Xiaomi Taking The World By Storm, Mi3 Sales Overload Indian Website

The Xiaomi Mi3 has broken another website with its amazing selling power. Flipkart, which held the exclusive release into the Indian market, broke down because of the sudden surge of sales orders. The Mi3 was out of stock about 39 minutes after sales opened.

Lazada, the Philippines e-retailer, sold out its stock of 3000 Xiaomi Mi3 in about an hour.

The record, though, was in Singapore, where debut inventory of the Mi3 was gone in two minutes, and they sold out Redmi Note, another Xiaomi product, in 42 seconds.

Even in its home market of China, Xiaomi can’t seem to put enough items on the shelves, with a stock of 100,000 Redmi Notes selling out in 34 minutes.

As a result, Xiaomi now sells more smartphones in the Chinese market than even Apple.

In the case of the Flipkart crash, sales opened to registered users at about noon, and it didn’t take more than 15 minutes before the site was forced to put up error 502 messages as it became overloaded with traffic. Registered users were also denied buying over the phone because of similar technical difficulties.

The flash sell-outs have made Xiaomi into something of a legend, and for Apple and Samsung, a nightmare. Xiaomi represents a new breed of Chinese companies that have internationally recognized brands and their own research and development. The Mi3 is comparable to the Galaxy S4 or recent iPhone models, yet is slightly cheaper in a number of national markets.

What makes Xiaomi so successful?

It’s mostly about the price. Xiaomi sells its smartphones for slightly above cost. Unlike Samsung, with its exploding marketing budget, Xiaomi relies mostly on word of mouth. It is likely that you will never see Ellen DeGeneres taking a selfie on an Mi3.

The firm also tries to sell primarily in its own online stores, but that strategy breaks down in foreign markets where the tech company needs a partner. Unfortunately, the partner is often unable to accommodate the popularity of Xiaomi’s products.

Nevertheless, the company isn’t entirely a trailblazer. Xiaomi has been accused of copying a bit of the Apple’s style. For example, the Mi Pad has the same resolution, screen size and design as the iPad. Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun, an ardent follower of the late Steve Jobs, certainly isn’t helping matters by wearing a black t-shirt and jeans at nearly every product launch.

But if Xiaomi continues to sell the Mi3 at a breakneck pace, it might Apple that does the copying in the future.

(Image Credit: Wand Zhao/AFP/Getty Images)