Xiaomi's Sub-Brand POCO Is Now An Independent Company In India

Xiaomi has recently announced it will turn POCO, the smartphone sub-brand it created in 2018, into a separate company that operates independently from the Chinese giant and comes up with its own business strategy.

The move comes long after a senior POCO executive, Jai Mani and several other core founders left the sub-brand. Xiaomi claims that POCO F1, the only phone ever released under the Pocophone brand, is a "successful" device. The handset was originally priced at Rs. 20,999 and is present in multiple markets around the world.

Manu Kumar Jain, Xiaomi's vice president, said that POCO has made a name for itself in a short span of time. He further stated that the Pocophone F1 has been a very popular smartphone in many markets and still a top choice in its category this year. Therefore, the brand decided to let the brand operate as an independent company. A Xiaomi spokesperson also confirmed that POCO is now an independent company, but did not share further how the company will be organized.

Xiaomi has created the sub-brand to introduce high-end smartphones that directly compete with Samsung and OnePlus flagship smartphones. In an interview in 2018, Alvin Tse, director of POCO, and Jani Mani revealed that they were developing a few smartphone models and were thinking about other electronics products as well. At that time, Xiaomi had 300 employees working for the sub-brand, and they "shared resources" with the parent company.

“The hope is that we can open up this new consumer need …. If we can offer them something compelling enough at a price point that they have never imagined before, suddenly a lot of people will show interest in availing the top technologies”, Tse said.

However, no one knows why Xiaomi didn’t plant to launch the next smartphone under the POCO brand, even though it claims the first smartphone has been as successful as it should.

Ever since the launch of the Pocophone F1, Xiaomi - which is famous for producing affordable and mid-range phones - has launched a range of high-end smartphones, like the Redmi K20 Pro. Earlier this week, Xiaomi continued to announce plans to launch a series of new high-end phones in India, which is its most important market, and also where it holds the No. 1 position.

According to the analysis, Chinese smartphone manufacturers have established many sub-brands over the years to launch models that are not aligned with the brand image of their own company. Xiaomi needs POCO because its Redmi and Mi phone brands are familiar to users in the mid-range and affordable segments. But as the company enters the high-end market and gets attention, sub-brands may not be the best tool for marketing.

Either way, Poco is now an independent brand and we have also just heard that the brand is planning to launch as many as three models in the near future. Stay tuned, we will keep you updated anything new about them.

Poco F1 price: around Rs. 21,300

Poco F1 price in Idia: starts from Rs. 20,999

>>>>> Xiaomi Poco X2 Listed On Geekbench With Android 10 & 8GB RAM