POCO spun off as a standalone brand as Xiaomi shifts focus to premium segment

What you need to know

• Xiaomi has announced that its POCO sub-brand will now be an independent brand.
• The brand started off in 2018 with the launch of the POCO F1, which still remains hugely popular.
• POCO is expected to launch its second smartphone sometime later this year.

Xiaomi is spinning off its POCO sub-brand as an independent brand. Announcing the news on Twitter, the company's global vice president and India head Manu Kumar Jain said that the company feels "the time is right" to let the sub-brand operate independently.

The news comes just two days after Xiaomi revealed its plans of shifting focus to the premium segment in India. Over the course of the year, the company plans to launch several premium "Mi" flagship devices in the country. Its Redmi sub-brand, however, will continue to focus on the budget segment.

Xiaomi had introduced POCO as a sub-brand in 2018, with the POCO F1 as its very first product. Thanks to its flagship-grade hardware and highly competitive pricing, the POCO F1 proved to be among the most popular phones of the year in markets like India. In fact, as Xiaomi has pointed out in its press release, the POCO F1 still remains extremely popular.

POCO's next product is expected to be called the POCO F2, although there is precious little that we know about the phone's specs or exactly when it will be launched. Just like the POCO F1, however, the POCO F2 is likely to debut in India before making its way to other markets as the Pocophone F2.

POCO F1 review, 18 months later: Still going strong in 2020