Xiaomi's Mi3 sold out in 5 seconds, says Flipkart

Xiaomi's Mi3 sold out in 5 seconds, says Flipkart

Chinese handset maker Xiaomi sold out all Mi 3 devices in its second flash sale online on Tuesday in five seconds, the company said in a statement, yet a large number of customers were left disappointed because of the limited stocks offered.

About 100,000 customers had registered to buy the Mi 3 smartphone, priced at Rs 13,999, on online retailer Flipkart's website. Xiaomi and Flipkart said in a statement that till date 20,000 devices have been sold through the online retailer.
Industry insiders say Xiaomi had about 10,000 devices up during the first sale, which were grabbed instantaneously by consumers a week ago. A day earlier, Xiaomi had asked customers to log on to the website and stay ready for the sale.

Xiaomi will hold its next sale on August 5 and customers will have to register again for a chance to buy the phone, the company added on its Twitter page an hour after the sale ended.

"We're pleasantly surprised by the numbers we saw today. There were an estimated 2.5 lakh customers on the site at the time of the sale," Manu Jain, head of India operations for Xiaomi told ET.

"We are ramping up production on the back end to meet with demand here," Jain added, when asked about the shortage of devices for queued-up customers.

Flipkart, the sole seller of Xiaomi phones in India, said the traffic load at 2 pm on Tuesday afternoon when the sale began, was 4 times higher than the heaviest level ever experienced by Flipkart's infrastructure.

Flipkart co-founder & CEO Sachin Bansal said late evening that the site was working towards ensuring a more seamless experience in the future, although no glitches were reported.

Hugo Barra, Vice President, Xiaomi Global said that the company was working with manufacturing partners and local partners and the user community in India to bring more devices.

Tuesday's flash sale may well be Flipkart's fastest, quicker than the Moto G which was sold out hours after its launch in February, said Tarun Pathak, analyst at CyberMedia Research.

Xiaomi has had successful online sales in its home market, where quantities were higher, and Singapore, while Motorola had ventured into online-only sales for the first time in India.

"India is no different for Xiaomi in terms of marketing. They're putting in low quantity but the hype will help in the next inventory on August 5. In the period, it will push the word of mouth," Pathak added.

Motorola Mobility sells its smartphones online exclusively through Flipkart in India. The e-commerce website ran out of stock soon after it started taking orders for the Moto G smartphone, priced at Rs 13,999 for 16 GB, and in May, when it launched the Moto E for Rs 6,999.

Xiaomi plans to start selling the Redmi 1S and Redmi Note in India at Rs 6,999 and Rs 9,999, respectively, in the coming months.

Analysts say more than half of the smartphones sold in India are in the Rs 5,000 to Rs 20,000 price range. A mix of local handset vendors such as Micromax, Karbonn and Xolo competes with global brands Samsung, Sony, HTC and Nokia and Chinese sellers Gionee, Lenovo and Oppo for a share of the burgeoning market.

India is the world's second-largest market for mobiles, sales of which touched 226 million in 2013. IDC estimates that consumers here are likely to buy about 80 million smartphones this year, almost double the 44 million units sold last year.

Source : Economic Times