Smartphone market will suffer from Xiaomi ban in India
Xiaomi has had phenomenal success in India and their sales get over in seconds on their exclusive retailer in India, Flipkart. Ericsson India has filed a case against Xiaomi and the Supreme Court of India has passed an ex parte order prohibiting the Chinese smartphone manufacturer from selling or marketing their smartphones in India.
Ericsson India’s point of view with which the SC agrees is that the Chinese company has failed to follow Standard Essential Patents (SEPs). It is unclear at the moment whether all Xiaomi products have been banned or certain specific models will face the flak for flouting the patent rules but Xiaomi looks to be heading for trouble.
Supreme Court has ruled that the import offices have to ensure that Xiaomi owned offices in India are adhering to the ruling. The Supreme Court has cited IPR Rules, 2007 after Xiaomi ignored all kinds of transmissions that were sent via mail, phone or by messengers. Xiaomi joins the growing list of patent flouting group of smartphone manufacturers who have been taken to court by Ericsson like Micromax, Gionee and Intex.
After the Indian Air Force asked their staff to refrain from using Xiaomi handsets because there were reports of personal data stored on handset being sent to an IP address in China, the Chinese company seems to be headed for a difficult time again in India. Xiaomi India claims that they are yet to receive any official order of the natue reported here and that all the information that they have is due to the media coverage.
In a preemptive move if the media reports do turn out to be true, Xiaomi India is already looking at their legal options within the laws of the land. They have stated that they would like to resolve the dispute with Ericsson so they may both focus on their primary goals.
India is the second largest market for Xiaomi, China being the first, a ban on its products will create a huge problem for them. After the huge success of the Xiaomi Mi3, they are gearing up for the launch of the Xiaomi Mi4 in sometime during April to June in 2015.