In a telephonic interview with BGR, Hugo Barra VP Xiaomi apologized for the limited stocks as per the huge demand of Xiaomi Mi3 in India. Xiaomi has so far sold 35,000 Mi3 units in 3 flash sales. The units were sold within seconds.
There are over 3 Lakh users who had registered and eagerly waiting to grab the Mi3. With such a huge demand and limited stocks no doubt the product will go out of stock within seconds / minutes. Flipkart their official online partner also had issues with the first flash sales and they did made some modifications for the next two. When a user clicks on the buy button and if the product goes into the users cart it is considered as a sale, the user can make the payment later on.
Hugo mentioned that the demand in India was too much, they underestimated it. The demand as of now is 10 times the available stock. He stated that the company cannot react quickly, they are new and will take some time getting used to in this new (Indian) market. They are a new start-up here and do have manufacturing constrains, their manufacturing plants are working round the clock. As for the flash sales well, it will continue as they believe it is the best model that works for Xiaomi.
The flash sale model is simple and Indian users are new to it, they are trying to make it as transparent as possible. Hugo promised that in the next subsequent sales they will make stocks available.
As for the Redmi 1S and the Redmi Note, they have not yet finalized the launch dates but could probably happen in the next couple of weeks. The same goes for the Mi accessories – it will be launched along with the Redmi series.