When Xiaomi ran flash sales in international markets, it was nice to know that a relatively new Chinese maker was getting the attention it deserved. However, in today’s Xiaomi Mi3 sale in India, things went quite out of proportion.
The Mi3 sale was slated to begin 2pm India time, with an unspecified number of Mi3 units on sale. The last time Xiaomi did this, it took them a mere 38 minutes 50 seconds to sellout of their inventory. Sources close to Flipkart mentioned the number of devices — under 10,000 — that it had for sale, which was quite a disappointing number considering that more than 1,00,000 registered for the sale.
Gizchina News of the week
What happened today was perhaps something not even Xiaomi expected (or even wanted to happen); within 2 minutes of the Mi3 going on sale, the Flipkart page listed the device as ‘out of stock’. This left customers dejected and outraged, and rightly so. As Deepak Singh of GadgetsToUse puts it, ‘the Xiaomi Mi3 is undoubtedly one of the best smartphones under 15k, which you can cannot buy in India today.‘
We certainly think Xiaomi need to up their game by a margin if they want to survive in a market as challenging as India, a market where sentiment sits above anything else. Being a manufacturer as large as it is, we really hope they realize it sooner than later.
Update: is this a joke?
Yeah,it’s definitely a joke.I don’t like Xiaomi or OPO.I would rather wait to buy ZTE Nubia Z7 Max which is scheduled to be launched in our India by September to October(According to secret Sources) I always,wonder why Gizchina don’t make a review of ZTE Smart Phones?Why,don’t you see ZTE has a global player?Or it is difficult for you to get hold of ZTE Phones?Awaiting for your answers!
Joke is a polite term, this is a standard example of deliberate misinformation and sly hype marketing tactics (xiaomi and flipcart included) Because on GSM arena people have reported being able to purchase the handset till at least 2:20 PM.
Draw your own conclusions!
i got it ordered at around 2:15 pm today. but it got ‘out of stock’ just a few minutes later, maybe at 2:18 or something.. at first flipkart didn’t recognize me to be a registered User.. the after clicking it repeatedly for two-three times it recognized me but then it got struck at ‘adding to you cart. pls donot refresh the page.’ after refreshing the page it showed ‘you purchased one item it has been added to your cart.’ though the My cart was empty. Then finally after 8-10 minutes and many refreshing, opening/closing tabs i was able to get it added to the cart and it proceeded further for the address confirmation.
This was followed by a lot of disappointed users commenting of their fb page. The flipkart’s service was really ridiculous both on 22nd and today..
surprised by the tone of this article yash..!! this what xiaomi has been for 4 years, they r not gng to change in india, that too not so soon, 🙂
People are simply falling prey to the pseudo manufactured hype by xiaomi and flipcart combine.
Consider the following facts
1. Everyone knows that in comparison to other e-retailing websites, people rarely buy anything from flipcart because the listed items are always priced higher. This actually means that flipcart’s infrastructure is neither accustomed to, nor geared up to handle
such traffic. And the infrastructure upgrade is not going to happen in the foreseeable future!
2. Going by the reviews of certified buyers on flipcart itself and media confirmation of about 5000 units sold on 22 Jul. It appears that almost 150 handsets were defective!!!! Not only this points to the well known cheap chinese tendency of non existent quality control but also the fact that 3 out of 100 units sold were defective!!! This is a very high number and is unacceptable by normal quality control standards.
3. Apart from that even the ‘CERTIFIED BUYERS’ of working units have listed the ‘CONS’ which appear to be present across the board – viz. Signal drop/ Intermittent signal, very high heat up of the handset after internet browsing/ gaming, bad audio/ call quality, phone lock up due to proximity sensor, high SAR value and a bad SIM tray design! Add to that, the fact of no expandable memory, no dual SIM and a non removable battery – AND the most important of all – DOUBTFUL local after sales & service support – People would be forgiven for thinking that suddenly the xiaomi offering doesn’t seem to be all that attractive.
4. The experience of purchasing this phone on flipcart would have been dubbed the classic comedy if it wouldn’t have been so tragic!!! People have reported server glitches, website freezing issues galore! Many people have reported that despite having registered, the website shows them as a non registered member! After all this sordid drama, if one does manage to purchase this item by a sheer stroke of luck (after flipcart family members, chamchaas, chapraasis, hangers on, pseudo FB groupies etc etc have had their fill), one has to contend with the handset having been delivered to the wrong address!!! Many people have reported that their purchase was inexplicably CANCELLED with no explanation whatsoever, after the item was shown to have been delivered to the nearest hub by the tracking app. These same people were not even extended the due consideration of being included in the next sale automatically, even when the fault lay clearly in Flipcart’s court! The site appears to be run by a bunch of retards!!!! The latest debacle was on 29th when the website showed the item to be out of stock mere seconds after the sale started, whereas flipcart customer care vehemently denied the commencement of the sale!! GO FIGURE!!!!
5. Mi3 is now a comparatively vintage handset and the reasons why people may be interested to buy it are only two. One – It has a snapdragon CPU & Adreno GPU while the offerings of other mobile vendors are based on mediatek chips. Two – It is being offered at a very cheap price. Well… the price is cheap because after the launch of Mi4, xiaomi is simply engaging in ‘dumping’ the older model elsewhere. The xiaomi tactics of only an online sale is simply a gimmick to create a pseudo hype because it probably is aware that many people may not buy this phone from a physical retailer after hands on experience because despite the high end specs the overall user experience appears to be dodgy – All these facts are going by the reviews of the ‘CERTIFIED BUYERS’ on flipcart itself.
So people need to ask themselves whether it is prudent to buy garbage just because its cheap (and also contend with a retard site like flipcart while doing so!!!) or wait for an established vendor with after sales service & repair presence to come out with a handset with similar specs and reasonable pricing – which is just a matter of time, governed by the laws of commerce these days.
More fool xiaomi for teaming up with an ass site like flipcart AND more fool flipcart because the xiaomi sale has exposed their utter crap infrastructure beyond any reasonable doubt and any informed buyer would be wary of ever purchasing anything from this site. .
Caveat Emptor!!!
You don’t recommend buying Xiaomi then ?
Don’t go by my recommendations, go to the flipcart Mi3 page, read all the user reviews, the 5 star ones and the 1 star ones as well! Arrive at your informed decision based upon that. These are the reviews of GENUINE CERTIFIED BUYERS and not of paid website stooges and pseudo FB groupies
Better wait & buy Nubia Z7 Max which is to be released in our India by September to October(As per Secret Sources).Z7 Max is a perfect model that suits all our needs!
After knowing they had 100000 registrations and more , why would they import only 10400 pieces for this round of sale.
I got phone on Ist day easily.This time a lot of shit happened,.some agents got phone on flipkart and selling it on Ebay http://www.ebay.in/sch/i.html?_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1313.TR10.TRC0.A0.H0.Xmi+3&_nkw=mi+3&_sacat=0&_from=R40
These guys should be arrested for selling non-transferable goods illegaly. Hope next time this thing does not happen.
Guys,Better wait & buy Nubia Z7 Max which is to be released in our India by September to October(As per Secret Sources).Z7 Max is a perfect model that suits all our needs!
Honestly, it seems that it would benefit Xiaomi to just give up on India. The first sale was the most disappointing sale of the year. This sale has people yelling fraud everywhere with no real proof. Xiaomi don’t really need this, and it’s bad for their reputation. Take a look at at Suresh Ramalingam’s post. He complains that the Mi3 has a high SAR value, suffers from signal drops, heats up from internet browsing, has a bad sim tray design and has poor audio and call quality. This could be fake, since I’ve met numerous people who have the phone and no one complained about any of these things. Even I use the Mi3 and I’ve never met a single one of these problems aside from heating while paying games, and just about every phone I’ve used has had the same problem. My point is, this market seems to be dragging Xiaomi down quite a lot with and has no real benefits to them. They should just leave this market. Going by the comments, I’m also guessing that the Indians wouldn’t care much either.
Hi Airyl, the post is not about my perceptions but about the issues as reported by genuine buyers (like yourself) on flipcart’s Mi3 page itself. Going by your assertion as well as the facts of 5 star and 1 star reviews on that page, it is apparent that some handsets are good while some are decidedly defective. What one can infer is that while xiaomi may have high specs, the quality control appears to be non existent. There appears to be a widely variable handset quality. This does establish reasonable doubt about the product since one can’t physically test it/ handle it prior to purchase. As mentioned earlier, the fact of 3 in 100 handsets being defective translates to 6000 defective handsets in a million sold! This is a very high number and its ramifications in terms of reasonable outrage is only borne out in full when you end up being on the receiving end of a defective handset!!!
Anyway, xiaomi has completely botched up their hyped entry by partnering with flipcart whose shenanigans have truly flipped their cart (Pun intended)!!! I guess, they ought to pay heed to your advice.
Anyway, it’s not really in Xiaomi’s best interest to dabble in India anymore. The market’s full of competition from local manufacturers, and from what I’ve read the general consensus is that Indians don’t exactly care much about speed but prefer more features instead. They should try other smaller countries first, where the market is less saturated. That’s why the Malaysian, Philippine and Singaporean launches were so successful.
Actually its out of stock in merely 3 sec’s.
Xiaomi
phones covertly send user data to China: report – See more at:
http://www.digit.in/mobile-phones/xiaomi-phones-covertly-send-user-data-to-china-report-23433.html#sthash.FduZqmjg.dpuf
Xiaomi
phones covertly send user data to China: report – See more at:
http://www.digit.in/mobile-phones/xiaomi-phones-covertly-send-user-data-to-china-report-23433.html#sthash.FduZqmjg.dpufReport: Xiaomi Redmi Note sends photos and texts to Chinese serve… r Can someone comment on this http://www.phonearena.com/news/Report-Xiaomi-Redmi-Note-sends-photos-and-texts-to-Chinese-server_id58744
Xiaomi
phones covertly send user data to China: report – See more at:
http://www.digit.in/mobile-phones/xiaomi-phones-covertly-send-user-data-to-china-report-23433.html#sthash.FduZqmjg.dpuf
Obviously Xiaomi’s goal is to sell phones. I think they have stretched themselves thin with all the expansion they have been doing and just can’t keep up with production. Did those phones really get sold? It’s possible. Xiaomi are a very sought after brand that is capable of selling loads of phones quickly. I think the reality here is that they simply had far too devices to launch with, perhaps less than they let on. Is that an excuse? No, they certainly shouldn’t play games with buyers especially in a new market, it will do far more damage than good for them. They knew how many phones were really needed. If they can’t keep up with expansion plans they should just slow the timeline down.
That all being said, I don’t feel they are a company to avoid. They make awesome phones for the price, they just need to stop with all the marketing games and sell the phones, if not there are many other quality products on the market and like mentioned by many buyers here they’ll just get something that is available. That’s what I would do too.