Iran Gets Contract Xiaomi Phones

Mobile Telecommunications Company of Iran (MCI) has launched the sale of Xiaomi Mi Max as part of a new contract offer to gain more subscribers.

Iran’s oldest network, locally known as Hamrah-e-Aval, is the first Iranian company to offer phone bundles in collaboration with the Chinese company. In addition to this, the local tech website Zoomit.ir reported on October 1 that the Chinese company is aiming to use Iran as the main hub for selling Mi Max in the Middle East.

MCI already offers phone bundles for Mi4 and Redmi Note2, and the new phone adds to the company’s domestic offering.

In recent years, Xiaomi, which is the fourth largest smartphone maker in the world, has gained a foothold in Iran and is making efforts to expand its presence in the country.

During the recent Iran Telecom 2016 expo in Tehran, the Chinese company had several dedicated pavilions in MCI’s hall to push its phones and raise brand awareness.

Since June 2016, several smartphone manufacturers have introduced extra-large smartphones (phablets), including the Samsung Galaxy A9, LeEco Le Max 2 and Huawei P8 Max in the global smartphone market.

While flagship smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S7 and HTC 10 have trended around 5.2 inches for display size, Xiaomi has ignored this for their first humongous smartphone: the Xiaomi Mi Max.

With a 6.44-inch display, the Mi Max is much larger than what many would consider normal. The Mi Max is positioned as an affordable mid-range device that focuses purely on content consumption. The Xiaomi Mi Max is powered by hexacore Qualcomm Snapdragon 650 SoC, 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB of storage.

The MCI website still does not state the price of the new phone, but off-contract for just under 10 million rials ($300).