Initially when Xiaomi sold scores of Mi 3 handsets in India in short durations, it really made us happy to see a young Chinese brand do well in a market as diverse as India. However, with time and more flash sales, the super-short flash sales became turned into routine more than headlines.
Soon after that, Xiaomi pulled the plug on the Mi 3 for an indefinite period of time. While there’s no confirmation from the company on this, we don’t see the Mi 3 coming back to India anytime soon (we’d love to get surprised, though). I did, and still do believe that Xiaomi sold the Mi 3 at loss to be able to make a name for itself in India, where a head start is as crucial as you can possibly think of. Xiaomi isn’t the biggest of manufacturers, but is big enough to realize the potential that the Indian market holds for them.
Gizchina News of the week
As you would expect from Xiaomi, the Redmi 1S was priced way below the expectations at just 5,999 INR or $99, which is the lowest price for the device (valued in USD) among all of the markets Xiaomi operates in. The first Redmi 1S sale took place today, and it lasted a mere 4.2 seconds. That isn’t really surprising after what happened with the Mi 3, but the difference here is that there were 40,000 units of the Redmi 1S on sale, more in number than any of the Mi 3 sales.
Check out the Xiaomi Redmi 1S review
As always, it is the consumer for the win; but not the one who’s after a Redmi 1S. The smartphone outperforms most of its counterparts that come at double the amount, but the catch of getting one remains.
We take the opportunity to ask: if 40,000 units isn’t enough, what is?
As expected since this is cheap and a lot more people can afford it in India. Even 100$ still is a considerable financial effort there for (too) many.
And you shouldn’t find excuses for Xiaomi , they knew very well that 40k is way too little.
In july they claimed almost 18 million units redmi shipped in 9-10 month. So if they can make some 2 mil units per month it’s hard to believe they couldn’t make more in time.
That being said , they still got great prices and supply will catch up soon as they keep the hype up with shortages for other devices that they’ll be launching.
4.2 seconds is too long. It did not even last 1 second. It was added to my shopping card but vanished somehow. Not sure if flipkart is playing some trick. Waiting for the next sale…..