Xiaomi Targets 700 Million Device Shipments in India by 2034

Bengaluru, Jul 8 (PTI) Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi expects to double its device shipments in India to 700 million over the next 10 years, a senior company official said on Monday.

Speaking on the 10th anniversary of Xiaomi operations in India, company President Muralikrishnan B said the company has shipped 250 million smartphones in the last 10 years, and a total of 350 million units across all product categories.

"I'm very happy to report that in the past 10 years of Xiaomi's existence in India, we have shipped 25 crore smartphones, 250 million smartphones and 35 crore devices overall across categories. This is between 2014 to 2024. Now that we're talking about the 10 years of tomorrow, we want to double our shipment to 700 million devices in India," Muralikrishnan told PTI in an interview.

He said the company is mulling to start manufacturing artificial intelligence-based Internet of Things devices in India, and conversations are on for making its tablet in the country.

"We have smartphones, we have smart televisions, we have audio products that are made in India. We are also exploring opportunities to localise various other AI IoT products. We are also committed to broadening and deepening competence localisation in India. We have discussed this in the past simpler products or just battery charger cables are already sourced in India," Muralikrishnan said.

Xiaomi has partnered with Dixon Technologies, Foxconn, Optiemus, BYD etc to make devices in India.

"In terms of component localisation, we will go broader and deeper. In our total bill of material (BOM), the local non-semiconductor accounts for 35 per cent share, which is sourced locally. We expect that number to go up to 55 per cent in the next two years," Muralikrishnan said.

Achieving higher local value addition in electronic product manufacturing is one of the biggest challenges in India due to the absence of electronic components.

"In terms of domestic value addition, net value addition was 18 per cent in the financial year (FY) 2023 and with our focus on deepening and broadening the component ecosystem, we expect to take that number to 22 per cent by FY25," Muralikrishnan said.

Research analysts differed in their estimate of Xiaomi's smartphone market share in India in the March 2024 quarter. Cybermedia Research estimates it to be marginally behind Samsung at 18.6 per cent, Counterpoint Research projected it at 10 per cent, while IDC pegs it to be around 13 per cent.

However, all three leading research firms estimate Xiaomi to be among the top four smartphone brands in the country.

Counterpoint estimates that Xiaomi was replaced by Samsung, as the top player in the smart TV segment in the March quarter. It estimates Samsung's share to be around 16 per cent, LG's 15 per cent and Xiaomi 12 per cent.

Muralikrishnan said the company did have challenging times during COVID-19 when its market share declined.

"We looked at 2023 as the year of reset, refresh and recharge. We recalibrated our strategy and got back the growth momentum in the second half of 2023 when we got back on to the growth track. We have grown substantially faster than the market," he said.