Off the wire
• 1st LD-Writethru: China sets floor for retail fuel pricing  • China's startup boom continues despite slowing growth  • Roundup: Obama's final State of the Union speech: much talk, few proposals  • 5 militants killed in cleanup operations in northern Afghan city  • 1st LD: Iran releases detained U.S. sailors in Persian Gulf: TV  • Roundup: Singapore stocks end up 0.18 pct  • Chinese agricultural demo center in Zimbabwe to multiply  • Weather forecast for major Chinese cities, regions -- Jan. 13  • Swiss foreign minister to visit China  • 4th LD-Writethru-China Focus: Shanghai Disney Resort to open in June  
You are here: 　 Home

China's leading cell phone provider Xiaomi wants sizable market shares in Dubai, MENA

Xinhua, January 13, 2016 Adjust font size:

The world's fourth largest producer of cell phones, China's Xiaomi, launched Wednesday a wide range of its products, in partnership with Dubai-based Task FZCO firm.

Xiaomi plans to acquire a sizable market share in the rapidly expanding smartphone market in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

In the official media and ICT distributors' launch, Xiaomi and Task FZCO displayed their Android-based smart phones Redmi 2 Pro and Redmi Note 2, as well as Mi4i and Mi Note, also disclosing their plans to attract the end consumer.

Xiaomi hopes to duplicate its success in other MENA markets such as Saudi Arabia.

"Xiaomi is famous for its range of reasonably priced products, as well as enhancing connectivity options" said Givemore Gurira, Chief Operating Officer at Task FZCO, the region's exclusive Xiaomi distributor.

In China, Xiaomi is a company worth 45 billion U.S. dollars, and the best-selling cell phone producer (according to the ICT research firm IDC), particularly popular among younger, tech savvy end users such as students, graduates and young professionals.

Khaled El-Khoury, Chief Commercial Officer at Etisalat, the United Arab Emirates (UAE)' biggest telecom provider, will exclusively distribute the Xiaomi range of products via its country-wide channel of shops.

He said, "We are pleased to be the exclusive providers of the Mi brand, a competitive addition to our existing line-up of advanced mobile devices."

El-Khoury added that Etisalat will enable its subscribers to use Mi handsets with the 4G LTE network, currently the fastest network in the Gulf state.

"The UAE with its population of 9.5 million, has one of the highest cell phone quantities in the world as each resident owns an average of two cell phones."

The most popular smart phone brands in the UAE are Huawei, Samsung, Apple (iPhone) and Blackberry, according to IDC.

Task's Gurira said Xiaomi's Mi brand will sell for half the price of Apple's iPhone 6S or Samsung Galaxy's S6.

Lei Jun, founder of Xiaomi and serial entrepreneur, has recently been anticipating a market share in India.

In 2014, Xiaomi sold over 61 million handsets in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, India, Indonesia and Brazil. Endit