CoronaVirus Outrage in Smartphone Industry
Xiaomi is suffering from the shortage of supplies in China for the recently released Mi 10. But the supply of smartphones won’t have any big impact in India. In an interview with IANS last week, COO of Xiaomi India said that the credit for the smooth functioning of the business goes to the supply chain team and Company’s partners, who did an “exceptional job” for balancing the supply. The company still reigns as the no.1 smartphone maker in the country and will be launching new smartphones. The company recently launched the Redmi Note 9 Pro series and is planning to launch Mi 10 and Mi 10 pro soon. The same can’t be said for TVs as they are imported from other countries. He also said, “There are certain other categories such as TVs which have been impacted due to coronavirus outbreak, as the panels are imported from abroad. As panels are taking more time to arrive in India, this will impact us here”. Major credit for this goes to “Make in India” that has pushed the leading smartphone OEMs to set up their manufacturing plants in India. “Mobile phones are a just in time industry, have very low inventory, typically among all other. And due to the spring festival in China when labor is not at work, OEMs stock for up to three weeks. The timing has been extremely fortunate and that has saved the industry through for February, most of it. A lot of factories have opened in China but only between 20 to 50 percent workforce has resumed work. As components are being airlifted, in terms of output there is a very marginal impact till now”, Pankaj Mohindroo, chairman, Indian Cellular and Electronics Association. One thing that Xiaomi is particularly worried about is the increased GST on smartphones. Xiaomi’s India head, Manu Kumar Jain said that such a decision “will crumble the industry”. GST Council increased the taxes on smartphones from 12 percent to 18 percent. The decision is widely criticized by tech consumers and companies. Manu Kumar Jain also requested the PM and the FM to reconsider the decision and at least exempt devices under Rs. 15000.
