After officially announcing that it is entering the UK smartphone market, Xiaomi has now confirmed that it would soon be launching its smartphones in France and Italy. Xiaomi first entered the European smartphone market with Spain last year where it sold the Mi A1.

Xiaomi will be formally arriving in France from May 22, while it will be making its debut in Italy a couple of days later i.e. May 24.

It remains to be seen what smartphones Xiaomi will be selling in these European markets which are primarily dominated by flagship handsets. Apart from launching its flagship Mi Mix 2 or Mix 2S in these markets, I’d also expect Xiaomi to launch the Mi A2. The latter has not yet been unveiled, though it could see the light of the day within a few weeks now as its MIUI sibling, the Mi 6X, was made official late last month.

Like the Mi A1, the Mi A2 will be an Android One handset meaning it would run a stock version of Android Oreo and not Xiaomi’s MIUI skin. Xiaomi used the original Mi A1 as the launch vehicle to expand into selected international markets, and I’d expect the company to do the same with the Mi A2 this year.

Xiaomi has made a name for itself in China and India by selling its budget Redmi handsets. In fact, in India, the company managed to dethrone Samsung and has been the number one smartphone maker since the last three quarters. And this is despite the company failing to meet the ridiculous demand for its handsets which is why it continues to sell them via a flash sale model.