Xiaomi is one of those companies that we will not see come out of the news, off the front page, or down from the headlines position it has rightfully earned, and today is especially no different. The Chinese upstart, known for aggressively pricing their powerful and decent hardware/software combination, recently opened up shop in India. India, being the first big market outside of China, is the first step to expanding to having the global presence that Xiaomi hopes to and is working to have in the coming years. The company is famous for selling out of devices regularly, and that is due entirely to Xiaomi's manufacturing choice. That choice is to only manufacture in batches, instead of millions of devices like Samsung, HTC, and LG do, because they are a smaller company with a smaller budget, but they certainly don't seem that small anymore. That led to yet another selling out, and the first of many to happen on the Indian digital space.

Xiaomi keeps interest in their devices with active interaction in physical stores and meet-ups, held and hosted by Mi-fans. The company also has a large and active-daily presence online on the major social feeds and networks of the world, so that the company can both attract as many customers as possible (or even just their interest) and stay in contact with their (from experience on Google+ personally) devoted, supportive, and adoring fans. The latest expansion into India is major for the Chinese company, and the interest and result is great news for them as well. Xiaomi allows pre-registration (and requires it sometimes) to be able to buy their limited-batch phones, and India had that system for their first sales experience. Flipkart, the online storefront of choice for the Mi 3's first Indian customers, reported upwards of a hundred thousand registrations to have a chance to get this phone.


For those not in the know, or simply needing to brush up on your Mi 3 specs, it has an impressive spec shee. A 5-inch, 1080p LCD panel powered by a Snapdragon 800 running at 2.3 Ghz with 2 GB of RAM. The phone comes with a modern minimalistic look, as well as Xiaomi's ever-popular and ever-growing theme store for their MIUI system software. There's a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera as well as 16 or 64 GB of internal storage with no Micro SD card slot to augment. Though this device is a little dated in its current state (based solely on the phone's initial release being in September of 2013), the drive to get one is there, specifically for the reason of price.

The Xiaomi Mi 3 cost, for those first lucky Indian customers, RS 13,999, which equates to just around $230 (USD). This is why Xiaomi still sells and makes this phone (even though the company's brand new Mi 4 was announced this morning in China), but that's not the astounding part. Chinese sales of the Mi phones are known to be fast and almost instantaneous. India made a pretty grand effort, and it only took forty minutes (yes, eight sets of five minutes or vice versa, if you prefer). Xiaomi has not put a number to how many of the delectably-priced smartphones were sold in that mad rush in Indian cyberspace, but rest assured, all those customers will love their new Mi 3's and be sharing the Mi love from now on, given Xiaomi's track record and community support. Stay tuned for further information regarding both the Mi 4 and the sales figures from Xiaomi.