Xiaomi selfie series along with MIUI 9 launching today: Here’s what to expect

Xiaomi’s new Selfie phone series will launch in India. The livestream for the event takes place at 12 pm.

Xiaomi India is gearing up for the launch of a new selfie series in India. The company is hosting an event in Delhi today where it will unveil the new phone series along MIUI 9, which will start rolling out for Redmi and Mi smartphone users in India soon after. Given that the Redmi India handle has been posting about this series, it will likely come under this brand. The event will be streamed live on the company’s Mi.com website at 12pm.

So far, Xiaomi has focused on budget smartphones with the Redmi series boosting growth for the company. According to recent analyst reports, Xiaomi is now the number two smartphone vendor in India and has closed the gap with market leader Samsung. A report by Canalys said Xiaomi is closing in on Samsung in the Indian smartphone market. According to the report, while Samsung shipped 9.4 million smartphones in Q3, 2017, Xiaomi was a close second at 9.2 million.

With the new selfie series, Xiaomi will likely try and cement this growth further by expanding its portfolio in the market. So far, the company’s Redmi brand was limited to Redmi Note 4, Redmi 4, and the budget friendly Redmi 4A. These phones focused on the overall package, but with the selfie series, Xiaomi will shift focus to one particular aspect of the phone, which in this case is the front camera.

Xiaomi will likely price the selfie camera smartphones under Rs 10,000 given this is a segment which drives volumes for the company. Other Chinese players like OPPO and vivo have also been aggressively focusing on the selfie camera angle, though most of these phones are priced in the Rs 15,000 and above segment.

The company has also confirmed that MIUI 9 will be rolling out to India on November 2. The same was posted on MIUI India’s official Twitter handle. We could also see more announcements around the MIUI 9 rollout at today’s event with Xiaomi highlighting new features for the Indian market as well as which phones will get the upgrade.