Xiaomi Mi3, Redmi 1S Go on sale in India on 6 October; Huge Turnout Crashes Flipkart Server

In a surprise move, Xiaomi today (on 6 October) announced flash sale of Mi3 and Redmi 1S in India.

The company (via official Facebook page) has confirmed that 150,000 units of Redmi 1S and 25,000 units of Xiaomi Mi3 went on sale on Flipkart 8.00 am today.

Adding to buyers' delight, the company has let go off the registration process, which was mandatory in previous flash sales.

All 25,000 units of Xiaomi Mi3 has been automatically added to registered Xiaomi fans, who had tried buying the phone during the flash sales in July-August, but failed to buy one.  Users are advised to complete purchase transaction with-in two hours, failing which, the device will taken-off from the cart and given to other prospective consumers. Where as Redmi 1S can be purchased off the shelves with out any registration.

[Note: e-commerce site, Flipkart is using a new algorithm in the flash sale to inhibit illegal purchase of devices as it come to the notice of the company that some miscreants are selling the devices for exorbitant prices at online classified sites. The new software is said to be intuitive enough to automatically block select consumers, who use illegal means (like scripts or browser extensions) to purchase the device repeatedly and sell them for exorbitant prices at online classified websites.]

The response from the public has been overwhelming and the virtual stampede reportedly led the Flipkart server to crash. The website showed – "500: Internal Server Error" and the company is yet to fix the issue.

The website (via Twitter) has said the issue will be fixed soon.

[Update: Flipkart has fixed the issue, but the Xiaomi Mi3 units have been sold out. The good news is that, the webpage is showing coming soon tag, and the Redmi 1S is still available for purchase]

Key specifications of Xiaomi Mi3 and Redmi 1S:

[Image credit: Xiaomi India]