New Delhi, October 14 – While a lot of people were unable to buy the Xiaomi Mi Powerbank in Flipkart’s October 6 sale, that happened after around 1 lakh people had already purchased it that day. The Powerbank was put up on sale at a price of Rs.899, which is Rs.100 less than its normal price. By noon, the device was listed as “permanently discontinued”.
“That was probably an error. The product wasn’t discontinued. It went out of stock,” said Hugo Barra, Xiaomi’s vice president for international markets. “Flipkart sold 1 lakh units of the Mi Powerbank during Big Billion Day sale on October 6.”
The Powerbank is now again available at Flipkart. In conversation with the IndiaToday.in, Barra also revealed an interesting bit about the price of the Mi Powerbank. Compared to the price of other powerbanks that pack in similar amount of battery reserve, the Xiaomi’s product is priced significantly less.
“But we would have managed to price it even lower if the shipping cost wasn’t high,” said Barra. “The Powerbank is rather heavy compared to its size and when we are bringing thousands of units in India we have to pay more shipping charges because weight is more. This adds to the overall cost.”
Barra said that the Mi Powerbank is one of the most successful products for the company. It has been so popular that in China, the company has come out with accessories that can be paired with the Powerbank. For example, there are USB lights and USB fans that can be used after they have been plugged into the Powerbank.
-INDIA TODAY
