The next time you go on a laptop or notebook hunt, check if Xiaomi’s offerings are available. Turns out as of now, none of the Xiaomi notebooks are available across its website, Flipkart, or Amazon. Yes, you can find refurbished Mi notebooks on Amazon India but there’s no trace of new units which has raised a lot of eyebrows.
Tipster Abhishek Yadav pointed out how none of the Xiaomi laptops are in stock on Xiaomi India’s website, Amazon and Flipkart. Does that mean Xiaomi is looking for an exit from the Indian market? Let’s analyze the current scenario a bit and see for ourselves.
Xiaomi Exiting Laptops Business in India? The Current Scenario
After getting the tipoff, I checked through Amazon India, Flipkart, and Xiaomi India’s website to check if we could find anything. Turns out Xiaomi has changed the ‘Laptop & Tablet’ tab on its website’s navigation bar to ‘Tablet’. With the current change in mind, you won’t find any traces of Mi notebooks on the website unless you explicitly search for them.
You can still drop by on Mi Notebook product pages when searching on Google, however, it only takes you to the ‘Notify Me’ section. You can’t make any purchases since the laptops are actually out of stock. I am sure laptops or any devices can go out of stock especially if it’s Xiaomi given the huge demand that swoops off millions of units in a few minutes. However, it is still fishy how the entire notebook and Redmibook series is supposedly ‘out of stock’ with no apparent dates when it will be restocked.
Note that take this bit of information with a pinch of salt as it is possible Xiaomi will restock the devices but let’s say it doesn’t. The question is, why would it be? Why is Xiaomi India trying to exit India’s laptop market?
The Tell-Tale Story With Numbers
India is one of the largest economies in the world and it is growing exponentially. According to Canalys – a reputable research firm, more than 148.6 million units of smartphones were sold in India in 2023 with Xiaomi taking the third position at 25.1 million units (17% market share). It proves Xiaomi is at the top of the smartphone market in India.
However, if you check out the laptop market, Xiaomi isn’t anywhere in the top 5. The market is unsurprisingly dominated by HP, Dell, Lenovo, Acer, and Asus. As per Q1 2023 (via Canalys), 2.959 million units of laptops and notebooks were sold in India with HP dominating with 1.01 million units alone. However, there’s no mention of Xiaomi here.
A Statista report on laptop ownership saw Realme at 0.9% in India in 2023 leaving Xiaomi from making its entry on the graph. Again, HP, Dell, Lenovo, Acer, and Asus dominate the market along with Apple (2.7%).
A Twitter user pointed out potential pointers as to why Xiaomi isn’t able to clamp its market share in India which seems legit. First up, it has outdated stock and multiple models are competing against each other in the same price tag. Xiaomi is notoriously known for its pricing strategy which means its devices are priced competitively across online and offline channels. Price drops in the online market don’t always translate to the same in the offline market which causes potential customers to turn away.
So, what do you think about Xiaomi and its laptops? Do you think Xiaomi is trying to exit India? Comment below.
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