If anyone doubted that Lenovo didn’t take the threat of upstart Xiaomi seriously, well check out what Lenovo just pulled off in India – a key smartphone marketplace. Lenovo unveiled a multi-pronged strategy which produced a sellout of 10,000 phones – in 2 seconds.

Talk about a flash sale.

Lenovo offered 10,000 of its new A6000 smartphones for sale online, and a lot of media hype delivered thousands of buyers.

Sales went so fast that, via Twitter, people were offering to resell phones they had in their “baskets.”

The strategy:

  • Build and sell a fully equipped smartphone targeting India customer’s needs and wants
  • Then UNDERCUT Xiamoi by a substantial margin
  • Next, sell the new phones over India’s emerging Amazon equivalent: Flipkart
  • Tout a “flash sale” – a deal of the day, a bargain price
  • Convince India news media – especially tech sites – to promote the sale.

Bingo.

Forget protect – it’s attack against Xiaomi

China-born Xiaomi is valued of $45 billion after a recent $1 billion investment and now – on paper – is worth three times globally traded Lenovo. In just three years Xiamoi has grown into a global phone powerhouse, battling Lenovo for the No. 3 spot in sales behind Samsung and Apple. Having made its reputation in cheap phones and in emerging markets as well as China, the company recently announced its first high-end phone. The CEO and founder’s mission: To take on Apple.

Hold on a moment. Don’t underestimate Lenovo.

Lenovo, which is returning Motorola phones to the China market in an increasingly intense battle for high-end devices, has counterattacked in India with the A6000 at a price of around $114. That’s well under Xiaomi’s big seller at $162.

Plus, the marketers at Lenovo KNOW how to hype, market and sell, too. That’s proven in multiple ways – from Lenovo’s rapid rise to become the No. 1 seller in PCs and its rapid rise to big market shares in smartphones as well as tablets and connected devices.

Lenovo chair and CEO Yang Yuanqing has driven a “protect and attack” strategy, but in the battle with Xiaomi now it is all-out offensive.

Where will Lenovo try the “flash” and lower price strategy next?

Unfortunately that’s not likely to be in the U.S. where recently acquired Motorola will fly the Lenovo flag in battle. Motorola has never been known as a cheap-selling product.

But who knows what’s in the mind of Yang and company.

If this strategy works in India, why not here?

Check out the India flash sale action at a Lenovo’ Twitter feed: https://twitter.com/Lenovo_in/status/560372354509848576/photo/1