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Xiaomi's Hugo Barra reveals plan to enter India with aggressive pricing

Xiaomi's Hugo Barra reveals plan to enter India with aggressive pricing

By Ketan Pratap | Updated: 10 July 2014 13:51 IST

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Xiaomi, a company which also known as "China's Apple", has revealed its plans to expand to more countries while reaffirming its commitment to Google's Android operating system.

Xiaomi's Global Vice President and former Google Vice President, Hugo Barra in an interview with CNET has revealed that his company intends to enter into the Indian smartphone market. Barra revealed that his company is looking forward to association with telecom operators and other partners in India. Xiaomi plans to sell the smartphone at competitive prices via its own e-commerce site, he said.

Barra also cleared that Xiaomi has no plans to build smartphones based on Firefox or Ubuntu OS. CNET quoted Barra as saying: "We have no plans to do anything other than Android. There's no point. Android has a phenomenal ecosystem. I'm saying this from a practical perspective. If you look at other players who have attempted to build ecosystems and failed despite having great platforms, it's because it takes a lot of work and a lot of time to build an ecosystem."

Chinese budget smartphone maker sold about 7.2 million smartphones in 2012, while the number increased to 18.7 million smartphones in 2013. An earlier report suggested Xiaomi has plans to sell 40 million handsets in 2014, more than double the number it sold in 2013.

"In a year or two, we're going to shift even harder towards building inherently global products. Whenever we think about a new feature, we try to think about it from a Chinese perspective and a global perspective," Barra further added.

The report claims that Xiaomi is looking to expand its smartphone offerings such as Redmi and Mi-3 to more markets. For those unaware, Xiaomi Mi 3 with Nvidia Tegra 4 processor was launched in September 2013.

In addition, Rajan Anandan, Vice President and Managing Director at Google India confirmed about Xiaomi's India launch plans. Anandan said on Twitter, "Great meeting #BinLin, @hbarra from @xiaomi Amazed to learn how a business can be re-invented - India smartphone landscape will change!"

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Further reading: Android, Google, Hugo Barra, Smartphones, Xiaomi

Ketan Pratap

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Ketan Pratap is the Editor at Gadgets 360. His primary role - debugging the tech hype, benchmarking the future, and compiling it all into precise news, features or reviews. He has spent over 14 years calling out vaporware and identifying the best tech. He’s your guide for everything from chipsets to smart-home meltdowns. When his own batteries are low, he heads for the hills—literally. He’s someone who prefers a remote mountain pass, appreciating a 12,000-foot view that no VR ...More

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