Xiaomi restarts India sales December 23 after winning temporary reprieve on ban

After Xiaomi yesterday won a temporary reprieve on its India sales ban, today Hugo Barra confirmed that sales of one phone model will restart in the country next week.

Barra, in a statement posted to Facebook, said the Redmi 1S will go back on sale in India on December 23, followed by the Redmi Note 4G at an unspecified later date.

However, Xiaomi’s reprieve in its Indian legal tussle – caused by a dispute with Ericsson over patents – lasts only until January 8, 2015. The Delhi High Court is only permitting Xiaomi to sell Qualcomm-powered smartphones in India. That’s due to Qualcomm having a license to use the disputed Ericsson patents.

Delhi’s High Court will next hold a hearing on February 5, so Xiaomi might be fully banned in India once again on January 9 unless it wins a further amnesty until the date of the hearing.

Xiaomi launched in India in July. It’s seeking to disrupt the country’s top smartphone brand, Samsung, and also shake up India’s own budget phone brands, such as Micromax and Karbonn. Other Chinese firms like Huawei, Oppo, and OnePlus are also going after new smartphone converts in India as hundreds of millions of people begin ditching their basic phones.

See: Smartphones in India and China: a tale of growth versus stagnation in 2014