Micromax's Yu Yureka Registrations Close Early Due to 'Overwhelming Response'

Registrations for the Yu Yureka smartphone closed at 3pm on Wednesday, a day ahead of the previously announced deadline of Thursday, December 25. The smartphone will go on sale on January 13 via Amazon, and will only be available for registered customers.

Commenting on the announcement, Micromax co-founder Rahul Sharma said, "We are humbled by the response we have received for Yureka and have to close the registrations early. The work now begins to ensure Yureka reaches everyone who wished for it. We have set out to disrupt and transform the smartphone experience and the support of our consumers only furthers our commitment towards creating a world of connected devices. Yureka has indeed ushered the revolution that is YuPlayGod and it only gets better from here."

Yureka registrations on Amazon had a rocky start when they kicked off on December 19, with the registration page initially not working properly, then being closed within a few minutes due to an 'overwhelming response', before coming back online with a subscribe button instead of a register button that further confused consumers.

Micromax had announced an early bird offer for customers, where those that registered by December 25 and purchased the smartphone on launch day would get a free leather cover. We wonder if the shortage of these covers, or the smartphone itself, propelled Micromax to close registrations early.

When the registration window had closed within minutes on opening day, customers were comparing the process with how Xiaomi sells out smartphones within seconds - while that is not a fair comparison (registrations versus sales), to be noted is that the Chinese smartphone manufacturer's registrations stay open for exactly as long as specified, and do not end early due to consumer response.

The Yu Yureka has been priced at Rs. 8,999, and sports some rather impressive specifications at the price. The dual-SIM smartphone features Cat. 4 4G LTE connectivity, and runs Cyanogen OS 11 based on Android 4.4.4 KitKat. It bears a 5.5-inch HD (720x1280 pixels) IPS display with Gorilla Glass 3; a 64-bit 1.5GHz octa-core Snapdragon 615 SoC (MSM8939); an Adreno 405 GPU; 2GB of RAM; a 13-megapixel Sony Exmor CMOS sensor rear camera with an f/2.2 aperture and flash; a front-facing 5-megapixel fixed-focus camera; 16GB of inbuilt storage expandable via microSD card (up to 32GB), and a 2500mAh Li-Po battery.