Starting in 2021 Q3, Xiaomi’s product series ‘Mi’ will be renamed to Xiaomi.  Apparently this is because the name change will “unify our global brand presence” and “close the perception gap between the brand and its products”.

No, we can’t see the logic in this either, but we are sure some marketing person got top marks for the paper which required this expensive change in branding.

Xiaomi says that it’ll still keep the Redmi brand around, meaning that the higher-end Xiaomi products will form a distinct line alongside Redmi products. Xiaomi products “represent the pinnacle of technology and offer a premium experience”, according to the company, while Redmi products “bring big innovation at a more accessible price point and are aimed at a younger audience”.

This naming convention “will also be applied to our ecosystem and IoT products over time”, said the spokesperson, though the Mi brand logo will continue to be used in Xiaomi’s Mi Home stores for now.

This month’s announcement of the latest phone in the Mi Mix series served as a harbinger of the shift, since Xiaomi referred to it as the Xiaomi Mix 4. The previous phones were called the Mi Mix, the Mi Mix 2, and the Mi Mix 3.

The Mi brand was largely used in Western markets, presumably for readability and pronunciation reasons — phones like the Mi 11 are already called the Xiaomi 11 in China, for example. But Xiaomi evidently believes its company name is now recognisable enough and better represents its products.