Beijing, Jan 4 (IANS): Chinese handset maker Xiaomi has announced it is making Redmi an independent brand without revealing the reason behind the move.

The announcement essentially makes Redmi -- originally introduced as a budget smartphone line-up by the company in July 2013 -- a subsidiary of Xiaomi.

"Xiaomi has announced to make ‘Redmi' an independent brand. The new brand has already scheduled a launch event on January 10 in China where it will launch its first smartphone with a 48-megapixel camera sensor," Gizmo China reported late on Thursday.

Xiaomi's pocket-friendly Redmi and Redmi Note series have been the most popular for the company so far.

According to Lei Jun, Founder of the company, the reason behind splitting up Redmi and Xiaomi is the "focus".

"While the Redmi brand focuses on value-for-money budget smartphones, the Mi brand is focused on high-end devices. Also, the Redmi devices are primarily sold through e-commerce platforms while Mi devices are not e-commerce focused," the report added quoting Lei on Chinese micro-blogging site Weibo.