Tirupati: India’s No. 1 smartphone player Xiaomi on Thursday kickstarted local assembling of its smart TVs — Mi LED TV — at a new production line in Tirupati in partnership with Dixon Technologies with an aim to bridge demand-supply gaps for the brand in the market.
This would be Xiaomi’s eighth production line in the country. It has six lines dedicated for smartphones and one for power banks in partnership with Foxconn and Hipad Technologies across Sri City in Andhra Pradesh, Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu and Noida in Uttar Pradesh.
“Right now we are ramping slowly but by January-March quarter, the factory will generate capacity to assemble 1 lakh Mi LED TVs per month,” Manu Jain, Managing Director, Xiaomi India, said.
Components for these TVs will be imported. Till now, the company was importing these TVs.
The announcement comes just a few days after Xiaomi said it had secured the No. 1 position in the smart TV market.
As per data from International Data Corporation’s (India) Worldwide Quarterly Smart Home Device Tracker , Xiaomi, which debuted in the smart TV market in the first quarter of calendar year 2018, tripled its shipments in the second quarter and became the leading brand in this category. The company is already the No. 1 smartphone company in terms of shipments for the last four quarters.
TVs is the biggest category for the Chinese consumer electronics company after smartphones, which are also assembled in India.
Xiaomi had launched its first smart TV in India in February with an aim to disrupt the Indian market with the “world’s thinnest LED TV offering”. Other top players in this segment are Samsung, Sony and LG.
“Since its launch in February, Xiaomi has sold 5 lakh TVs in India…we would be the fastest growing TV brand in the country,” Jain said.
Xiaomi sells 5 TV models in India in the price bracket of Rs 13,999 to Rs 49,999. Two of these models are currently being assembled at the plant in Tirupati.
Overall, the company has products across 30-40 categories in its home market but has so far only launched phones, TVs, fitness devices, power banks, air purifiers, smart routers and a few audio products in India.