India Matters More Than Ever: Inside Xiaomi’s 2026 Strategy to Reclaim Market Mojo

Xiaomi has kicked off 2026 with its signature style, introducing the Redmi Note 15 in India in the first week of the year. But the company has once again reiterated what Xiaomi India's COO Sudhin Mathur told Gadgets 360 in an exclusive chat last month. The year 2026 will not just be about smartphones but also ecosystem products. The brand is gearing up to rebuild depth across its portfolio, right from manufacturing to services. Well, 2025 was all about recalibration, as Xiaomi shifted its strategy from value for money to value for experience.

In a closed-door select media briefing ahead of Redmi Note 15 India launch, Xiaomi's Adam Zeng, Senior Vice President, Xiaomi Group and President, International Business Department, Alvin T, VP, Xiaomi International, and Sudhin Mathur, Chief Operating Officer, Xiaomi India, walked us through some of the big highlights the brand will be following up on this year.

Navigating the 2026 Market: Why Specs Are No Longer King, Experience Is

On choosing India for his first 2026 trip, Adam said, "I chose India for the first business because, you know, India is very, very important for us, an extremely important market for Xiaomi, and we are very excited about the future in India."

"Xiaomi was founded in 2010. After about 15 years of growth, Xiaomi is now a Fortune 500 company. We are not only a product company. We are a Human x Car x Home shared ecosystem platform company," he added.

"In the past five years, Xiaomi has made progress in our products, in our R&D, in our innovation. So I think, and in the future. I think we will add more R&D in our OS, in our AI, in our chipset."

Continuing further, Alvin on consumer shifts in India said, "The consumers in India are looking more for experience, not just specs. They want better camera quality. They would like a more fluid operating system." On the 'Honest Pricing' philosophy, during inflation, said, "We are in the AI super cycle as we speak, the prices are going up, right? But our efficient platform, our efficient way of working, would allow us to endure this cycle a little bit, hopefully, a little bit better than the peers in the industry."

Expanding the Connected Home

Xiaomi confirmed that it is planning to bring more ecosystem products to India. However, at this point, it is hard to list which ones will make it to India from China.

On bringing more Chinese product categories to India, Alvin said, "Mr Adam has brought forth his AIoT GTM leads from headquarters to really understand how many of the 200-plus product categories that we have in China, we can actually bring them here."

Sudhin Mathur, Chief Operating Officer, Xiaomi India (pictured above)

On retail transformation, Alvin further added, "Hopefully you have been able to witness Xiaomi India's transformation in retail... You will be able to see more and more well-trained promoters, better and better display counters, more and more presence in our organised trade partners."

The 2026 Outlook

The HQ team also promised more resources for India operations, and this is an interesting time for the brand; however, there is no clarity on whether it will be entirely for smartphones or for the ecosystem division.

The conversation in the room was mainly about how Xiaomi's 2026 outlook looks, anchored in a sharpened ecosystem strategy across smartphones and non-phone categories, moving towards value for experience. Sudhin talked about how this year the brand will implement portfolio laddering for smartphones, making it clearer and more disciplined for consumers to choose.

Xiaomi will be focusing on tablets, ecosystem products, and wearables, driven by evolving usage patterns, longer replacement cycles, and rising demand for connected personal devices.

"Across the whole bandwidth... 2026 is not just going to be about phones, but taking a step further and forward into our ecosystem categories as well," Sudhin said.