Xiaomi brainchild Poco was brought back to life after a year being incommunicado. With the launch of the Poco X2 (review), the sub-brand led by Xiaomi’s C.Manmohan said 2020 is going to see a lot of Poco products. We already got a phone that wasn’t quite the successor of the Poco F1 but started off a new lineup of powerful mid-range hardware. But phones are not the only thing the young brand is focusing on.
In a recent poll conducted by Poco India GM C.Manmohan on Twitter, users said they would want a truly wireless headphone the most from Poco. This out of a choice pool that included Fitness wearable and a gamepad. TWS saw the highest share of votes at 38.2%.
https://twitter.com/IndiaPOCO/status/1247419716903137280?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Almost like clockwork, Poco announced a day later that Poco-branded Truly Wireless Earphones are in the works and will be coming to India.
The fan meeting saw more than 500 participants which also included a Q&A round with Manmohan.
Poco’s ambition of entering new gadget categories have been there since its inception. Back when the brand was headed by Jai Mani, he said in an interview in 2018 that along with working on new smartphones, they are also thinking about other gadget categories.
With Poco now spun-off as an independent brand, it’s a trajectory in the market seems to be going in line with the fierce rival it seems to have taken up as a mission to topple. We’re talking about Realme. Apart from launching smartphones that are almost identical to each other, Poco’s plans of working on a TWS may be a direct reaction to the Realme Buds Air (review) that happens to be a cheap alternative to Apple AirPods (looks the part too).
With global supply chains disrupted due to the coronavirus epidemic, however, it remains to be seen just how soon the young independent brand can launch the new product in India. So far, Xiaomi, Realme and other OEMs have postponed their launches owing to the current lockdown to curb the spread of the pandemic.