14 DAY TRIAL // Today, Chinese mobile phone maker Xiaomi has officially released its Xiaomi Hongmi smartphone on the market in Taiwan, and announced record sales of 10,000 devices in 10 minutes.
The smartphone was launched in this country with a price tag of NT$ 3,999 (about $135 / €99) attached to it, and it should make it to more countries in the not too distant future.
In fact, Xiaomi has already confirmed plans to launch the device in some more markets in South Asia, and said that it aimed at setting a new center of operations in Singapore, techinasia reports.
“I’ve been spending a lot of time with potential partners in other countries, in Southeast Asia primarily. We just came back from a trip to Singapore a few weeks ago, and we’re trying to get our operations for Southeast Asia set up as quickly as possible,” Hugo Barra, Xiaomi vice president, said.
“It’s an important hub for the region. A lot of businesses start there, so that’s why we researched that area first,” he added.
Unfortunately, no specific info on when the company will start selling its smartphones in South Asia has been provided as of now, but early-2014 appears to be the lucky time frame for enthusiasts.
At the moment, Xiaomi is one of the fastest growing mobile phone makers in China. The company has managed to sell an impressive number of devices in the past several months, including 150,000 Xiaomi Mi3 devices in around 10 minutes on WeChat, only two weeks ago.
The handset vendor says that it has managed to sell over 7 million smartphones during the first half of 2013 alone, and that it should top 19 million units for the entire year.
The company is also looking at doubling its sales volumes for the next year, and the availability of these handsets in some more markets in Asia will certainly help it achieve its goal.