who have enjoyed success with competitively priced phones and an offline sales strategy.
Xiaomi, which began as an online-only brand, has responded with plans to expand its offline reach and regain lost ground. Its international expansion has seen it reach out to over 20 countries via a combination of local operations and sales partners. That’s largely been a mixed bag, with work to do. Only in India, does Xiaomi appear to be making a sizeable impact.
