Realme may compete against globally known smartphone brands as their sales have been gradually increasing not just in China but entire world.
By Sayyed Shehzer Abbas
Where globally renowned companies like Huawei, Honor and even Apple suffered because of the covid-19 pandemic, a few new companies came on the spotlight which are expected to lead the global market in the upcoming years. One of those newly emerging brands is Realme. A sub-brand of Oppo which focusses on providing high end specs phones to its customers on a budget.
Chinese phone manufacturers are among the world’s fastest-growing smartphone brands. Such is the case with Oppo’s sub-brand Realme. Sky Li, a former vice president of Oppo, started the startup on May 4, 2018, and owns it along with BBK Electronics. The company started strong and is continuously going strong, becoming China’s fastest growing brand in Q1 this year.
The smartphone industry was hit hard during the pandemic. There was a shortage of computing chips, prices of the parts were increased and most of the companies did not really have any effect on their profits. According to Counterpoint Research’s latest report, the smartphone market rose by 5% in the first quarter of this year. Huawei, China’s leading smartphone brand, has lost a significant share of its home market, with Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi, and others now leading the pack. Realme may not be at the top of the list just yet, but it was the fastest growing name on the list, with sales up 451 percent year over year. Its revenues increased by 82 percent in the previous quarter.
Yang Wang, a senior analyst at Counterpoint Research, believes Realme’s success is due to its effective marketing strategy. Realme’s goods are aimed at the budget-conscious Gen Z audience, which seeks the finest specifications at the lowest possible price, which Realme provides. Realme was able to ship more than 50 million units faster than any other brand last year because of this. Realme’s most popular smartphones were all priced between $150 and $250. Their success is also due to the recent decrease in the cost of 5G chipsets and the expanding use of 5G in China.
For the next quarters, Wang believes that the budget segment will be the “main battleground,” and Realme already has a leg up on the competition thanks to its increasingly low-cost, durable phones.