Xiaomi is temporarily suspending sales of its Mi3 smartphone in India in order to facilitate the smooth launch of the Redmi 1S, a Rs 5,999-smartphone that goes on sale today.
Manu Jain, head of India operations at Xiaomi, said: "Due to bandwidth capacity issues, we are pausing Mi3 for a few weeks. Our entire focus would be on one single product, which is the Redmi 1S. We are also trying to bring the Redmi Note in next couple of weeks."
The Chinese manufacturer has not stated when it will resume sales of the Mi3. The device features high-end hardware at a relatively affordable price (Rs 13,999), meaning that demand has been high.
"When we started off, we grossly underestimated the demand for the Mi3, hence the order we had placed for the Indian market was significantly lower…It took time for us to ramp up the supply," Jain said. "Now, we are trying to correct this with the Redmi 1S. We should be able to bring much higher quantities of the Redmi 1S."
Xiaomi has sold around 95,000 devices in India to date, including a recent sale of 20,000 Mi3 handsets via its exclusive Indian retailer, Flipkart.com.
The manufacturer is planning to launch the Mi4 smartphone around the end of the year. The device, which supports TDD-LTE and FDD-LTE, is still being tested.
