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As per rough calculations, even if they were making a margin of only 500 Rs. standard per handset, it translates to Rs.50 crores. Not small by any means.

Oh ok, the Redmi 1S has 8 in that case! But I am still about 70% on Moto E's side.

I always thought its the other way around. Online retailers have lesser margins than physical stores.

About the monopoly thing, it's just a couple of handsets, it's not like they are taking up the whole mobile handset market!

Absolutely. They have been very smart in the way they introduced the product. No other marketing apart from social media. Giving away free phones for sharing their content, product info etc. In no time, they managed to get over 18k likes!

They are targeting a segment that is tech-savy - Likes to be abreast with the latest and greatest in the tech world. So would know what an equivalent spec from one of giants would cost! That's why their online only sale model works so good! The tiny batches of sales further hedge them against any inventory pile up and resultant loses. This registration might be just to get an idea and decide on the import lot size! Who knows!

It will be very interesting to see their progress from here.

I won't really say this. Motorola have been around like forever but none of their products had takers even though they were outstanding. I'm and old school Atrix 2 user. Killer phone during its time yet it never took off, atleast in India. This was a phone well ahead of its time and probably the only one for a very long time to come with dual core and 1gb of ram. Pricier phones did not have a configuration as good.

Its a mystery how Motorola were unable to sell as well in the past compared to today. Their phones were excellent.

Motorola which is now under Google ownership (soon to go away to Lenovo I think), now sells phone under the brand "Moto" and its a rage. For good reason off course. They have never had it this good. A lot of the success, I would say, is ease of purchase via FK.

Xiaomi maybe new and unheard off but the well informed will close their eyes and buy one even if service support is minimal. The general opinion about the product in other markets is very good and thats enough for us to think about one.

+1. That is why I said one 'might' feel it like this. But there is no need to feel like as the product is very good and proven in its original country. Anyways, lets see how Indians respond to this. I believe the pre-registration has been taken out by FK now, since the first batch of MI3 is sold out.

If you haven't yet then head to Atrix 2 section of XDA and you will be left astonished by seeing around 7-8 Kitkat 4.4.4 ROMs along with many other ROMs for it. Similar story for its brother RAZR. Its not common that phones get that much of ROMs that too in latest versions. Such is the response from dev-communities Moto phones receive. :D

Confused on choosing between the Moto X & Xperia ZR. The way I see it (from reviews), is better Android experience (X) vs better photography (ZR). Are there any delays in getting Android updates on the Xperia range? Am I missing something from my limited research?

What do my fellow BHPians have to opine??

I'll be updating from a Moto Defy +, so I would not be wanting to compromise on build quality. Thanks!

Go for Moto X with closed eyes. It wil virtually provide you the superior experience of using the stock android with nice tweaks provided by Moto. Camera performance is more or less similar. But moto camera is more user friendly and faster. Use it to believe it. Take my words you wont regret a bit with X.

Is Xiaomi disposing stocks in India? I was reading a review on CNET and came across this bit.

Bear in mind, though, the Mi 3 is almost a year old, and a new, refreshed model is likely around the corner.

Does it make real world sense to buy it? I know the specs are top notch compared to many devices even if they cost double than mi 3.

Came across another interesting feature,

There are also built-in security features such as a blocklist to filter annoying spam numbers, a data monitoring tool that allows you to set which apps are allowed to use mobile data or just Wi-Fi,


I haven't come across such setup in any other phone / os yet. It would make my life so much easier where by I can have WhatsApp or a particular email account sync only on wifi.

Source : http://www.cnet.com/products/xiaomi-mi-3/

Regards,

So, I got this message from FK about the Mi3 -

They have been very unprofessional wrt this. I checked with them its for only those who have registered *after* becoming FF member. Also why didnt they mention this the on 15th itself?

Having used MIUI ROMs for more than a year, I must say that they are very user friendly. So this launch is a real interesting and i'm keen to see how Xiaomi performs over the next six months. If I have to compare the specs of the MI3 with other phones in the same price range in India, then it seems leagues ahead and has at least one of its competitors worried (know this as I work with the marketing folks for this competitor).

The other products that seems interesting is the OnePlus One 3Gigs of RAM with a Snapdragon 801 and CyanogenMod 11S out of the box is mouth watering. All this at USD 299 might really make this phone live up to its tag line!

Well, I think they are trying to cash in on this to promote *flipkart first*. It will be a shame if this is a sign of things to come - especially w.r.t launch day offers.

On another note, they have opened the registrations again! And this time it is upto 21st midnight!

Thats again disappointing from Xiaomi. This is what I posted on their wall and twitter few hours back about they not not controlling registrations properly.

I think its fine. MI3 is selling in India at just over 200 USD, while MI4 would come in at the 300 USD or so price point they normally play at.

MI3 isnt being sold like Apple - i.e at the original launch price itself. So its fine on Xiaomi's part, no? Just as Samsung still sells the S3 and S4 at discounted prices. no?

About margins I don't know, but they should be priced less. Else I feel it defeats the purpose of buying online (unless you are in remote areas or for some other reason not able to buy from physical stores). But this hasn't happened with FK at least. Most of their stuff is priced higher. You could get cheaper from other e-retailers or even physical shops. As for handsets I'v checked out, most competitive physical stores give less or at least equal prices than those on FK.

About taking up the whole mobile market, I think thats what is beginning to happen. From what I'm told, physical stores are feeling the pinch. Laptop and similar retailers are also having a hard time. The Motos themselves have become so popular that they have affected sales of other brands in physical stores. Now they have monopoly with Alcatel and Xiaomi too. What next? This is going to significantly affect sales of other sites and physical stores. And monopolies are always detrimental to the end consumer.

And if they are pushing their Flipkart First subscription this way, it is really ominous. I mean, why would I pay 500 bucks/year for it? Firstly, I don't buy much from there because I always get better deals elsewhere. And secondly the benefits it offers are minimal... like one day delivery, etc. Most of the time I'm not in such a hurry to get anything, and getting delivery in 3-4 days is just fine. Currently Amazon ships for free and MUCH faster than FK.