Xiaomi has sold over 110m of its cheapest phones

I’m not sure this has enough gold: the Redmi Note 3 is the latest and largest – and, er…, goldest – of Xiaomi’s budget range.

When Xiaomi rolled out the Redmi range of phones in August 2013, the Chinese gadget maker signalled that it wanted to go after an even cheaper segment than it had before – into the murky pit of hundred-dollar phones.

Now, close to three years on, Xiaomi has sold a grand total of 110 million Redmi phones, revealed global VP Hugo Barra today in a tweet. “That’s 1.21 units per second in 3 years,” he adds.

The Redmi and Redmi Note, less than half the price of other Xiaomi phones like the US$300 Mi5, have been central to Xiaomi’s success in China and its handful of new markets – such as India and Indonesia – over the past few years.

This first Redmi was Xiaomi’s hot new budget phone in 2013.

When I reviewed the first iteration of the Redmi back in September 2013, I said that it “redefines what you get for just $130.”

One year after the Redmi first came out, Xiaomi boss Lei Jun said the budget behemoth was the brand’s biggest seller. The Redmi and Redmi Note saw double the sales of the Mi3, which was Xiaomi’s flagship phone at the time.