After entering India in July, Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi has grown from strength to strength, much the same way as it has done in its home market. Xiaomi has quickly managed to gain a foothold in the Indian segment thanks to great value for money devices like the Mi 3 and the Redmi 1S, and now the handset vendor is looking to consolidate its position by broadening its presence in the country.
The first announcement to that effect came yesterday from Hugo Barra, who revealed that ex-Googler Jai Mani will be joining Xiaomi India as lead product manager.
Xiaomi intends to create an ecosystem of content tailored to Indian users, and plans on achieving that are already underway thanks to the contributions of several forum members, who have successfully managed to translate the handset vendor’s MIUI to local languages. Barra noted that by hiring Mani, Xiaomi is laying the cornerstone for further expansion in the country: “You can think of it as the beginning of our R&D center development in India.”
Mani will be working closely with Xiaomi India head Manu Kumar Jain and will be the “glue between our users in India, product feedback that we receive, and the engineering team we have in Beijing as well as the engineering team that we are going to be building fairly soon in India.
While his exact job duties haven’t been mentioned, it is clear that Mani has been brought in to add further localization to Xiaomi’s products in the country. Not one to lose momentum, Xiaomi has announced that its third handset for the country, the Redmi Note, will be launching later this month, while the flagship Mi 4 is slated to make its debut before the end of the year.
Xiaomi has successfully managed to dethrone Samsung (KRX:005935) to take the position of the number one handset vendor in China, and it is hoping to achieve a similar feat in India.
