Xiaomi — one of the fastest growing smartphone brands in the world — entered the Brazilian smartphone market yesterday.
Brazil is the first country outside of Asia where Xiaomi has expanded its operations. Since last year, the China only OEM has expanded into India and Malaysia, where it has been experiencing terrific growth.
In Brazil, Xiaomi will be selling the Redmi 2 for 490 BRL (or around $160). The handset will be going on sale from July 7, though registration for the sale have already opened.
“I am thrilled to finally introduce Xiaomi’s amazing products to my hometown, Brazil,” Hugo Barra said at the event. “We already had a very engaged community of Mi fans in Brazil before our launch today, and many of them have been eagerly looking forward to getting their hands on our products. I strongly believe that Redmi 2 will be a game changer in the Brazilian market, offering consumers a quality option never seen before in this price category.”
To avoid having to pay hefty taxes to the Brazilian government for importing smartphones to the country, which would have have increased the cost of its smartphones dramatically, the company would be locally manufacturing its handsets in Brazil with the help of Foxconn.
[Via Re/code]