Rupee depreciation adding pressure on pricing: Xiaomi

Xiaomi Thursday said rupee's slide against the US dollar is adding to pricing pressure for the Chinese tech major in India, particularly in the handset market that is witnessing stiff competition.

Xiaomi, earlier this month, hiked prices of two of its handsets Redmi 6 and Redmi 6A as well as that of power banks and some television sets on account of the depreciation of the rupee against the greenback.

"The rupee has depreciated by about 15 per cent since the beginning of the year. While we do make our phones and power banks in India but raw material and PCBA (printed circuit board assembly) is bought in dollars.

"This (depreciation) is adding pressure on us... we want to continue to offer 'honest' pricing to customers," Xiaomi Vice-President and India Managing Director Manu Jain told reporters here.

To offset the impact, prices of various products were raised ranging from Rs 100 to Rs 2,000 with effect from November 11.

In April this year, Xiaomi founder and CEO Lei Jun had said the company will keep its net profit margin at under 5 per cent to earn the "long-term support" of its customers.

India is a key market for Xiaomi and the company is aggressively ramping up its product portfolio and offline presence (through Mi Homes, Mi Preferred Partners and Mi Stores) as it aims to continue its dominance in the Indian market.

As per research firm IDC, Xiaomi led the intensely competitive Indian smartphone market with 27.3 per cent share, followed by Samsung (22.6 per cent share), Vivo (10.5 per cent), Micromax (6.9 per cent) and Oppo (6.7 per cent).

Xiaomi Thursday launched its Redmi Note 6 Pro -- priced Rs 13,999 onwards -- that features artificial intelligence-powered quad-camera setup.

Successor to its Note 5 Pro, the latest device comes with 6.26-inch display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 octa-core processor, 64GB internal memory and 4,000 mAh battery. It will come in two variants -- 4GB and 6GB RAM.

"With each generation, we have improved the overall smartphone experience and brought the best specs together -- be it battery, camera or performance. Redmi Note 6 Pro provides meaningful upgrades to the bestselling Redmi Note 5 Pro," Xiaomi India Chief Marketing Officer Anuj Sharma said.