Xiaomi, the youngest smartphone brand and the latest entrant into the Indian territory, has been making headlines recently. By launching the high-end Mi 3 for a low price to another high-end Redmi 1S one a low-budget, they have raised the competition by setting a new benchmark. They also have everyone’s eyebrows raised by managing to sell almost 100,000 handsets a week. The Chinese manufacturer has also announced a few other products in India, but is yet to acquire a few permissions and is waiting for the same. The company is now gearing up to launch the Redmi Note, a quad-core phablet, in November. Next up will be the Mi Pad and the Mi 4 for India.
However, Xiaomi seems to be in a massive controversy relating to their MIUI operating system and privacy concerns. Many users reported that the MIUI operating system is transmitting data outside the country and saving user information data, along with the IMEI numbers, address book details, SMS details and a few others to their servers in Beijing, China. A few days back, the Indian Air Force had also initiated a medium alert, with regards to the same issue, and requested their squadrons and their families to avoid using the Chinese handsets. The alert came after the whistle was blown by the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team when they found a security issue on the Redmi 1S handsets.
Also Read: Indian Air Force to ban Xiaomi smartphones
Coming back to Xiaomi’s flagship handset, the Mi 4 was launched a few months back in China. It is yet to launch in India and Xiaomi is expecting it to be only by early next year. The Mi 4 is one of the most powerful smartphones out there which is being sold for a very reasonable price. The Mi 4 sports a full HD display with a Snapdragon 801 chipset, Adreno 330 GPU and 3GB of RAM. It also sports an 8MP front camera and a 13MP rear camera.
However, with rival brands OPPO Find 7, OnePlus One and IUNI U3 sporting higher specifications (SD801 chipsets with 2K display) at lower costs, Xiaomi could be slashing the prices of the Mi 4 by a huge amount. When the device was launched, Xiaomi had priced it at CNY 1,999. According to the International Business Times, the rival handsets would force Xiaomi to cut the prices further by almost CNY 200, bringing the cost down to almost Rs 18,000 from the original price of Rs 20,000. Similar would be the case with their other products, the Mi Pad, Mi Box and the Mi TV. The Mi 4 is not yet announced in India, but OPPO and OnePlus are already gearing up for their flagships in India and if Xiaomi is late, the price of the Mi 4 would have to be reduced if Xiaomi expects a similar response as the Mi 3 in India.
