Lenovo K3 Note Sales Top 5 Lakh in 2 Months, Claims Company

Lenovo on Wednesday announced that it has sold over 500,000 K3 Note units in India in less than two months since the smartphone's launch in the country. The announcement comes hours after Xiaomi claimed to have sold 3 million handsets in the country in the 14 months since its debut in India.

Lenovo, which recently began merging its mobile division with the recently acquired Motorola Mobility, has announced that more than 500,000 K3 Note handsets -- including Black, White, and Yellow versions -- have been sold through Flipkart. Lenovo partnered with the Indian e-commerce giant to give it exclusive rights to sell the K3 Note in the country earlier this year.

Selling half a million handsets in a span of less than 2 months is an impressive feat. The fact that Lenovo sold all these handsets through online channel, a route arguably Xiaomi popularised in India, makes it even more impressive. More interestingly, Lenovo has become the biggest Chinese competitor for Xiaomi in the country.

Xiaomi, which debuted in India in July 2014, separately announced on Wednesday that it has thus far managed to sell more than 3 million handsets in the country till date. Simple mathematics gives Lenovo an advantage with just one handset. Notably in June, a month before the launch of the K3 Note in India, Lenovo announced it had sold 1 million 4G handsets in the country, including the A6000, A6000 Plus, and A7000, via Flipkart.

Xiaomi has launched a range of smartphones in India, targeting a wider audience. The company's Redmi 2, for instance, is a low-budget affordable handset, whereas the Redmi Note 4G offers LTE capability in a phablet size form factor. Priced at Rs. 12,999, the Xiaomi Mi 4i, is the company's cheapest smartphone with a full-HD display. Lenovo's K3 Note, which offers nearly identical specifications including and especially the FHD display as the Mi 4i, is priced at Rs. 9,999. Perhaps this Rs. 3,000 price difference has made the handset even more lucrative. Lenovo too has a wide range of handsets that it sells in India.

The company's A6000 was well received by users and experts alike. The company's A2010 is the cheapest 4G LTE capable smartphone in India. The company earlier this year announced that it plans to sell select smartphones of the A series, which were only sold through online channels at the time of launch, through brick and mortar stores as well. It will be interesting to see the moves Xiaomi and Lenovo make in the coming months to further their dominance in the country.