Xiaomi just announced its Mi Mix Alpha at a launch event in China today. The stunning new phone sports a revolutionary wrap-around display, with an alleged screen to body ratio of 180.6%! The only bezel in the smartphone is a strip present on the back of the device. This strip holds the total camera apparatus. The Mi Mix Alpha camera apparatus itself includes a 108-megapixel shooter along with a 12-megapixel telephoto lens and a 20-megapixel ultrawide camera.
Sounds, futuristic, doesn’t it? It is in fact, futuristic, in the sense that at the moment, it is only a concept phone. But the biggest surprise comes in the form of its price!
Xiaomi Mi Mix Alpha is expected to hit the market in the near future, albeit a limited number of devices. When it does come to the market, it will be priced at around 20,000 yuan, equivalent to $ 2,815 or almost INR 2 lakh! In comparison, the 512 GB version of the iPhone 11 Pro Max, the most expensive model of the recent line-up, costs around Rs. 1,41,900.
This begs the question, who is Xiaomi actually targeting with such a product that is completely opposite to the demographics of its current customer base?
Mi Mix Alpa: Xiaomi’s Strategy
Xiaomi has been known to be successful in the budget segment of smartphones. Its numerous offerings in that segment have gained a lot of success over the years, especially in a country like India. As a matter of fact, in Q2 2019, Xiaomi managed to capture 28% of the Indian smartphone market, with the Redmi Note 7 Pro being its best performing model. So, it is understandable that the company might be trying to explore its potential in some of the other smartphone price segments where it might not have necessarily ventured into. The Mi Mix 2 might be its gateway into the segment of smartphones which might have smartphones like that of Galaxy Fold (expected to cost about $2,000) and other similar offerings in the future.
Mind you, the original Mi Mix was also released a ‘concept‘ smartphone. It was released last year albeit at a pretty small scale production. That smartphone explored the now on-going trend regarding bezel-less smartphone displays. It represents the fact that Xiaomi is trying to match up to the likes of Samsung and Huawei on their quest to produce the next generation of smartphones. With a number of foldable smartphones set to come out next, that ultra-expensive segment of smartphones is set to be competitive too.
Coming back to the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2, it might not be produced on a large scale, but it will certainly have more units produced than its predecessor. It is even predicted to eventually be available everywhere that Xiaomi sells smartphones. Before the mass availability, however, it will have to go through a lot of tests like those of durability, battery life and accidental touch recognition. Whatsoever be the faith of the device, it still represents an exciting prospect for the future.
