Xiaomi Mi 5 orders exceed 16 million

Successful handsets can sometimes be really tricky for their makers, especially when demand is a few times greater than the amount of devices prepared by the company behind them. While OnePlus became notorious for having to face far greater demand than its manufacturing capabilities, thus using a reservation system based on invites, Xiaomi now finds itself in a similar position.

According to Xiaomi founder Lei Jun, the company had about 4 million Mi 5 handsets ready to face the first round of sales. Unfortunately for them, they needed four times that amount to cover the impressive number of 16 million reservations. The company had similar problems when launching previous devices as well, but now they tried to be ready by having an initial stock 3-4 times larger than usual. However, it seems that was not enough.

This new Qualcomm Snapdragon 820-powered smartphone starts at almost $300 USD, far below the price tag of competing products that use similar hardware. The company's official online store reveals that next round of Mi 5 sales is scheduled for March 8th.