In 2026, Xiaomi India is planning its comeback in various categories with a big boost from the global branch
Starting its 2026 journey with the launch of Redmi Note 15, Xiaomi India has aggressive plans to capture the top position in several key categories.
As it launched the Redmi Note 15 in India, Xiaomi has emphasized that it needs a bigger and sustained focus in India to win back the categories where it used to be the leader until a few years ago. While the comeback started in 2025, as seen by the company’s increase in market share in tablets, in 2026 Xiaomi is expected to double down on its efforts aimed at increasing not only market share but also revenue.
In a meeting with select journalists, senior Xiaomi leaders decided on the way forward. “As president of Xiaomi’s international business, I chose India for (my) first major business trip in 2026,” Adam Zeng told tech journalists. “India is very important to us and we are very excited about the future of India.”
Adam, whose visit comes at a time when India and China are easing their ties on visa regime and trade opportunities, indicated that the global team will allocate more resources to Xiaomi India operations. He also hinted that the company will be bringing more products across different categories and price segments in the Indian market. This will be a reversal from the past few years when we saw Xiaomi being slow in bringing its global products to India.
Sudhin Mathur, chief operating officer of Xiaomi India, agreed that a greater focus of the company’s global arm will help the company expand in India in 2026.
“The year 2025 was a year of recalibration for us where we looked at our strategy, our way of working, our omni-channel presence,” Sudhin said. “And I think as we look back, we see successes. We’ve regained our number three position in smartphones. Now we’re also number three in tablets, actually very close to number two. Power banks have done very well for us. We’re up there at number one now.”
Given its success and momentum in certain categories, Xiaomi is looking to build on this by focusing on its ecosystem play by capitalizing on home entertainment.
“QLED TVs have been very encouraging for us especially in the Diwali season and we have seen almost 6x growth,” said Sudhin. “The bigger focus now is on establishing Xiaomi as an ecosystem company and not just a smartphone company. Last year, 18 percent of our revenue was through non-smartphone categories.”
The renewed focus on other smartphone categories is also important for Xiaomi as it believes the nature of the market has changed. While Xiaomi used to be known for its super aggressive pricing in the phone market – it made the most bang-for-the-buck models – over the past few years, the company has lost that perception.
Xiaomi Global Vice President Alvin Tse highlighted this ahead of the Redmi Note 15 launch. Alvin said, “The last three years have not been so easy on the perception front. Xiaomi was known for disruptive pricing, but we believe the era has changed.” “In the early days of the mobile industry, disruption was easy as well as value for money remained king. But as the industry matures, we can now clearly see that consumers in India are looking more for experiences rather than just specifications.”
It is this experience that Xiaomi says it wants to focus on in 2026. “A lot has happened in the last three to four years, a lot has changed,” Alvin said. “But what does not change is Xiaomi’s attitude and its emphasis on the strategic importance of the Indian market.”
