{Disarmed} From an experiment with the name of a racing car to destroying 23 million units sold: this is the story of POCO
Respected and loved in equal measure, POCO has achieved, in just over three years —you will have to excuse the puns—, more than just making a name for itself in our country: it is, for all intents and purposes, one of the sub-brands market leaders. The question is, how has he managed to reach this place in such a short time?
We already know the history of his name . Now let's know the story behind its figures: its most notorious models, those that have changed the mid-range map to a point where Xiaomi manifests a clear dependency .
Pocophone F1, the creation of a myth
August 2018. A heat wave makes us little more than slaves to air conditioning . On the other side of the world, Xiaomi, under the leadership of Kevin Qiu, greets the world by presenting its POCO F1, inspired by Formula 1 , the highest international speed competition. Power at an entry-level price that sinks its teeth into the mid-range? Let's see.
A rock-solid 6.18-inch, a lion-roaring Snapdragon 845 processor, an aptX-HD compatible DAC, up to 8GB of RAM when that was unusual, and up to 256GB of storage to carry a ton of photos, music, and installed apps . Oh, and a wild autonomy for the 4,000 mAh that it mounted. All for the modest price of 289 euros. A "scourge" to everything that existed below 300 dollars.
Where is the trick? There is not, simply that was the blow on the table of a young split that wanted to be noticed . And what if he succeeded: that 8.3 in Xataka adduced more to a review of the general market than to the intrinsic values of the model in particular. And because MIUI for POCO, based on a revision of Android 8, was elegant but too heavy.
So much so, the success was dazzling. With a novelty, an unexpected handicap: it was only sold online and distributed to all the countries that, well, that could get customs tariffs from it. The result? 2.2 million units placed in a matter of six months.
Little by little, expanding
But that design, so unique and created on purpose, is abandoned in favor of a more agile production based on other models of the Xiaomi parent company . POCO would happen to be a kind of Redmi with "a little" extra hot sauce. And the machinery was already in motion.
Just a few months later, a certain POCO X2 , a reformulation of the Redmi K30 , comes to the fore. To the first model, the so-called F series, an heir ( POCO F2 Pro ) was born in May 2020. And during the summer of the same year we would see the M series be born, with up to four versions of the M2 essentially based on a Redmi 9. And It would still be necessary to take a look at the POCO C series, created from the Redmi 9C.
We arrived at 2020. So that we can understand it in figures, in just eight months another six terminals were presented under the POCO banner. The most interesting of all? That POCO F2 Pro , which adopts the last name Pro to compete directly with the best of Google (Nexus) or Chinese rivals like Vivo and OnePlus and rises to the barrier of 500 euros.
In return we had a 6.67-inch AMOLED screen that still boasts overwhelming contrast, a 64 MP Sony IMX686 camera sensor, the new POCO launcher based on Android 10/MIUI 11, a brave Snapdragon 865 processor, better in its day and the incorporation of 5G and WiFi 6 technology to leave nothing out.
Best note, best result: 9 million copies distributed , which led Xiaomi to consider giving the brand independence: what if we go our own way? New website, a Poco Community , its own store and a mischievous streak in networks: POCO was no longer a child, he was a very self-confident adolescent in the process of emancipation.
POCO X3 Pro, a crown for an heir
We don't want to bore you with strict timelines. Time is running out and POCO launches its POCO F3 —based on the Redmi K40— and, four months later, the POCO F3 GT , assembled from the Redmi K40 Gaming Edition . And the market performance in Western European countries (Spain, France, Italy, Portugal) is such that it already competes with Redmi.
However, there is a terminal that is not built inspired by any other or, at least, without cloning specifications, as the X3 GT would do, based on the Redmi Note 10 Pro 5G . And that is the POCO X3 Pro, the true heir to the F1. If the consumer is always right, our portfolios voted that Poco had made the right decision.
Let's travel to that day when, respectable reader, you learned that the POCO X3 Pro fell below 200 euros on Amazon Prime Day . That is, the day you discovered a kind of glitch in the system: a smartphone that was too good for its price. The 6GB model reached 199 euros and in 6 hours it was already the best-selling mobile in Spain.
Was it that good? Let's remember its 6.67-inch screen with a 120 Hz refresh rate, a peak brightness of 450 nits and maximum protection with Gorilla Glass 6 . Or its 5,160 mAh battery compatible with 33 W fast charging. Or that vitaminized Snapdragon 860 with up to 8 GB of LPDDR4X RAM. There is also no lack of headphone jack, dual SIM, NFC, radio, improvements in usability and biometrics with a side fingerprint reader. Just a compromise, because you can't have everything: 4G networks and WiFi 5.
A fifth of all POCO mobiles sold belong to this model. And in 2021 alone, the sub-brand reached sales of 11.6 million units , as we learned at the last virtual event where the new POCO X4 Pro 5G and POCO M4 Pro were presented. A round success in 3 years that has been resolved with almost 23 million POCO mobiles distributed as of January 1, 2022 .
LITTLE in 2022
And we arrive at 2022, with a mess of three pairs of noses because the new POCO X4 Pro 5G is actually the Chinese Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G that we always wanted to import and that Xiaomi limited.
To understand this chaos, it is convenient to arm yourself with patience, but above all to ask yourself, what will be next? Well, a LITTLE F4 that raises news -although it is not saved from being the inheritance of another Redmi-.
If the M4 Pro 4G is the first model of the brand to bet on IP52 protection, in addition to being the lightest in history (179 grams) and the X4 Pro to assemble a 108MP camera sensor and go all-in at 5G, this new beast wants to arm itself with a Dimensity 9000 series processor and be the first to opt for a true 2K resolution screen.
The past backs him up: POCO may seem a bit mad , but it's almost always good . The safe bet of the mid-range.
-
The news From an experiment with the name of a racing car to devastate 23 million units sold: this is the story of POCO was originally published in xiaomist by Isra Fdez .
Comments
Post a Comment