What will it take for Xiaomi to come out with a Rs 50,000? This is the question. And the answer, directly from Xiaomi India managing director Manu Kumar Jain, is simple: Xiaomi will not sell a phone for Rs 50,000. Reason? Right now there is no viable technology for a smartphone that Xiaomi can't offer to consumers in a cheaper phone. The only reason why, according to Manu, Xiaomi may want to sell a Rs 50,000 phone will be to earn extra high profit and that is something the company doesn't do.

"Can Xiaomi make a Rs 50,000? Yes, we can price a phone at Rs 50,000 just like other companies do. But we won't be able to sell it because our board will not allow it. It's not in our DNA to sell phones at outrageous profit margins. Recently, when Xiaomi went public we said that we will limit out profit margin to 5 per cent. We are committed to this," Manu told India Today Tech on the sidelines of the company's Poco F1 phone launch.

The Poco F1 is a high-end phone, with same components that you get in a premium phone. Yet unlike other phones, which are sold for as high as Rs 50,000 to Rs 60,000, the Poco F1 price starts at Rs 20,999. Even its most decked up variant -- with 256GB storage, 8GB RAM and a Kevlar coating on its body -- costs Rs 29,999.

It's never say never, though. All depends on the manufacturing cost of a phone, but right now even after everything that Xiaomi puts in a phone the cost to make a phone will not warrant a high-price of Rs 50,000. "Some phones are expensive because companies selling them target high margins. Our board will not allow 60 per cent profit margins," says Manu. "This is not to say we will never have a Rs 50,000 phone in the market. If we make a phone that has some new and expensive technologies, it may come with higher price tag."

A few months earlier when Xiaomi went public and was listed in Hong Kong, its founder lei Jun had talked about the company's philosophy on profit margins. "If we sell our products at close to cost and return value to our users, then we can earn the long-term support of our users. Aiming for large volumes with small profit margins will still result in suitable hardware profits for us in the long term," Jun had said in an email to employees.

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So, no Rs 50,000 phone from Xiaomi. What about more flagship phones? Manu says they will be launched in the coming months. "We will have more flagship phones in India in coming months," he says, although for now Xiaomi will not offer more details on these phones. But chances are that the company, in the coming months, may launch the Xiaomi Mi 8 and the Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 in India. The Mi 8 is already available in China, while the Mix 3 is expected to launch in October.