Xiaomi tests the Taiwan market with a HK$1407 smartphone
The Hongmi smartphone will go on sale in Taiwan in early December
Chinese mobile company Xiaomi has already courted considerable success on the mainland with its budget smartphones, but the three-year-old company is also planning to make inroads in the Taiwan market with the launch of its Hongmi phone.
The Xiaomi Hongmi, cheapest of the company’s new phone line, will be sold in Taiwan starting on December 9 for NT$3,999 (HK$1,047), similar to its mainland price point of 799 yuan (HK$1,016).
Despite lacking the computing power of other smartphones, the Hongmi’s cheap price point has already drawn attention from money-conscious Taiwanese buyers, and the company has generated further enthusiasm by unveiling a Facebook promotional campaign to send out 10,000 early-bird reservation numbers to shoppers who wish to purchase the device on day one of its release.
“The price is just too good,” one Facebook user wrote. “Barely NT$4,000? It’s almost an exaggeration.”
The low price of Xiaomi’s phones has already boosted sales in the mainland market, where the success of the Hongmi and Xiaomi’s other recent reveal – the 1,999 yuan (HK$2,543) Mi-3 – helped the company become the second-largest Android phone seller in the third quarter of 2013, losing only to Korean company Samsung.