Time to 'forget' flagship phones at affordable prices: Xiaomi

The smartphones market in India may be looking at correcting itself soon as it appears it is becoming difficult for brands to offer flagship smartphones or phones with top specs at affordable prices. Smartphones brands, mostly Chinese, won the Indian market by offering value for money handsets and premium phones at cheaper prices than half the cost of phones like Apple and Samsung. However, things may no longer be the same for these brands.

Smartphone enthusiasts expect that an affordable flagship smartphone from Chinese brands should at least have a flagship Qualcomm processor. And as far as pricing is concerned, an affordable flagship smartphone is generally expected to be priced under 30,000 in India.

Another issue is that latest flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 chipset is 5G enabled, this means the costs of the 5G modern is already included which makes the chipset even more expensive. So, far a country like India, where there is no 5G connectivity, making an affordable phone with Snapdragon 865 makes little sense.

Meanwhile, following the Indian government move to increase GST rate from 12% to 18%. Smartphone brands including Apple, Xiaomi, Oppo, Realme, Vivo and Samsung have increased the prices of their handsets. The new prices of its handsets by at least RS 1,000 while Apple and Samsung increase prices by at least RS 3,400 and RS 3,600 respectively.