Exclusive: Xiaomi’s Hugo Barra isn’t even trying to compete with Apple and Samsung in India

New data suggests Apple shipped more units to India than Xiaomi did. Samsung continues to be the country’s top vendor, followed by Micromax, Lenovo (and Motorola) and Intex.

However, that doesn’t seem to affect the Taiwan-based smartphone manufacturer, widely considered China’s Apple. In an interview with Business Insider, Vice President Hugo Barra mentioned the company doesn’t have sales targets, only manufacturing targets.

Up to 51% of the entire smartphone market in the fourth quarter last year was limited to the top 30 cities. New Delhi and Mumbai were the top 2 cities in terms of numbers.

We caught up with Hugo at the Redmi Note 3 launch in New Delhi, and got chatting.

P.S: This was our first Segway interview. That thing moves fast!

What are your targets for the Redmi Note 3?

We don’t have sales targets, only manufacturing targets.

We haven’t shared our production target figures yet. We’re aiming to have a couple of hundred thousand in the first month, and ramp up soon.

How much of your phones are manufactured in India?

Thanks to our partner Foxconn, over 75% Mi phones are manufactured in India.

Any plans of launching in the US or UK?

Nothing in an announceable time-frame.

What about the ongoing Patent litigation?

I can’t really comment on any active litigation.

We’ve been proactively engaging with patent authorities. Last year we filed close to 2-3k patents. It’s not only in China, but in other markets as well. It’s not the same patent everywhere, all the time.

(Image credits: androidheadlines)