Hardwired
In Hardwired, AC Senior Editor Harish Jonnalagadda delves into all things hardware, including phones, audio products, storage servers, and networking gear.
I’ve been using the F8 Ultra for the last three weeks, and I like what POCO did with the phone. While the brand always did a great job with the hardware, it wasn’t until the F7 Ultra that it was able to deliver a phone with a great camera, and the F8 Ultra builds on that foundation. In my F8 Ultra review, I called it one of the best phones in the $800 category, and I stand by that — it really is a great all-rounder.
It’s this positioning that’s hurting the brand now. I asked POCO India and global spokespeople for an on-the-record statement about why its latest device isn’t coming to India, but I didn’t get one. That said, it isn’t hard to understand why POCO is reticent to launch the F8 Ultra in India; the brand is still seen as a budget player, and it just doesn’t have the cachet to sell a phone that costs over $700 in the country — there wouldn’t be any takers.
Xiaomi — POCO’s parent brand — knows this well, as it has tried several times in the past to sell its costliest phones in the country to no avail. That’s why we didn’t get Mi-branded flagships for a while, and it’s only in the last two years that it started selling its Ultra models in India. I see this as a prestige play, where Xiaomi is able to raise its brand profile by marketing devices like the Xiaomi 14 Ultra and Xiaomi 15 Ultra in the country, and this is similar to what OPPO and Vivo also do with the Find X9 Pro and X300 Pro.
With POCO, however, the focus is still on the budget category. This is why the brand didn’t bring the F7 Ultra to the country earlier in the year, only debuting the budget-focused F7 instead. POCO positions its products at a younger audience, and that ostensibly means catering to the budget segment with devices in the C and M series. I’m positive that these entry-level and budget phones outsell even the likes of the X7 Pro, and in that context, it’s easy to see why POCO didn’t bring the F8 Ultra to India.
Even then, I think the brand should have taken a gamble this time around. Phone pricing is trending up in India — like all global markets — and this year’s flagships highlight that. Vivo sub-brand iQOO’s devices are positioned against POCO’s products, and the iQOO 15 debuted in India for ₹72,999 ($811), a staggering increase of ₹18,000 ($200) from the iQOO 13’s ₹54,999 ($611) pricing last year.
With a significant price increase this year and the likes of Realme and other brands also rolling out phones in this category, this would have been the ideal year for POCO to bring its costlier portfolio of products to the country. The F8 Ultra is positioned well against the iQOO 15 and Realme GT 8 Pro, and given POCO’s recognition as a value-focused brand, it would have sold a decent number of phones by undercutting the F8 Ultra against its key rivals.
After all, it was this exact strategy that allowed POCO to rise in prominence with the F1 all those years ago. The F1 was an outlier in the sheer amount of value it delivered, and it’s clear that we won’t get devices like that again; the F2 Pro was proof of that. But to not bring the F8 Ultra to India feels like a short-sighted move, considering when other brands are willing to take a bet on the country.
If nothing else, this is hurting POCO’s image in the country. I get that devices like the F8 Ultra won’t sell in anywhere as many numbers as the brand’s budget phones, but having marquee phones to market only elevates a brand’s profile, and Samsung does this to great effect globally. It positions Galaxy S and Z devices as aspirational products, and sells millions of Galaxy A and FE devices with the clear implication that they’re just as good as the flagships — POCO (and Xiaomi in general) doesn’t seem to get this strategy.
The way Xiaomi and POCO position their brands in the U.K. is drastically different to India, and I find that puzzling considering both brands are actually recognizable in the country. POCO is doing all the right things when it comes to the actual hardware, and it now needs to get its strategy in order and ensure its best devices are sold in its biggest market.
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