NEW DELHI: With the pace of smartphone innovation slowing down, Xiaomi is looking to shake up the market with a new sub-brand called Poco. The company's Redmi range typically occupies several of the top slots among the highest selling phones of India. In fact, IDC's quarterly mobile phone tracker puts Xiaomi at the top spot in India (29.7% market share and a massive 107.6% year-on-year growth) largely due to the popularity of their Redmi range.
The Poco F1 has a focus on speed - it's powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 845 - the current flagship mobile chipset. In addition, it has a high resolution notch type screen, dual rear camera, fast face unlock with IR assist, up to 8GB RAM and up to 256GB of on-board storage. Typically, phones with similar specifications cost upwards of Rs 30,000 where brands like OnePlus and Asus are operating. Poco F1 starts at Rs 20,999 for the base variant (6GB RAM, 64GB storage). Even the top-end variant of Poco F1 is Rs 28,999 - cheaper than the base variant of the Asus Zenfone 5Z and OnePlus 6.
But why a new sub-brand for a performance oriented phone? Xiaomi has typically done very well in the budget and mid-range space (phones priced between Rs 7,000 to 18,000). Their more premium devices like the Mi5 and Mix 2 did not set any sales records, so this new brand could be an attempt to break into new markets.
"Poco is a small outfit within Xiaomi. We get the freedom to start from scratch, zeroing in on the product choices and technologies that matter" says Jai Mani, head of product, Poco global. "At the same time, we can leverage Xiaomi's strengths, such as the manufacturing prowess (there are six factories in India producing millions of phones per month) and the service network (Poco after sales will be handled by Xiaomi's 1000-strong service network)." Thanks to Xiaomi, Poco is going to be 100% made in India from the start - this gives them an advantage when it comes to duties. Plus Xiaomi's current links with component manufacturers allows Poco to procure components easily. All this contributes to a pricing that drew startles from the crowd when it was announced.
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Poco will be online only, sold on the company's own website and in exclusive partnership with Flipkart. For the first sale - starting 29 Aug 2018 - Poco is partnering with HDFC to offer a Rs 1,000 instant discount which brings the effective starting price down to Rs 19,999. The company plans to take the device to 50 other markets soon, starting with Hong Kong, Indonesia and France.
