Xiaomi Mi4 May Release in India by December End

A senior official of Xiaomi has reportedly revealed that the company is planning to release the recently unveiled Mi4 in India by this year end.

Hugo Barra, vice-president (global operation), Xiaomi, in an interview with The Economic Times has revealed that Mi4 would set foot in India by December end.

Currently, the company is making arrangements to make Xiaomi Mi4 pass certifications, since the phone's hardware and antenna calibrations have to be adjusted to make it compatible with India's network specifications.

"India is the most different market that we've had so far, with the most heterogeneous requirements from a network perspective," Barra said.

He also revealed that the company intends to set up R&D center in Bangalore (Karnataka), so that Xiaomi can build and design smartphones specific to India.

Considering the fact that the subcontinent is the third biggest smartphone business arena in the world with a staggering year-to-year growth of 84-percent, it's no surprise that the company is interested in building a name in India as soon as possible like it did in China.

Within four years of its conception, Xiaomi, popularly known as China's answer to Apple has toppled leader, Samsung in the home country and also displaced the South Korean consumer electronics giant, LG from the top 5 global smartphone leader's chart.

In that order, the company has already opened exclusive service centers in Bangalore and Delhi and has plans to open similar shops as well as customer care call centers to cater to consumer queries faster.

Going by the recent flash sale records of Mi3 (around 95,000 units sold in six flash sales), it is evident that Xiaomi is a big success and now Redmi 1S is all set to go on sale on 2 September (read full report here) and it is likely to stir up a huge storm in the highly competitive Indian budget smartphone market.

The company's dirt cheap feature-rich devices make glamorised devices from LG (Google Nexus 5), Motorola (Moto X), Samsung (Galaxy Grand 2) and other tier-1 brands seem overly priced.

This is an exciting time for citizens who will be spoilt for choices in selecting smartphones as numerous domestic and MNC brands launch low-cost devices to get a formidable foothold of the Indian market.

Even Motorola has big plans for India, the American technology firm has also confirmed to announce new devices in the subcontinent, just a day after the global launch in Chicago on 4 September.

Motorola India has begun sending out invites to select media houses for an event scheduled for 5 September in New Delhi.

Many believe that the company would launch the much awaited successors of Moto X and G series smartphones along with new Moto 360 smartwatch. [Read full report, here].

To make things more exciting, Celkon, Micromax, Karbonn and Spice have joined hands with search engine giant, Google to launch $100 (around ₹6,000) stock Android smartphones in India around Diwali. This is a part of American company's Android One project to give consumers affordable devices with guarantee of getting new updates as soon as it is released. [Note: Intex Technologies is also in talks with Google to join the Android One project].

Key Specifications of Xiaomi Mi4, Mi3 and Redmi 1S: