Xiaomi sees high demand for Mi TV post-lockdown; ramping supplies, working on new TVs.

Xiaomi’s Smart TV segment is seeing good recovery with the easing of the lockdown, according to Eshwar Nilakantan, Category Lead – Smart TV of Xiaomi India. “Currently, we are ramping up our supplies to meet the demand as soon as possible,” he told indianexpress.com in a video call.

Xiaomi, which entered the smart TV space around two years ago, has been holding on the top spot thanks to its budget models. Nilakantan said the company now occupies 30 per cent market share of the total smart TV space in the country. “We are happy to share that Xiaomi India continues to be the number 1 Smart TV brand for eight quarters with 30 per cent market share,” he said.

He also revealed that most consumers prefer buying a 43-inch Mi TV 4X model over the smaller 32-inch or larger 55-inch TV. “The demand for 43-inch TV is high and we do face issues in meeting the growing demand for the model. As 43-inch Mi TV 4X remains out-of-stock most of the time, consumers prefer to pay Rs 5,000 extra to buy a bigger 55-inch TV instead of smaller 32-inch,” Nilakantan said. He assured that the company is working hard to meet the growing demand for the 43-inch Mi TV 4X model.

It has been several months since Xiaomi launched a new Mi TV in the country, the last one was back in Diwali last year when the company launched its Mi TV 4X series. Nilakantan confirmed that the wait will end soon as the company plans to launch a new Mi TV in the second half of the year. Similar to all Mi TVs available so far, the upcoming ones will also be developed keeping in mind the Indian consumers.

Xiaomi does not seem worried by new players entering the affordable smart TV segment. “One advantage we have over other brands is that we don’t need to depend on imports to meet demand as most Mi TVs are manufactured in the country,” Nilakantan said, adding he was however keeping a tab on the competition.

“The next step for us is to bring component-level manufacturing in India, like we have done for smartphones, and increase the percentage of locally manufactured Mi TVs,” he said. Nilakantan also said that currently over 85 per cent of the smart TVs sold locally are manufactured in India by Dixon Technologies in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh.

Another aspect that Xiaomi believes sets it aside from the competition is its content-first strategy. So far the company has partnered with over 23 content partners across 16+ languages to provide content to all Mi TV users.

“We believe in providing a consistent experience to our consumers which means whether it is a cheaper Mi TV or an expensive one, users will not have to compromise when it comes to content,” Nilakantan said. He highlighted that all Mi TVs today run Patchwall 3.0 and every new feature is rolled out to all Mi TVs regardless of the price point.