Coronavirus To Have Minimal Impact On Smartphone Business: Xiaomi

While admitting that supplies of an important TV component have taken a hit due to the coronavirus pandemic, Chinese technology company Xiaomi on Thursday said that the impact of the outbreak on its smartphone business in India would be minimal.

This is because of the “exceptional job” in managing the balance of supplies done by the supply chain team and partners of the company, Muralikrishnan B, Chief Operating Officer, Xiaomi, told IANS.

“While there has been some impact on our supply chain, the entire Xiaomi global organisation realise that India is a very important market. That’s why we ensure that the present condition should not impact us as far as smartphones are concerned, which is why we continue to launch new smartphones in India,” Muralikrishnan told IANS.

Amid the prevailing uncertainties in the market, the company on Thursday launched its new smartphones Redmi Note 9 Pro and Pro Max in India that support the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO’s) indigenously developed navigation system, NavIC.

“However, there are certain other categories such as TVs which have been impacted due to coronavirus outbreak, as the panels are imported from abroad. As panels are taking more time to arrive in India this will impact us here,” he added.

In January, ISRO chief Dr K Sivan announced a collaboration with Qualcomm to provide better navigation systems using the NavIC satellite system in India.

At the Qualcomm event, Xiaomi’s Global Vice President, Manu Kumar Jain, and Realme India CEO Madhav Sheth confirmed they “will work closely” with the chipmaker to introduce phones with the new chips, starting with the Snapdragon 720G.

“For us, adding NavIC reflects our commitment to the Indian market to provide new technology with a greater location ability. NavIC technology is a function of chipset supporting the specific functionality,” Muralikrishnan said.

NavIC-supported Qualcomm chipsets will be Snapdragon 720G, 662 and 460. These new chipsets support WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1 along with faster 4G speeds.

“Different smartphones are made with different audiences in mind and therefore one has to pick the right balance of power battery display. It will be wrong on my part to say that every device will support NavIC because it depends upon the chipset we use,” he informed.

―Free Press Jounral