Chinese electronics company Xiaomi is planning to go ahead with the manufacturing of televisions in India. Instead of importing them from the other country, the company has decided to partner with Foxconn which is Taiwanese contract manufacturer. This idea has basically been formulated to intimidate online sales in the upcoming festive season during Diwali.
“Xiaomi’s talks are in advanced stages with Foxconn for manufacturing televisions in India, which will start from July-August so that in the festive season-Diwali sales it has mostly made-in-India models,” quoted an industry executive acquainted with the idea.
The manufacturing of televisions in India will give tax benefits to the company, but, it has been reported the prices of the television may not come down and that is because Xiaomi already offers the best prices to the customers at wafer-thin or no margin. At present, it is selling its three Smart TVs of 32-inch, 43-inch and 55-inch sizes for Rs 13,999, Rs 22,999 and Rs 44,999 respectively. The company had to increase the price of its 55 inch TV by Rs 5,000 to the current price recently due to change in import duty taxes.
An executive said, “Xiaomi’s target is to become the largest online television brand before it expands into multi-brand stores. Local manufacturing will not only provide some relief in taxes, which will boost its margins, but it will also help them to control the supply chain and ensure more availability of television.”
The most popular smartphone-manufacturing company in India will at the outset congregate the TV sets while building a local supply chain. Xiaomi’s rival, Sony is already in association with Foxconn for the production of its televisions in India and plans to maximize it because of increased taxes. And, now, even Xiaomi is aiming for the same, hopefully in 2018 so that its customers can enjoy the made-in-India televisions on Diwali.