'Made in India' phones to have locally assembled circuit boards: Xiaomi

Smartphone maker Xiaomi on Thursday said its 'Made in India' phones will have locally assembled printed circuit boards (PCB) by the third quarter this year, as it looks to further ramp up its manufacturing capacity in the country.

"We have started to manufacture PCBs in India...the aim is that 100 per cent of the devices manufactured in India have locally assembled or manufactured PCBs by the third quarter (July-September) this year," Xiaomi VP and India Managing Director Manu Jain told PTI.

Xiaomi has recently set up a new PCB (motherboard of the mobile phone) assembly unit in Sriperumbudur in partnership with Foxconn.

PCBs, an important component in a phone, accounts for a significant chunk of the phone's manufacturing cost.

A number of companies are looking at making PCBs locally in the country, especially after the government levied 10 per cent import duty on some key smartphone components, including populated PCBs earlier this year.

Xiaomi, which earlier had two facilities for smartphone manufacturing in India, has also added three more in Sri City, Andhra Pradesh and Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu, recently.

Jain said the company is focussing on four key areas in India including strengthening the after sales, ensuring quality products and ramping up supply of its devices.

"We want to launch fewer products (than other brands) but do a good job at that. It is our endeavour to ensure customers get quality products at affordable prices and keep our promise of keeping our net profit margin from hardware at under five per cent," he said.

Xiaomi, which leads the Indian market in terms of shipment (as per data from research firms like IDC), today also launched its latest 'selfie' phone - Y2, priced at Rs 9,999 onwards.

The handset will be available through Amazon and Mi.com as well as the company's Mi Home stores from June 12. It includes an artificial intelligence enabled front camera among other features.

"We launched our first selfie phone - Y1 - in November last year and it is already among the bestsellers in the category without us having spent big on marketing. We expect to definitely continue the momentum with this device as well," he said.

The company also announced the availability of its updated operating system - MIUI 10 - in India. The beta version will be rolled out later this month across various devices.