Beijing-based smartphone rising star Xiaomi Inc on Tuesday launched a new generation of smartphones soon after releasing the Redmi Note 2, which was the best-seller during the November 11 Singles' Day shopping promotion.
Boosted by Singles' Day purchases, Xiaomi was able to sell 6.09 million Redmi Note 2s just in the 100 days after it was launched in August, generating 4.88 billion yuan ($764 million), CEO Lei Jun said at a new product launch event held in Beijing on Tuesday.
Despite these achievements, Lei said that he believed the new model, called the Redmi Note 3, offers the features such as long battery life and light weight that customers really want.
The new model, which is Xiaomi's first all-metal smartphone with a touch fingerprint sensor, is seen as something that the company can bank on to maintain its position in the fiercely competitive smartphone sector.
In the third quarter, Xiaomi shipped 18.3 million smartphones but still fell from the fourth-largest worldwide vendor in the second quarter to the fifth with 5.2 percent.
It was overtaken by Lenovo Group, which had a share of 5.3 percent in the third quarter, according to a report released by US-based market consultancy International Data Corp in late October.
Analysts said that it was surprising that Xiaomi released a successor to the best-seller Redmi Note 2 so soon. They warned that this strategy might confuse potential buyers and disappoint those who had recently bought the previous iteration of the line, believing it was the latest.
