Smartphone, TV makers await festive season high

Makers of smartphones and televisions expect this year's festive sales to outshine last year's, driven by higher consumer demand and the ongoing cricket World Cup. While Xiaomi expects a spike in television sales, premium smartphones, including Apple, are likely to see bumper sales, too.

- Gulveen Aulakh & Suneera Tandon

"The festive season will surely be better than last year for us," Xiaomi's India president, Muralikrishnan B., said, adding the company has already doubled promotional staff at its stores to over 8,000. "We have rolled out our easy finance option for Redmi 12 smartphones in the offline market, which we piloted in Mumbai," said Muralikrishnan, as Xiaomi increases its focus on physical sales. The brand has a presence in over 20,000 stores in India, including multi-brand outlets and exclusive stores.

Xiaomi, which leads India's smart TV market, expects the 4K category of smart TVs to get a boost from the World Cup, as well as consumers' preference for watching the matches on larger, better-quality screens. "The 43-inch 4K TV segment is expected to grow at 10%, and we will grow faster than that. 5G will also help as consumers will get faster internet from fixed wireless access (FWA) services," he noted.