A few days after boasting that it's sold more smartphones in the first half of 2014 than during all of last year, Xiaomi has a new sales number to be proud of.
The Chinese company has passed 10 million units sold for the MI-3, the flagship device it announced last September (and which became available three months after that).
The announcement comes straight from Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun. To celebrate this achievement, the company has released a special edition 'Champagne Gold' variation of the MI-3.
This is only available in China for the moment, but expect it to at some point also make it to the handful of other territories where Xiaomi is currently doing business. And who knows, with a more serious international expansion planned for this year, we may see it in a few other countries too.
In Xiaomi's homeland the gold MI-3 is priced at CNY 1,499 for the 16GB version. That currently equates to $241 or €177, and it's definitely a great price considering the specs you're getting.

Source and GSM Arena

Xiaomi has released MIUI v4.5.9 update which is based on Android 4.4 KitKat. The update is currently available for the Xiaomi Mi3 in addition to a wealth of other devices including Redmi 1/1s and MI2/2S/Mi.


In addition to the usual KitKat perks of the update (bug fixes, Chromecast support and low-power audio playback among others), Xiaomi has updated the user interface. When you change the wallpaper, the rest of the home screen elements such as icons and text will automatically adjust to it.
You can now also upload songs to the Mi Cloud, which now uses high definition pictures in the online music details page. The browser, calendar, mail and weather apps have also received the bug squashing treatment. The developers say that the MIUI ROM is now the most stable it has ever been, and early adopters are backing that claim.
Check out the source link below to check out how you obtain the MIUI v4.5.9 ROM and manually flash it, if you don't feel like waiting for the OTA update.
Meanwhile, we also got confirmation of the date when Xiaomi will start selling its devices in Malaysia. The awaited expansion will begin on May 20 and the Mi3 will be the first smartphone that the company officially sells outside China. The price of the smartphone has been set to MYR889 or roughly $275.

Source1| Source2| Lowyat and GSM Arena 

Xiaomi has steadily been making big moves in China with their constant release of quality handsets at bargain prices. It looks like all of their work has paid off, as the Chinese smartphone manufacturer now commands a larger market share than Apple in the region.

It isn’t as if Xiaomi is blowing the Cupertino-based tech giant out of the water, though. Xiaomi stands at taking over 11% of the total market share, whereas Apple accounts for 10% of all smartphones sold in China.
Xiaomi’s recent success makes them the number three cell phone manufacturer in the region, putting only Samsung and Lenovo ahead, with 18% and 12% market share respectively.
The momentum that Xiaomi has built for itself in such a relatively short amount of time is impressive. It looks like their business is primed to expand even further in the near future, as they will be entering new markets in Asia: Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia.
If the company can continue to deliver the same Android handsets with top specs for bottom dollar, then they should enjoy an even more prosperous future.

Source| Gizmochina and GSM Arena

The Xiaomi Mi3 was launched back in September and it has always been known for offering plenty of bang for your buck. To maintain that reputation today the company has announced new prices, which considerably cheaper than before.
Xiaomi has slashed the price of the 16GB Mi3 from $327 to $270, while the 64GB model retails for $320 shortly after the company announced that it intends to bring the Mi3 outside of China. By the end of 2014, you should be able to buy the phone in India, Brazil, and Russia as well as Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, the Philippines, Thailand, Turkey, and Vietnam.

The device is available with two different chipsets - you can either get a Tegra 4 with four Cortex-A15 cores or a Snapdragon 800 with four Krait 400 cores at 2.2 GHz each. Currently, the Tegra 4 model is available on China Mobile, while the Snapdragon 800 is sold on China Unicom.
The device is very slender at 144mm×72mm×8.1mm and weighs only 145 g. it has a 5" 1080p IPS dislay, Android 4.2.1 skinned with MIUI v5 and covers imaging needs with 13 MP and 2 MP cameras.
The price cut may be Xiaomi's direct answer to the aggressive pricing of the OnePlus One, which was announced last week. The phone retails for $299 or $349 for the 16GB or 64GB model, respectively.

Source
GSM Arena