Xiaomi Mi 3 'Sold Out' Again; This Time in Two Seconds, Says Company

Xiaomi Mi 3 went on sale again in India and this time it took just two seconds to become 'sold out', a full three seconds less than the last time. The company made the claim via Twitter on Tuesday, and announced that registration for the next flash sale will begin later the same day.

Flipkart's dedicated Xiaomi Mi 3 page confirms that the next flash sale is scheduled for August 12.

It's worth pointing out that Flipkart's procedure requires people to just add it to their cart for it to be classified as 'sold out', and people are given additional time to complete their purchase. Like the previous occasions, this lead to a lot of frustrated buyers. Xiaomi India's tweet announcing the latest 'sold out' round received replies such as:

Last week, Xiaomi, ahead of the third flash sale, had revealed that 15,000 units would be up for grabs on Flipkart, leading to hope that the situation on Tuesday might be different but that didn't turn out to the case.

(Also see: Flipkart and Xiaomi Could Have Avoided the Backlash With OnePlus One-Like Invites)

The Chinese company, often called as 'China's Apple', also detailed the total number of Mi 3 units sold in India so far, addressing another criticism that it did not reveal numbers behind its 'sold out' claims. The company confirmed that it sold 20,000 Mi 3 units in the two flash sales on Flipkart.

(Also see: Xiaomi Displaces LG to Become No. 5 Smartphone Manufacturer: Report)

Xiaomi had claimed that the first batch of Mi 3 smartphones in India was sold out within 40 minutes of its availability. The second batch of Mi 3 handsets was sold out within 5 seconds. In order to avoid backlash from consumers, the company had confirmed that the second batch of Mi 3 handsets were sold through a different process. Xiaomi explained that the process allowed users to add the handset to their cart at the start of the sale, and let them checkout the smartphone at a later time.

(Also see: Xiaomi Says Its Smartphones Do Not Secretly Upload Photos, Text Messages)

The Xiaomi Mi 3, priced at Rs. 13,999, runs a highly tweaked version of Android 4.4 KitKat, with MIUI version 5 on top. It comes with a 5-inch full-HD LCD display (1080x1920 pixels) offering a pixel density of 441ppi; a 2.3GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 (MSM8274AB) processor; 2GB of RAM; Adreno 330 GPU; 16GB of inbuilt storage; 13-megapixel rear camera; 2-megapixel camera, and 3050mAh battery.

(Also see: Xiaomi Mi 3 Review | Pictures)

Xiaomi, with the limited stock of Mi 3 on sale on Flipkart, has undoubtedly been receiving consumers' wrath.

What has your experience been like? Have you been able to buy a unit? Let us know via the comments.