Redmi Note 8 is now more expensive due to Coronavirus.
The Coronavirus outbreak has affected the technology industry massively, with the biggest impact happening to the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona as it stands cancelled for now. So far, the effects are muted in India but it was expected that it won’t be long before the Indian tech industry got affected. Asus was the first one to get affected and now Xiaomi joins the queue. Yes, Xiaomi is the next phone maker to get affected by the Coronavirus epidemic.
Even though Xiaomi says it makes its phones in India, Xiaomi sources its components from China and assembles it in India. Since the supply chain in China has been affected the worse, Xiaomi says the supply of its popular Redmi Note 8 has been affected. The disruption in the supply chain has led Xiaomi to increase the cost and as a result, the Redmi Note is now more expensive.
Don’t freak out yet as the price hike only amounts to Rs 500. Hence, the base variant of the Redmi Note 8 that comes with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage earlier used to cost Rs 9,999 and with a price hike, the phone now starts at Rs 10,499. Same is the case of the high-end variant as well. Do note that the price hike is temporary and once the supply chain is sorted out, Xiaomi will reduce the price massively.
In a statement to Gadgets360, a Xiaomi spokesperson says, “The extended shutdown in China is likely to have an impact on our Supply chain and, there is a risk of impact on the overall quantum of component supplies. While we are working to explore alternative supply channels for components and raw materials, the immediate impact is that the short supply might cause some negative pressure on prices of these components. This has led to an increase in the price of the product temporarily.”
Previously, Asus announced that its supply of the popular ROG Phone 2 will be affected for a short period of time. The supply chain issues have affected the availability of the ROG Phone 2 globally, although you can still find the phone on sale in Flipkart.
In the case of Xiaomi, the Redmi Note 8 is available at the new price on its own website as well as the stores but the device is out of stock on Amazon.