Earlier today, we reported that Xiaomi has announced to make ‘Redmi’ an independent brand. The new brand has already scheduled a launch event on 10th January in China where it will launch its first smartphone with a 48-megapixel camera sensor.
While the company announced that the Redmi brand will go independent, it did not reveal the reason behind taking such a step. Why did Xiaomi decide to make Redmi an independent brand when it was the most popular smartphone series of the company? Well, we now have answers. Xiaomi’s CEO Lei Jun has explained this in response to a user on Weibo.
Lei Jun explains that the primary reason behind separating both Mi and Redmi brands is the focus. While the Redmi brand focuses on value-for-money budget smartphones, the Mi brand is focused on high-end devices. Also, the Redmi devices are primarily sold through e-commerce platforms while Mi devices are not e-commerce focused.
Additionally, the separation of the Redmi brand will also be beneficial to Mi brand given that the company will be able to focus more on it. With this, the company now has three smartphone brands, each catering to a particular segment — Mi for premium phones, Redmi for budget phones, and Poco for ‘affordable premium’ phones.
The strategy being adopted by Xiaomi is similar to the one adopted by Huawei. While Huawei is focusing on high-end phones, its sub-brand Honor is focused on making budget phones. Oppo also started a new brand Realme last year, but within a couple of months, the brand split from its parent company to operate independently.
As said, Xiaomi is holding a launch event in Beijing, China on 10th January at 2:00 PM (local time) to launch the first under the newly independent brand. While the teaser image suggests a 48MP primary camera sensor, no more details about the upcoming smartphone are known yet.
