Reliance Jio may tie up with Xiaomi for exclusive sale rights of its TVs, smartphones

Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio is in intial talks with Chinese brand Xiaomi to sell its exclusive sale rights of televisions and its smartphones. 

According to a report in the Economic Times, Reliance Jio may enter a mutually-beneficial partnership, with Xiaomi to sell the Chinese giant's television and smartphones exclusively on the Jio retail network and the Reliance Digital chain of stores.

Reliance Jio Infocomm already had an exclusive partnership with Apple in India. 

According to the report, the proposed deal comes after Xiaomi India made a regulatory filing announcing its plans to enter segments beyond smartphones, including the B2B market.

Xiaomi also planning to sell more products into the Indian market and have also applied for the approval with respective authorities. 

An executive said that Xiaomi and Reliance Jio senior officials have met several times in the last few weeks to talk about the deal.

Meanwhile,  Xiaomi has a reason to cheer. According to a report by Canalys, Xiaomi owned a market share of 27.4 per cent in the Indian smartphone market having sold 8.2 million smartphones in December quarter. 

Additionally, according to Counterpoint Research, Xiaomi is the market leader in India with a market share of 25 per cent in December quarter. 

Commenting on the report, Manu Jain ,Vice President, Xiaomi and Managing Director, Xiaomi India, said, “We are extremely pleased that we have been able to retain our position as the No 1 smartphone brand in the Indian market (including both online and offline markets) according to reports from Canalys and Counterpoint.. We are grateful for the constant love and support that we receive from our Mi Fans. I believe our constant innovation across our products, operating model  and our commitment  to India has helped us win over our  Mi  fans. India is a key market for us and we will continue to launch new products and product categories for Indian Mi fans.”