Handset maker Xiaomi and Noida-headquartered contract manufacturer Dixon Technologies have joined hands, with an aim to manufacture mobile phones for exporting, media reports say. Representatives from both firms have met Minister of State for IT, Rajeev Chandrasekhar with the proposed initiative. This comes in the wake of India encouraging IT hardware manufacturers to manufacture devices locally.
Earlier this week, the handset maker and Noida-based Optiemus Electronics Limited (OEL) announced a collaboration to start the production of Xiaomi's first manufactured audio product within the country.
According to a report by news agency Reuters, Xiaomi India President Muralikrishnan B had said in March that the company will open more stores beyond its current network of 20,000 retail partners and boost local procurement of mobile phone parts, in an effort to reduce costs.
Currently, Xiaomi locally assembles most of the smartphones and TVs it sells in the country. However, it has not officially said when it will start making the audio products.
This development comes amid Xiaomi losing out to South Korean tech giant Samsung as India's top handset company. It is being said that Xiaomi was slow in moving to the "premium category" of smartphones which gave way to Samsung reaching the top spot. According to a report by LiveMint, Xiaomi started revamping its India strategy after allowing Samsung to take the top spot in the country's competitive mobile phone market. Samsung launched more expensive mobile phones and offered innovative financing schemes that Xiaomi "failed to match".