Chinese electronics company Xiaomi, the world's third largest smartphone distributor, recently launched Xiaomi Redmi 2, one of its new smartphones, in Brazil.

Reports say the new move marks the first step by the Chinese smartphone designer, developer and marketer to take its business outside of Asia and further expand into the global market. Digital Trends reports that Brazil is the world's fourth largest smartphone market.

According to reports, the Redmi 2 costs about US$160 locally.

Hugo Barra, president of the company's international division, said Xiaomi would continue to strive to become number one in the global smartphone market.

"We offer high-quality products at incredibly aggressive prices, so we're starting with larger developing markets where people are very price-sensitive," Reuters quoted Barra as saying.

CNET reported that Xiaomi was planning to sell the Xiaomi Redmi 2, which was officially released last January, on July 7.

The Xiaomi Redmi 2 sports a 4.7-inch IPS LCD display screen with a 720 x 1280 resolution, protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 2. It has an 8-mega pixel camera on the back and a 2 mega pixel front-facing camera.

Under the hood, the recently released Xiaomi Redmi 2 packs Qualcomm's MSM8916 Snapdragon 410, along with 1 GB worth of RAM and 8 GB internal memory storage. It also comes with another option that offers 16 GB of internal memory space and 2 GB RAM.

The Xiaomi Redmi 2 runs on the Android KitKat 4.4.4 operating system and is powered by a 2200 mAh battery. Colors available for the phone include black, white, pink, green and yellow, according to GSM Arena.

Xiaomi recently revealed it has sold about 34.7 million smartphone units in the first half of this year. The Chinese company is now apparently competing against other companies that are also developing and selling low-cost handsets that come with high-end specs. Another Chinese giant, Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., recently began selling its P8 lite smartphone in the U.S. just last month.