Xiaomi underestimated India demand
Even as the fourth batch of
Chinese mobile device manufacturer Xiaomi’s Mi3 handset was sold out in 2.4
seconds on Flipkart on Tuesday, the company's India head Manu Kumar Jain
defended the sales strategy. He said that Xiaomi grossly underestimated the
demand in India and now plans to ramp up production of the handsets.
“We are changing the
production plan at the factory (in China). We are slowing down the production
of some other handsets meant for other countries and ramping up the production
of Mi3 in India. Hopefully, the quantity would be higher in a few weeks. We
understand a lot of people are disappointed and I apologise for that,” Jain
told FE.
Xiaomi sold 20,000 units in
the latest sale on Tuesday — the fourth in less than a month since its launch
in India on July 22. Flipkart, its sole distributor, had asked users to
register in advance for a chance to buy the phone. But even as there were over
a lakh of registrations, only 10,000 units were available in the first and
second flash sales. The company ramped it up to 15,000 units in the third sale
on August 6, but still couldn’t keep up with the demand. In fact, Xiaomi’s
first sale in India saw Flipkart website crashing for a while, before returning
to normal.
The next sale of the
handset, priced at R13,999, is on August 19. “We are talking to disgruntled
customers to see how we can do this differently. This is not a strategy. We did
not do any marketing,” said Jain. He added that the registration process helps
the company draw up a weekly demand forecast and plan better.
The company’s India Facebook
page had less than 10,000 likes before the first sale on July 22, currently it
stands at 33,000, and Xiaomi thought the phone would only appeal to tech
enthusiasts. “We knew India was going to be big, but we grossly underestimated
the demand. No one had any clue. This was a new geography. These are
India-specific handsets and there is a limitation to ramp up the production
line in China,” said Jain.
According to Jain, the
handsets made for India come with country-specific stickers, software, box,
user manual and pricing label. Jain added that countries have different
specifications and regulatory requirements. “Units dispatched to Thailand or
the Philippines or India are all different. We are changing the production line
according to the demand,”
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