While Samsung with its Galaxy S6/Edge and Apple armed with its Apple Watch latch at each other’s throats, Xiaomi has quietly and effectively snuck in and stolen the limelight.
The company which recently launched the Redmi 2 in India – pitting it against entry-level smartphones such as the Motorola Moto E (read the comparison here) – announced that it has set a Guinness World Record selling 2.11 million phones on a single online platform in a 24-hour period.
The announcement was made on the occasion of the Mi Fan Festival, held every year for annual sales promotion around the time of Xiaomi’s birthday. In clear figures, Xiaomi managed to sell 2.11 million handsets in a 12-hour sale period (on April 8), generating $335 million in sales revenue. This beats the 2014 record sales of 1.3 million phones sold by Xiaomi at the same event.
After setting the Guinness World Record, the company’s Facebook marketing team was so excited, however, that they got the sales figures all wrong (by 0.01 million no less) in the promotional picture (above).
Hugo Barra, VP, Xiaomi International, later posted on Facebook congratulating the Xiaomi family and correcting the mistake.
#MiFanFest: Xiaomi just broke the Guinness World Record of most
phones sold online in 24 hours – 2.11 Million (PS: The correct number is 2.11M and not 2.12M)
– Hugo Barra, Vice President, Xiaomi
Xiaomi in a way jumped the gun there on social media. But no one’s blaming them – they’ve had a fantastic sales day!
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