Follow TOI Tech on Twitter >>>

And like us on Facebook >>>

KOLKATA: The latest mega electronic sales of e-commerce majors Flipkart and Snapdeal have focused mostly on online exclusive models and old models in a signal that days of massive online discounting of popular smartphones and gadgets may be gone for good.Deals on popular smartphone models of big brands such as Sony, HTC, Samsung and Apple have been around Rs 500-1,000, or well within the price at which dealers would buy from the brands, as these brands have managed to convince online stores to maintain price parity and reduce online deals."We have entered into an agreement with Flipkart and others, whereby neither do they go overboard on pricing nor will we push sales or give any pressure to them," said Satish Padmanabhan, sales head at Sony India . "Customers should not feel cheated and we don't believe in special deals as a brand," he said. Flipkart's two-day 'Electronics Sale' concluded on Tuesday while Snapdeal held the 'Snapdeal India Mobile Day' on Monday.In the sales, maximum deals and exchange offers were on models of Motorola, Onida, Vu, Xiaomi, Huawei, InFocus and Asus, which are meant for online sales only, two senior industry officials said. Deals were also there on older models such as Apple iPhone 4s, Google Nexus 5 and BlackBerry Curve 9320.Online retailers started toeing the line of brands after the makers started curbing supplies, blacklist sellers selling at discount and also dishonouring warranty and service support which questioned the authenticity of products sold in these sites. Karan Khara, vice-president for strategic alliances at Snapdeal, said the marketplace reported eight times more than normal sales during the mobile day sales. An email sent to Flipkart for response did not elicit any response.HTC's president (South Asia and India) Faisal Siddiqui said the company has developed good relations with the online marketplaces whereby it even launches exclusive models and hence it requests these online players not to undertake major discounting. "It's a mutual business relationship now," he said.A senior industry official said brands like LG India too has partnered with the sites for promotions on select models of smartphones whereby the pricing has been as per their terms. The recently concluded summer sales at Amazon too had discounts only on exclusive models or older models. Exclusive online brands use discount sale to push volumes.American smartphone brand InFocus, which sells exclusively on Snapdeal, for example, gave its highest ever inventory of 50,000 units of two models for sale. "Discounting is not an issue since we are exclusive on the site and we utilise these mega sales to push volume sales," said InFocus Mobiles country head Sachin Thapar.Smartphone makers have been at loggerheads with e-commerce sites since last Diwali when most of the sites ran crazy deals which erupted a huge backlash from the offline trade. The brands have since then entered into a business relation with the sites and their sellers, such as launching exclusive models and their e-stores with an understanding that there will be no major discounts.