Redmi Note 4, this year’s successor to the most popular phone of 2016, has got off to an unbelievable start.
The Chinese company sold a whopping 2.5 lakh (250,000) phones in the first flash sale itself, and that too in under 10 minutes.
The previous record for the highest number of phones sold in a single flash sale was around 60,000, and was set by LeEco last year.
What is surprising about the number is not that there were so many buyers — after all it sold millions of Note3s in India last year, but that the company managed to bring in enough stocks.
The potential market for the Redmi Note 4 in India would be between 1 to 3 mln in the next six months. In the first month alone, the total demand for the phone is estimated at 1 mln units.
With 2.5 lakh sold on the first day itself, that leaves about 7.5 lakh anxious customers still waiting for the device.
NO HANG UPS
The sale, which was conducted across Flipkart and the company’s own website, seems to have also impressed some buyers with its speed of delivery.
Many users report having got the phone already, 24 hours after they placed their order. “Delivery is too fast.. using it.. really fast dude,” said Ravi Panchal.
In contrast, some flash sales in the past have been blamed for not delivering the goods even a week after they are conducted.
The promised delivery time for the current sale is 5-7 working days.
Moreover, Xiaomi is also not going down the same path that it took in early 2016 — when it was estimated to be putting up a few thousand units per week for sale.
This resulted in massive negative feedback from users, who had registered in their millions to buy the device.
The company had also not revealed how many phones were sold in each flash sale as well.
3GB vs 4GB
Like last time, there were a few quibbles as well, largely around the availability of the higher-speced version.
There are two versions to the Redmi Note 4, 4+64 GB and 3+32 GB. While the 4GB version is priced at Rs 12,999, the 3GB variant is priced at Rs 10,999.
Typically, users try to buy the higher-memory version.
Last year, for example, everyone was going for the 3GB variant, while the 2GB variant found few takers.
Not surprisingly, the 4GB version was sold out very quickly this time too.
“I think the 4gb variant was less in number it got sold out within secs.. however got the 3gb variant,” said Souvik Chakraborty, who participated in the flash sale today.
Another user Sanu Chakraborty said the 4 GB version was sold out “within 1 or 2 minutes.
“Mi India please sale more handsets otherwise it will be a bit difficult to purchase.”
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ER Raief said the sale did not last for 10 minutes as claimed by Xiaomi. “Clicked on buy option (both the times) successfully and was in the queue for hardly 2 minutes and then went out of stock, as usual MI disappointed again by providing a limited stock, and you are saying 10 minutes.”
GOOD DEAL
The phone is considered a good deal because it’s one of only two models in India to come with highly-efficient 14 nm chip technology.
With this technology, phones can last 25% more on a single charge compared to existing 28 nm chip technology.
The second phone to come with the technology is the Lenovo P2, which is priced at Rs 17,999. However, the Lenovo model does come with a bigger battery, 5.1 Ah versus 4.1 Ah on Redmi Note 4, and also an AMOLED display instead of the Note4’s LCD display.