It took nearly 2-2.3 lakh phones to be sold, but finally the Xiaomi Redmi 1S is available on Flipkart to anyone who wants to buy it.
The phone had been getting sold out on Flipkart for the last several weeks, and has notched up sales of around 2 lakh units (200,000) excluding today’s.
At present, Flipkart has an estimated 2.5 lakh RedMi 1S in stock – taking the total Redmi 1S being sold in India at nearly 5 lakh. In comparison, only around 1.2 lakh of Xiaomi Mi3 has been sold in India.
The Redmi 1S is the entry-level smartphone from Xiaomi. It is priced at Rs 5,999 on Flipkart today (or Rs 5,400 including a 10% cash back on certain cards).
At the price, the phone offers an HD display, a Snapdragon series 400 chip platform and several other factors that are only found in phones costing Rs 13,000 and upwards in India.
Flipkart is also offering Xiaomi Mi3, but the phone faces even higher demand in India despite the Rs 13,999 price tag. According to a sample survey taken by RTN, only about a third of the people who want to buy the Xioami Mi3 have been able to get access to the phone on Flipkart today.
It is not known whether Flipkart will offer Xioami Mi3 again this year. Chances are very slim, considering that the Mi4 will be offered in December.
Another mode, the Mi Note, priced around Rs 6,500, will also be offered soon, as will the Mi Pad, an iPad competitor.
The Redmi 1S has achieved the distinction of the first phone from Xiaomi to be available on demand in India.
The numbers also reveal that while the Moto series of phones may have sold 12 to 15 lakh phones since launch in India, Xiaomi is close catching up. If Flipkart manages to sell all Redmi 1S phones, that model alone would have sold 5.5-6.0 lakh units in India.
The numbers are ominous for brands like Micromax, which, according to industry sources, does not have any model that sells like the Redmi 1S. However, unlike Xiaomi, which only sells through the online retailer, Micromax has its phones on shop shelves across the country, including very remote markets.
Still, the rising sales of Xiaomi phones have taken everyone by surprise. Very few people had expected a totally unknown brand to come in and sell lakhs of phones in a few minutes, as Xiaomi has done.
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