Xiaomi sells out 100,000 phones, 3,000 smart TVs in two minutes

Chinese smartphone producer Xiaomi sold out 100,000 units of its third-generation mobile phone and 3,000 units of smart televisions in less than two minutes on Tuesday, signaling a great market demand for cheap smartphones and smart TVs in China.

It is the first time that Xiaomi has launched a smart TV, with the price set at 2,999 yuan ($488) for the 47-inch version, which is currently only available in seven major cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Chengdu.

Xiaomi Mi-3, a third-generation Android smartphone powered by a 1.8 GHz Nvidia Tegra 4 processor, is allegedly the fastest ever Xiaomi mobile phone and is priced at 1,999 yuan for the 16GB storage option. It currently only works for China Mobile's TD-SCDMA network.

The products were only sold to buyers who had reserved purchase orders, Xiaomi PR staff told the Global Times Tuesday.

Xiaomi's smart TV will be available for delivery to more cities in the future when the firm is ready, as the logistics are more demanding than for the smartphone when it comes to delivery, according to Xiaomi PR.

Beijing-based Xiaomi Corp, which launched its first smartphone in 2011, has been enjoying strong sales with its product considered similar to Apple's iPhone, but much cheaper. The company also reportedly adopted a limited supply strategy deliberately, mainly selling pre-ordered smartphones through its official website.

Smartphone shipments of Beijing-based Xiaomi surpassed the iPhone by "a small margin" in the second quarter of this year and moved to sixth place from eighth from a year ago, Bloomberg reported on August 9 citing statistics from Canalys. Samsung Electronics Co held the top spot with an 18 percent share in China's smartphone market.

Like Xiaomi, Baidu, China's largest Internet search engine, launched its own smart TVs on September 4 in partnership with TCL Multimedia Technology Holdings, and its second model priced at 2,999 yuan will go on sale in November.

LeTV, an online video-related service provider, launched its third smart TV, the S50, on Thursday. Its 50-inch screen 2D version is priced at 2,499 yuan.