Xiaomi Mi3 review, news: Specs of the Xiaomi Mi3, the flagship handset of the company called the “Apple of China” have seemingly impressed Malaysian tech consumers. In a report by Android Authority, it noted that the handset sold 4,000 units in 17 minutes.

Xiaomi’s very first phone in Malaysia went out of stock in less than 20 minutes and that’s not even the most important part, says Android Authority.

The company began selling the $280 Xiaomi Mi3 in Malaysia on May 20th and their web store ran out of units in less than 20 minutes. There is currently no official statement from Xiaomi about the number of phones that have been sold, but according to attendees, the Chinese electronics maker was preparing around 4000 Mi3s for the launch day.

The number may seem low, but is still pretty impressive since the company has yet to bring the Xiaomi Redmi, their best-selling product to the country.

Android Authority reports that Xiaomi held a fan and press meet-up event at Kuala Lumpur’s G Tower May 19th. Hugo Barra, and Xiaomi President Lin Bin took the stage.

In a slideshow posted presented, it showed that handset sales of Xiaomi was up 160 percent and revenue for 2013 was up 150% to reach an equivalent of more than $5 billion.

The Xiaomi executives shared that the reason the Redmi was not made available is because its successor, the Redmi 1S, will be launched next month.

The upcoming Xiaomi Redmi 1S will have a Snapdragon 400 processor and not a Mediatek quad core chip that powered the preceding Redmi model. Because of Mediatek’s rules on source codes, Redmi/Hongmi owners have not been able to enjoy regular OTA updates that other Xiaomi phones are famous for.

Following Malaysia, Xiaomi is expected to expand in India, Brazil, Russia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Turkey, Mexico, and the Philippines.