Tuesday, March 26

The options are good, but Redmi, this is too much: why its catalog has become chaotic


Steve Jobs once met with Larry Page, co-founder of Google, and gave him some advice: “You have too many products,” he told him. “Identify what you’re good at and focus on that.” At Google they did not seem to pay much attention to him, but that speech could be valid for many other technology companies. For example, for Xiaomi and its Redmi division.

Why? Because the Redmi catalog has become an absolute chaos. One that not only suffers from offering too many models: the real problem is that they all look too similar, and that creates confusion. Good for the options, Redmi, but this is too much.

Choosing the ideal Redmi for each user has become a challenge

Until not long ago, recommending a good, nice and cheap mobile was not at all difficult. Do it today, especially in the case of the Redmi, it’s a challenge.

It is because Xiaomi, which was already guilty of this a long time ago with its Mi range (now without that prefix), has repeated the same mistake with the Redmi. The manufacturer has been adding models and variants for years without it being easy to identify what differentiates one from the other and what type of user is the one that can take the most advantage of any of them.

That problem did not exist in previous generations: a Redmi Note 9 and a Redmi Note 9 Pro were very different. However our complaint it got worse today with the presentation of the Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 11S 5G and, already put, the Xiaomi Redmi 10 5G that renew last year’s range.

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It is true that a quick consultation of the characteristics tables can clarify some doubts, but the existence of so many models of the same family complicate things instead of making them easier.

It is good to have some segmentation so that users can discard options that they do not want (or have those that they will take advantage of), but in the Redmi that segmentation is blurred: It is difficult to identify the best model for each user, because the differences are minimal.

Understanding the Xiaomi mobile mess: a bit of order in the extensive (and chaotic) Xiaomi catalog in Spain

According to Xiaomi official website, until today there were nine different models of the Redmi Note range which had prices ranging between 199.99 and 369.99 euros.

As of today, that number is increased to eleven models, which are added the seven models of the Redmi range, more modest and cheap as a general rule. Until today there were six variants, but as we said now the aforementioned Xiaomi Redmi 10 5G are added.

In total, the Redmi family officially has 18 smartphones packed together in a fairly tight price range. And that we only talk about the “official” ones: we leave aside older models that can still be found for sale in other channels.

And better not to talk about the variants only available in China: the Xiaomi Redmi Note 11, for example, is different from the Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 from China. Inexplicable? Not for the company, it seems.

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Screenshot 2022 03 29 At 13 41 56

This was the Redmi Note catalog… until today. Now we have two more models.

The fact is that this generates a problem, because from there one can play find the differences between the Redmi Note 10 and the Redmi Note 11, more modern but for some indecipherable reason it costs the same, 199.99 euros. Something similar happens with the Redmi Note 10 Pro and the Redmi Note 10S, which cost 299.99 euros, or between the (recent) Redmi Note 11S and the Redmi Note 10 5G, which also cost the same, 249.99 euros.

That there be (the differences), there are, Clear. The surname 5G at least helps to know that one of the differentiating factors is in the support of connectivity.

However, the numbers (10, 11) do not provide much guidance, even when talking about the fact that we are facing last year’s or this year’s generation. Even less helpful are surnames “Pro” “Pro+” or “S”because when a “Pro” and an “S” have the same price —as we have seen in the aforementioned example above— it is that Redmi is doing things wrong here.

The situation is so bizarre that the strategies of the Redmi Note ranges —the best mid-range— end up being attacked by the POCOs as well. We have a good example: the Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G is the Poco M4 Pro 5G, but more expensive. It’s just amazing (and worrying).

Users are not right: Xiaomi is doing great like this

That the Xiaomi Redmi catalog (and Xiaomi in general) be a little chaos with all these implications would make you think that this could hurt your business. Even more: with so many models on sale, don’t they cannibalize each other?

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redmi11s

Well no. Those responsible for Xiaomi seem to be clear that each variant has its target audienceand that even those that coincide in price offer each user different characteristics that allow them to have an even wider range of users.

Or what is the same: more models allow users to have that model than fits perfectly to your needs. If they can identify him, of course.

It is curious that Owen, responsible for Xiaomi in Europe, pointed out in an interview in 2020 that Xiaomi would end up bringing “less mobiles to the market” with the progressive disappearance of 4G modelsbut that hasn’t happened yet.

How they explain the price increase in Xiaomi, what new products are coming and more: we spoke with Owen (responsible for Xiaomi in Europe)

The truth is that our complaint does not seem to be very important, at least from a business point of view. Xiaomi goes like a shot, and last summer managed to overtake Apple in market share and is already following in the footsteps of Samsung. In countries like Spain it has already surpassed it, in fact.

So, launching more and more models wildly may seem like a mistake that confuses us, but this manufacturer the strategy of flooding the market is working. Curse.

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