Time to forget flagship phones at affordable prices: Xiaomi exec

The smartphone market in India may be looking at correcting itself soon as it appears it is becoming difficult for brands to offer flagship smartphones or phones with top specs at affordable prices. Smartphone brands, mostly Chinese, won the Indian market by offering value-for-money handsets and premium phones at cheaper prices than half the cost of phones from big brands like Apple and Samsung. However, things may no longer be the same for these brands.

Xiaomi India marketing head Anuj Sharma tweeted, “Frankly with today’s exchange rate, increased GST in India & component pricing, flagship specs with killer prices are a thing of the past. We all might need to realign our expectations going forward [SIC]”

Smartphone enthusiasts expect that an affordable flagship smartphone from Chinese brands should at least have a flagship Qualcomm processor. And as far as pricing is concerned, an affordable flagship smartphone is generally expected to be priced under Rs 30,000 in India.

For example, one of the most successful flagship Xiaomi phones in recent times– Redmi K20 Pro– powered by flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor is available at a starting price of Rs 26,999. Having said that, Sharma hints that selling phones with the latest flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 processor under Rs 30,000 may not be feasible at the moment.

Another issue is that the latest flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 chipset is 5G-enabled, this means the costs of the 5G modem is already included which makes the chipset even more expensive. So, for a country like India, where there is no 5G connectivity, making an affordable phone with Snapdragon 865 makes little sense.

Meanwhile, following the Indian government’s move to increase GST rate from 12% to 18%, smartphone brands including Apple, Xiaomi, Oppo, Realme, Vivo and Samsung have increased the prices of their handsets. The new prices have come into effect starting April 1. Xiaomi was forced to increase prices of its handsets by at least Rs 1,000 while Apple and Samsung increase prices by at least Rs 3,400 and Rs 3.600 respectively.

―Times of India