“IS it true that Xiaomi will be back again in the Philippines by February?” We were taken aback. We certainly did not see that message coming. Our friend’s question came out of the blue — and just when we were in the middle of covering CES 2017.

So we wrote our Beijing-based contact at Xiaomi, hoping to get confirmation from him. But what we got was basically a “no comment” reply: “We don’t have anything to share at the moment, but thanks for checking with us. Rest assured we’ll keep you posted whenever we have something to share for the Philippines. :)”

SEE ALSO: Xiaomi Mi 6 now available in PH, but there’s a catch

Fast-forward to April 2017, and the issue of the company being back in the country came up once again. This time, though, local tech sites wrote that the comeback was official, citing sources close to the supposed distributor.

In May, there was confusion about the “real” distributor of Mi products when the Mi Philippines Facebook page, which claims to be the account of Xiaomi’s Philippine partner, posted this:

In those two instances, we again tried to get confirmation from our contact. But again, no dice. So we held off writing about Xiaomi’s supposed comeback in the Philippines. With all the confusion about the issue, we decided not to publish anything until we get word from the Beijing-headquartered company.

Tonight, our patience paid off. A Xiaomi spokesperson finally gave a statement. Look what we got in our inbox.

‘Xiaomi currently does not have official distributors in the Philippines. All official announcements in the future will come directly from Xiaomi.’

Our thoughts? This does not necessarily mean that Xiaomi will not return here; it’s probably just that at this point, nothing is official until Xiaomi itself — and not a distributor — announces it. And it might surprise us by doing so before the year ends.

Heck, we’re even thinking that unlike OnePlus, which only has an exclusive distributor in the Philippines (yes, it’s Digital Walker), the company will again have an official presence in the country. Think Samsung, which has authorized resellers and distributors in the Philippines, yet still has an office here.

But that’s just us and what we desperately try to believe. How about you? What are your thoughts on this?

Image via CNET

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