Xiaomi has tasted massive success with its budget and entry level Redmi-branded smartphones, even more so than its flagship Mi-brand phones. The phenomenal success of “Redmi” as a brand prompted the Chinese OEM to spin it off into its own sub-brand. This separation would allow Xiaomi to focus on higher end devices, while Redmi would focus on budget devices, as mentioned by Xiaomi’s founder, Mr. Lei Jun.
There does seem to be some change of plans, as it appears. While Xiaomi has not announced any new smartphone that would invade into Redmi’s territory yet, Redmi is apparently working on a more “flagship” level device. The team under the Redmi sub-brand is currently working on a handset with the Snapdragon 855 SoC, that is aimed to launch this year.
Lu Weibing, General Manager of Redmi, shared a Weibo post of him and other Redmi team members in Xiaomi’s Shenzhen R&D facility. The team was gathered there to discuss the future of Redmi as a brand and to discuss upcoming devices in detail. Mr. Weibing’s post mentions the upcoming Redmi Note 7 Pro and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 flagship. This directly points to Redmi moving forward from being just a “budget” brand label, and leveraging its name and goodwill to gain market share in the flagship segment as well.
While details on this new flagship are sparse, we would not be surprised if Redmi decided to stick closer to its aggressive pricing strategy for the flagship. We could see a repeat of an “affordable flagship” much like the POCO F1 rather than a “premium flagship” like the pricier Samsung Galaxy flagships or Apple’s iPhone X-lineup. Releasing a much more expensive and premium smartphone would reach too far beyond the value factor that the brand currently represents, and may not be as successful.
Source: Weibo Story Via: GSMArena
Refference - xdadevelopers.com
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