14 DAY TRIAL // As expected, Xiaomi’s Mi3 disappeared from shelves in a matter of seconds from the moment the sale went live at Flipkart. This is the fourth time the smartphone is sold out in India and the next sale will likely end in seconds as well.
Grouped together, Xiaomi has sold around 55,000 Mi3 units in India, exclusively through online retailer Flipkart. However, the demand is much higher than Xiaomi’s means of fulfilling, so the situation isn’t likely to change in the future.
Although the company’s VP Hugo Barra apologized for the company’s inability to deal with the high demand of its Xiaomi Mi3 flagship smartphone and promised they will learn from this, there’s little chance that this particular device will be available at Flipkart for more than a few seconds.
According Xiaomi, there were around 150,000 registrations for the purchase of the Mi3 during today’s sale and the company only had 20,000 units in stock.
If Xiaomi keeps bringing the Mi3 in India in waves, it will take 9 or 10 stocks like the one today to fulfill the high-demand for the smartphone.
The Chinese company has just announced that the next sale will take place on August 19, but it has yet to confirm how many units will be available for purchase. We have no doubt that, no matter the quantity, the Mi3 will disappear from shelves very fast unless Xiaomi brings more units in the country.
The Xiaomi Mi3 is selling in India for only Rs 13,999 ($225 / €170) outright, which is a bargain considering the phone’s specs sheet. Keep in mind, though, that only the 16GB model is available for purchase in India.
Even if the company launched a 64GB variant as well, the smartphone hasn’t been introduced in India. This is rather important, as Xiaomi Mi3 lacks microSD card slot for memory expansion, so you’re left with what’s inside by default and some free cloud storage offered through various services.
The Mi3 is equipped with a powered by 2.3GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor, an Adreno 330 graphics processing unit and 2GB of RAM.
It also sports a 5-inch IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen display that supports full HD (1080p) resolution and features Corning Gorilla Glass 3 coating for extra protection.
The handset doesn’t offer dual-SIM capability, but it comes packed with 3G HSPA+, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC (Near Field Communication) and USB on-the-go. There’s also an enhanced 13-megapixel photo snapper on the back, which features autofocus, dual-LED flash and full HD (1080p) video recording.