Xiaomi Mi3 Sale to Begin Again on 12 August; 20,000 Units up for Grabs

Popular Chinese feature-rich smartphone Xiaomi Mi3 is all set to go for its fourth flash sale in India on 12 August.

Buoyed by the huge response from the Indian public, Xiaomi has confirmed to sell 20,000 units this time; much higher compared to the three previous sales. Though the company is selling 5,000 additional units compared to the previous flash sale, the number is still way too less to satiate thousands of Indian Mi3 fans.

There are already more than a lakh (100,000 plus) registered consumers for Tuesday's flash sale.

On 5 August, Xiaomi Mi3 got sold out in a record two seconds time - much quicker than 29 July, when it took only 5 seconds for the company to sell the devices. Similarly, tomorrow's flash sale is also expected to witness the same virtual stampede from Mi3 fans, but it remains to be seen if it will be able to create a new record.

Meanwhile, despite boasting record breaking sales, the company has been on the receiving end. Xiaomi got panned by fans for keeping very low stocks. Many took to Twitter to troll the company [See full report, here].

For instance, if the company sells only 10,000-20,000 units each time they release, simple math dictates that smartphone units will fly off the shelves in no time, considering India's population (The country has more than 240 million people with internet (broadband/mobile) connection, as reported by IAMAI, Internet and Mobile Association of India).

In a telephonic interview with BGR India, Xiaomi's global operation head Hugo Barra acknowledged Mi3's huge supply-demand gap in India.

"We completely underestimated the demand in India. We opened our Facebook page a month before the launch and we used the interaction there to judge the demand. We have used the same model in every market. At the launch date we had less than 10,000 followers. Even on our website we had thought getting 100,000 followers would be easy. But that didn't happen. India is a different market where word of mouth spreads," Barra said.

The company usually uses social network sites like Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus to market its devices, instead of investing money on expensive marketing schemes.

Many had written off Xiaomi as a one-time wonder and to soon vanish into the oblivion like other startups but this strategy of using social media for selling devices has taken Xiaomi to new levels in China and international arenas as well.

Recently, this four-year-old firm overtook Samsung as the top smartphone seller in China and entered the elite top 5 global smartphone leaders chart.

Besides the quirky marketing strategy, another reason for the company's super fast global ascension is the fact that the devices they sell are extremely cheap, leading to huge success in price-sensitive markets like China and India.

For the uninitiated, Xiaomi Mi3 costs just ₹13,999 and sports a 5.0-inch full HD display, 2.3GHz Snapdragon CPU, Android v4.4.2 KitKat (with custom MIUI), full HD display (440 ppi) with Gorilla Glass 3 shield, Aluminum-Magnesium alloy frame and many more feature-rich specifications.

Xiaomi's official e-commerce partner Flipkart has opened the registration window for consumers to make themselves eligible to purchase Xiaomi Mi 3 on 12 August. Interested buyers, click here.

Key specifications of Xiaomi Mi3:

[Image credit: Xiaomi India]