On January 3, Xiaomi issued a declaration, saying Redmi will be an independent brand. The official announcement will be made on January 10, wherever the initial Redmi-series phone is assumed to be uncovered. It’s rumored the pioneer will be called the Redmi Pro 2. It is likely to sport a 48MP image sensor and a Sd 675 cpu. Apart from this, the former Gionee president, Lu Weibing signed a contract with Xiaomi. So this made a huge stir in the net, and plenty of phone users began thinking he will lead the new independent brand of Xiaomi. However the latter hurried to disprove this rumor, saying he will be responsible for POCO and not for the Redmi-branded products.
As you see, it’s not that simple. So we made a decision to make few clarifications and understand whether it was the right time to separate Redmi from Xiaomi and whether it is going to fight against Honor, as assumed.
Why now
We know Xiaomi has had two phone lines in face of Mi and Redmi. The smartphones from the former series have been considered flagship models, although the latter often came in with cost-effective smartphones, belonging to the mid-to-low-end categories.
However, this has modified in recent years. The new MIX series emerged. And the Xiaomi phone diversification transformed accordingly. Presently, the prefix in front of Xiaomi phone name indicates its value range. Say, the MIX series approaching with black technologies are estimated higher than 3000 yuan ($435), the flagship series models come at 2000 – 3000 yuan ($290 – 435), and the middle-to-high-end models are offered at 1400 – 2000 yuan ($203 – 290). At least, this classification was provided by Xiaomi co-founder and president Lin Bin at the Xiaomi Mi Play release meeting.
By the way, the Xiaomi Mi Play is a pretty important gadget in this context. Look! The Mi series has few models with pretty weak options and high prices. The Xiaomi Mi 8 Lite was the only model in recent years to cost 1999 yuan. On the contrary, the company has started making way better products for the Redmi line. Say, one of the most popular phones from this family is the Xiaomi Redmi Note 5/Note 5 Pro. Only in India, it has sold higher than 5 million units in 4 months. Truly, the Redmi Note series phones have usually been best-sellers because of to their attractive price-over-performance ratio. In this sense, the native Redmi low-end devices were the most-selling telephones during Double 11.
We In addition need to take into consideration that the starting value of the Redmi Note 5 was 1099 yuan ($160). However let’s get back to the Xiaomi Mi Play. As you remind, it went on sale at the exact pricing. Thus, the prices of Mi phones and Redmi phones are already crossing. The Mi Play is the suitable example. This easily means the concept Xiaomi has been following to since its first days doesn’t work anymore. Furthermore, the ‘fighting’ of its own products can be regarded as a beneficial signal for the splitting of the Mi and Redmi.
Redmi or Xiaomi
As for the origin of Xiaomi, it can be dated back to 1950s. Whenever China was fighting with Japan, it fought them back with xiaomi and guns. So xiaomi represents solidity, and now it is a kind of cereal in the every day life of Chinese. Shortly, xiaomi is quite key in China. According to the formal introduction, they call their smartphones Xiaomi, which has two meanings: one is they really should work hard to lay a solid foundation; second, they must make their phones fairly well known in people’s eyes, and even deliver people can’t live with no individuals smartphones.
In translation from Chinese, Xiao means compact, low, young, while Mi means rice. Looks something is simple and Xiaomi is translated as a compact rice. But how to pronounce Xiaomi? Most Americans first heard of Xiaomi whenever Hugo Barra, former Google VP in charge of Android device management announced he was leaving Google to join Xiaomi. And most Americans (and not only they) have been struggling to say the company’s name ever due to the fact.
Of course, Barra tried to help them, saying the perfect way to pronounce Xiaomi is to ‘think of prove me and then pronounce the initial word as if it [were] shower.’ Technically, the initial syllable is additional SHIAO’ than ‘SHOW,’ however the difference is quite subtle to most American ears. BBC even came in with an post explaining how to pronounce Xiaomi. As you look at, the name Xiaomi causes some difficulties for non-Chinese speakers.
In this sense, Redmi is extra international. In translation from Chinese, it means red rice, and it’s way easier to pronounce.
What is the main goal of Redmi?
That’s a average practice for cameraphone brands that have a several lines. Huawei has done it a several several years ago, separating the Honor brand. OPPO did it last year, releasing the Realme brand. The exactly is done by Xiaomi. Numerous think Xiaomi has separated the Redmi brand to compete with Honor, what has been gaining momentum. When Xiong Junmin, Honor vice president was asked When it comes this, he said the competition between Honor and Xiaomi has presently ended. However if someone wants to re-start it, they are equipped.
Particularly, Honor said that the competition between Honor and Xiaomi has long because ended. But what’s additional interesting, they think Honor has won all the races. Xiong Junmin said Honor is already far ahead whenever it ships to the general sales amount or the market experience of the mid-to-high-end device line. According to the official data, Honor has been ranked initially in China’s sales line for nine consecutive quarters.
Read Furthermore: Xiaomi Mi 9 will come with in-screen fingerprint sensor and a triple rear image sensor
Income of three consecutive generations of the Honor 8, Honor 9, and Honor 10 have surpassed the Xiaomi Mi 5, Mi 6, and Mi 8. The Honor Magic 2 is way more fresh and extra powerful than the Xiaomi Mi MIX 3 from the exact same category. Honor’s V series handsets have completely destroyed the Xiaomi’s Note line. The Honor V20 is already out and it is a head higher than any smartphone of Xiaomi, valued at 3000 yuan. Thus, there is with no product to compare.
In fact, in the past several years, Redmi has been understood as Xiaomi’s entry-level brand. Higher than the years, it has developed a volume of ‘national-level’ telephones and has become a major contributor to Xiaomi’s smartphone income. Now Redmi is with no longer just a ‘national smartphone’ however Furthermore likely to the world.
According to Xiaomi CEO, Lei Jun, the Mi and Redmi brands are presently separated, and each develops in different directions. In few sense, this frees Mi, and the latter can enjoy better presently. At the exactly time, he emphasized that Redmi will focus on cost-effectiveness and the e-commerce markets, although the Mi brand will focus on mid- to high-end and fresh retail markets. This is which Xiaomi has been doing in the initial several years of its activity.
Previously, the Mi brand mainly targeted the value range of 2000 yuan to 3000 yuan, promoted through a couple of Indeed keywords, such as ‘innovation’, ‘technology and art’, etc., while the main battlefield of Redmi has been in the thousand-yuan machine market. Thus, the latter was promoted via the keywords of ‘high quality’, ‘the most cost-effective’ and ‘national smartphone’. In Xiaomi’s look at, the two brands have presently had strong independence, and the conditions for independent operation have matured.
It is not difficult to foresee that in the future Redmi will with no longer be confined to the thousand-yuan machine niche. It will arrive in with more budget and even flagship smartphones and form a direct competitive relationship with few Xiaomi products. The success of Huawei and Honor has proven that internal resource sharing and healthy competition are a lot more conducive to the healthy growth of 2 brands.
It is assumed that at the press conference on January 10, a new cameraphone with a 48MP image sensor will be formally unveiled. It’s rumored, the alleged Redmi Pro 2 will be also packed with the Snapdragon 675 cpu. In this sense, it will supply much better experience than the most cheap Mi handset, the Xiaomi Mi Play, which is powered by an Helio P35.
As for this processor, the Snapdragon 675 is a mid-range SoC introduced by Qualcomm in the second half of 2018. It uses the new Kryo 460 architecture, an octa-core design, and a CPU clock speed of 2.0GHz. It is Furthermore paired with an Adreno 612 GPU and Qualcomm’s third-generation multi-core artificial intelligence engine. In the AI application, the over-all experience improvement is up to 50%, in comparison to the previous generation Snapdragon 670.
If this is the exact model (M1901F9T) passed TENAA certification, then we know few of its major features, like a 5.84-inch panel, a battery ability of 2900mAh, and the MIUI 10 system based on Android deep customization.
Well, if the Redmi Pro 2 is going to be the initially smartphone of Redmi, then this is a bit confusing. There are 2 48MP Chinese smartphones and both are flagship models – the Huawei Nova 4 and the Honor V20. However it’s a matter of time to view this kind of a digital camera camera on other models as Sony introduced it in summer, and this CMOS will look on other models soon.
Who will lead Redmi?
Before Xiaomi announced the independence of the Redmi brand, Lei Jun earlier via his Weibo channel that the former president of Gionee, Lu Weibing formally joined Xiaomi. Very, 2 weeks ago, it was noted that Lu Weibing would join Xiaomi Manufacturer as vice president and be responsible for overseas markets. In fact, he himself said in an interview that he would indeed join Xiaomi, however the specific position is subject to the formal announcement. So we should keep waiting for January 10 in order to have idea who will lead the Redmi brand.
Conclusion
In 2018, the Chinese smartphone market weakened, and the market overall performance of various manufacturers has become additional differentiated. Xiaomi’s smartphones were chased by Huawei, Honor, and other top brands. A number of mid-to-high-end models introduced by Xiaomi have Furthermore been overshadowed by them. Plenty of hurried to say Xiaomi is dying. At the exact time, the Redmi series was ‘mutually smashed’ with a number of models of its own Mi 8 SE, Mi 8 Lite, and Mi Play. Seems to be the Mi brand has begun making pleasant mid-rangers, while the Redmi overstayed on what it had. In 2018, there has been almost no new design on the Redmi models. That’s why its position was weakened.
In terms of competing products/brands, one of the biggest obstacles, Honor, has presently become the initial Internet cameraphone brand in China. Its GPU Turbo, CPU Turbo, LINK Turbo, punch-hole screen, 7nm chipset, and other technical solutions have earned abundant attention, and have presently threatened the existing status of Xiaomi’s cameraphone business.
For Lei Jun, on the one hand, the Redmi overall performance is not satisfactory and is in the really passive state. On the other hand, it ties the hands of Mi. So Xiaomi has had two choices – either to bury the Redmi brand or to give it an independence. They chose the second variant. Maybe, this is a improved solution since the separate independent operation and internal competition could deliver the Xiaomi brand improved and stronger.