Smoother Sale for Xiaomi Mi3, Flipkart Fixes Server Issues
Xiaomi was back with its big sale today bringing in about a 20,000 piece inventory for the folks who had pre-registered for the sale. The sale took place today, August 12 at 2.00 pm and the stocks flew out as soon as the sale started. Yesterday, we gave you tips on making sure you score yourself a Mi3. We tried our techniques and were amongst a fortunate few who got one.
As has been their model, the company had requested registrations from buyers interested in getting the phone. The registrations according to the company were in the 1,50,000 range. A single user could only buy one phone at a time, and the sale was on a first come first serve basis.
With such a wide gap between the demand and supply, the sale resembled a virtual knife fight and lot many folks had to go home without a phone in hand. Now, to give a fair chance to people trying their luck to give Xiaomi their hard earned money the next time, the registrations from this sale will not be carried forward. So if you were to be in line again for a Mi3, you have to re-register for the next sale that will start from 6.00 pm tonight.
Unlike the last sale when the Mi3 sale led Flipkart’s website to crash, the e-tailer seemed to have a better hang of things this time. The website performed optimally and as expected and it finished the sale without any issue, apart from the rivers of tears and expletives unleashed by folks who couldn’t get their Mi3. This time around we were able to get ourselves another Mi3 quite easily, though we did have to wait around for a bit before we could proceed to payment. Maybe this was Flipkart’s way of creating a breather space before executing orders. The website gave us time till 11.59 pm, 13th of August to execute our order, which is huge window.
Xiaomi’s strategy of limited product offering has made many folks angry. The company has made its name in the market with its exceptional products and should just clear out its inventory instead of pitting its consumers against each other keeping folks in uncertainty of getting a product. After successfully introducing their product, the company should follow Motorola’s path wholly and bring a bigger inventory for the next sale if it wants to prevent negative perceptions of itself in the Indian market.
