China’s Xiaomi sells 100,000 units of Hongmi smartphone

Two weeks after Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi unveiled the lowest-priced Hongmi smartphone in its range, the company released the first batch of 100,000 phones at 12 noon local time on Qzone, a social networking website operated by Tencent, which were snapped up in 90 seconds flat.

The company announced the milestone on its official Sina Weibo account for the Hongmi phone (hat-tip Tech in Asia). It also revealed that the Hongmi phone has reached a staggering 7.45 million reservations.

These latest figures are evidence of Xiaomi’s success formula — it has inspired the loyalty of many consumers with its competitively-priced devices, despite releasing its first phone only as recently as 2011. At just RMB799 ($130), the Hongmi phone is Xiaomi’s key to unlocking the potential of cheaper devices.

Over the weekend, Xiaomi also reportedly said that it was raising its sales target for this year to 20 million smartphones, up from the previous target of 15 million. Xiaomi sold 7.03 million devices in the first six months this year, just shy of the 7.19 million units that it sold during the whole of 2012.

In the second quarter this year, Xiaomi officially overtook Apple in the Chinese market, according to figures from analyst firm Canalys, which noted that Xiaomi shipped a total of 4.4 million smartphones in China during the period compared with Apple’s 4.3 million units.

It has also been reported that the red-hot company is in the midst of getting its next-generation Mi-3 phone approved by the relevant government agency, and that it may launch next month.