Unlike Xiaomi, Asus has been in India as a major player in the computing space for a few years now. Unlike Xiaomi, Asus has been in India as a major player in the computing space for a few years now.

In the past few weeks, amidst all the din about Xiaomi and its hard-to-get phone, Indian smartphone aficionados seem to have forgotten about the other big budget phone that was launched around the same time, the Asus Zenfone. Now, Peter Chang, Regional Head for South Asia & Country Manager for ASUS India, says they sold out 40,000 units of the series within the first four days of its launch on Flipkart alone. In comparison, Xiaomi seems to have sold around 40,000 units of its Mi3 smartphone in three weekly sales so far.

The Zenfone series comes in three sizes — four, five and six inches — with prices starting as low as 5,999. Initially, these phones too were available only on Flipkart.com.

“We are overwhelmed by the response… as many as 40,000 units were sold out within the first four days of launch,” said Chang, adding that the Taiwanese company now expected the sales figure of cross one lakh soo. “The Zenfone series stocks have been refilled numerous times and are being restocked at regular intervals,” he told IndianExpress.com.

Peter Chang, Regional Head for South Asia & Country Manager for ASUS India. Peter Chang, Regional Head for South Asia & Country Manager for ASUS India.

Of the three sizes, Chang said the Zenfone 4 and 5 variants were selling the most. “The response to Zenfone 5 has made us refill our stock numerous times and we are aggressively strategizing to meet the huge demand from the Indian masses,” he said, adding that the demand for even the large Zenfone 6 has been above their expectations.

Asked how Asus was managing stocks considering Xiaomi’s strategy of selling a limited number every week, he said: “It is hard to define the sellout per week. But to match up to the potential of this series we are ensuring the availability of stocks in both online and offline mediums.” But Chang accepted that due to the high volume of demand, they have had to re-think the entire operation plan.

On Xiaomi’s strategy, which has been very successful so far, Chang said: “We respect each brand’s strategy. We believe that every brand has its specific, defined fan engagement, product strategy and social media strategy crafted with much research and analysis, just like ours.”

Unlike Xiaomi, Asus, which has been in India as a major player in the computing space for a few years now, switched to a multi-channel approach soon after its exclusive online launch. “We are already tackling the offline channel with our authorised partner. We hope by further amplifying our supply, we can make the product more visible in all channels,” said Chang, who was in charge of Turkey, Israel and Africa before moving to India.

The Zenfone Android phone series powered by Intel processor was first announced at CES 2014.

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