(Yicai) Sept. 20 -- The Huawei Mate XT Ultimate Design, the world’s first double-folding, triple-screen smartphone, sold out in just a few seconds when it debuted today.

The revolutionary new product went on sale at 10.08 a.m and was instantly out of stock at Huawei Technologies’ physical stores, as well as on internet shopping platforms such as Huawei Mall, JD.com and Alibaba Group Holding's Tmall.

Demand has far exceeded expectations, and Huawei is working overtime to ramp up production, Richard Yu, its executive director and head of consumer business, said when visiting the tech giant’s flagship store in downtown Shanghai this morning, Shanghai Securities News reported. 

Due to the phone’s high technological requirements, the initial production run is limited, a phone dealer told Yicai previously.

The Mate XT comes in three versions: one with 16 gigabytes of random-access memory and 256GB of storage for CNY19,999 (USD2,835), the second with 512GB of storage for CNY21,999, and the third with 1 terabyte of storage for CNY23,999. The handset marks a major push by Shenzhen-based Huawei into the premium smartphone market.

For most market insiders, the Mate XT’s sell-out was hardly a surprise. More than 6.85 million people had signed up for the new device when non-binding pre-orders closed at midnight yesterday, according to Huawei Mall’s data.

Huawei Mall started taking pre-orders on Sept. 7, three days before the phone’s official launch, with each buyer allowed only one.

Due to the overwhelming number of pre-orders, Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst at TF International, released a report yesterday that doubled the shipment forecast for the Mate XT to 1 million units this year.

As Huawei’s new smartphone sold out, the stock prices of several listed companies with business ties to Huawei surged, regardless of whether their business actually has anything to do with the phone.

Information technology services and software products supplier Talkweb Information System [SHE: 002261] jumped by its 10 percent daily trading limit to close at CNY13.87 (USD7.97) a share in Shenzhen.

Beiming Technology [SHE: 000158] and Maxvision Technology [SHE: 002990] also both soared by 10 percent. The former is mainly in software and textiles, and the latter specializes in artificial intelligence and the research, integration, and maintenance of smart ports and other intelligent products.

The wider Shenzhen stock market came dipped 0.2 percent.

Editor: Futura Costaglione