UPDATE: Today’s sale saw another 49,800 units sold in 8 seconds.
The Lenovo K3 Note, the most value-for-money phablet ever to be launched in India, has been sold out within seconds of the its first flash sale kicking off on Flipkart.
A total of around 50,000 phones were sold in a matter of 5 seconds.
However, unlike in past cases with rival brands, a large section of users managed to get the phone. A total of 5 lakh users had registered to participate in the sale.
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In the past, flash sales have led to a lot of recrimination in social media against the brands due to paucity of stocks.
‘Flash sales’ themselves should not be a problem, but the issue is consumers being forced to ‘fight like dogs‘ over limited quantities, as a frustrated Mi3 fan memorably put it after several futile attempts.
The problem was that against stocks of 5,000-10,000 per sale, there were 2-3 lakh people trying to get hold of the Mi3 each time. Ultimately, the Mi3 sold around 2-3 lakh units in India, and demand was far from being met fully.
Not surprisingly, the experience has left many would-be Mi3 buyers “scarred for life”. Some even did the unthinkable – they went ahead and bought a Moto G simply because it was more certain.
Many young people, with some justification, feel that life is full of hard-to-gets and frustration, and a smartphone should not add to the list, especially if you have the money to pay for it.
Lenovo K3 Note Flash Sale
This is probably why many are dreading the approach of 3 pm, Wednesday, July the 8th.
As the clock beeps 3 on that day afternoon, at least a couple of lakhs of buyers are going to descend on Flipkart with K3 in their minds.
But relax! According to our sources, Lenovo and Flipkart are making sure that ‘demand is met’. Yeah, you heard that right.
The K3 Note flash sale will not be an affair of a few thousands smartphones, or even a few tens of thousands. The total number of phones on offer would be “well over any previous figure” involved in flash sales in India. The highest number for a single flash sale in India so far is 1 lakh.
“We don’t really want customers to curse us after the event,” said an official in the know. “As far as possible, we want everyone to be satisfied.”
Of course, having more than 1 lakh K3 in stock doesn’t guarantee that everyone will get one. Back in April, Lenovo kept 1 lakh units of A6000 Plus for a flash sale and stocks lasted for just 15 minutes.
The Lenovo K3 Note, as we have said before, is arguably the best phone you can buy in India for less than Rs 15,000, and you’ve to pay only Rs 10,000 for it.
The closest competitor to the K3 Note is the full-HD Asus Zenfone 2. But that costs Rs 14,999 – 50% more than what Lenovo has priced its Note at.
In fact, the K3 Note offers so much value for money that even the king of value offerings, Xiaomi, has been forced to cut the price of its Redmi Note from 9,999 to 7,999 ahead of the launch of the Lenovo model.
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