Flipkart Crashes with Xiaomi’s Mi3 Sales

It has been a tough day for everyone. Flipkart, Xiaomi and their customers as well. We have been closely watching Xiaomi’s entry into India and have been covering it regularly.

Unlike its typical flash sales, Xiaomi opted for registrations to get an idea of the demand. We assumed this would make the entire buying process a much smoother one. Sadly, Xiaomi seemed to have no such intentions.

Since, “SOLD OUT” has been the way Xiaomi hype their products, it doesn’t rule out conspiracy. Ever since the sale started at 12:00 IST, Flipkart remained down for most parts (a bare minimum of 20-25 minutes). The stocks lasted up to 12:38:40 IST according to Flipkart in spite of all the downtime, which could only mean the actual sale time under 20 minutes.

All this show that Xiaomi started out with minimal stock to create an artificial demand, its trademark style. If they really were concerned, why wouldn’t the registrations close when the numbers reached double the stock available (Given that everybody who registers, do not necessarily buy? )

 Manu Jain, India Operations Head, Xiaomi commented on the sales “We underestimated the demand we would receive and we are taking steps to  ramp up the supply as soon as possible. That being said we are committed that over the next few  months, every fan in India will get to own a Mi device”

Since the official numbers are not available, we suspect there would have only been around 15-20% of stock compared to the registrations. If Xiaomi or Flipkart can part us with the numbers, we would totally appreciate the entire sale actually took place under 20 minutes.

Until then, Well played Xiaomi & Flipkart. Flipkart has recently been experiencing downtimes with their service with launch of new phones on it’s marketplace. It was recently noticed during the Motorola Moto E launch as well, when Flipkart crashed for long periods of time.