Xiaomi's latest smartphone gone in 86 seconds

Mark Hughes, a foreign journalist who lives in Beijing, said he had heard a lot about the Xiaomi smartphone and had a strong interest in getting an Mi-3 handset.

"The latest device seems to be extremely good, according to reports - and cheap compared with the iPhone and other smartphones. Also previous successful Xiaomi smartphone models led customers to believe the Mi-3 would not disappoint," he said.

Hughes shares the views of a group of people who believe Xiaomi is manipulating the market - a similar tactic said to be used by US-based giant Apple Inc. "They build up anticipation, keep the shipping numbers secret and stir up customers' interest," he said. "It's an old trick, playing on people's psychology. It gets the device talked about and people get obsessive. Rumors circulate and its quality gets talked up and up."

Xiaomi denied it was deploying so-called "hunger marketing". Liu Wei, a spokesman for Xiaomi, said the company does its best to satisfy people's demand but its production capacity cannot keep up with demand.

"Because of the imbalance between demand and supply, it is easy for people to be under the illusion that we are deliberately creating a show," Liu said.

Mobile phone scalpers, who developed the art of selling Apple's iPhones at prices higher than the official figure after buying them in bulk, sometimes overseas if they had already gone on sale there, are now sensing a new business opportunity with Xiaomi smartphones. In Beijing's Zhongguancun area, famed for its high-tech wares, scalpers are asking for an additional 500 yuan on average for every Mi-3 device they sell.

Xiaomi's competitively priced phones are highly sought after. Every batch that is released regularly sells out fast, often within 30 minutes. At the end of July, when Xiaomi announced its most affordable smartphone yet, it attracted more than 7 million reservations and sold out its first batch of 100,000 units in just 90 seconds.