New Delhi :
Chinese handset maker Realme has become the fastest-growing smartphone brand in India, selling 15 million handsets in the very first year of its operations and is targeting to double the sales next year, its CEO Madhav Sheth said. Realme, which began as an Oppo sub-brand in May 2018, was promptly spun off into a standalone entity and is now taking on bigger rival Xiaomi with similar price points and segments of Rs 7,000-20,000 phones.
Unlike other Chinese players like Vivo and Oppo, which are offline-focussed with investments in channel marketing and offline distribution, Realme aped the strategy of the market leader closely and focussed on online from the start. Sheth, who founded the company together with BBK Group founder Sky Li, said Realme is ranked seventh fastest growing smartphone brand globally. “We will end 2019, the first full year of our operations, with sales of 15 million handsets.
We are targeting to at least double this in 2020,” he told PTI here. The brand commands 14.3 per cent market share, he said quoting industry data by IDC. Realme has now risen to become the fourth biggest smartphone brand in India in the third quarter, according to IDC. Its popularity exploded on the same lines as Xiaomi, which has been selling its phones in the country since 2015, by offering a good price-to-quality ratio on its smartphones.
Recently, Realme 5 went for online sale in the Indian market. The sale for Realme 5s began on Friday at 12 PM (noon) via Flipkart and Realme.com. It is to be noted that Realme 5s is an upgraded version of the Realme 5. The key features on the recently-launched smartphone include quad rear camera setup, octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 SoC, and 5,000mAh battery, among others.
The price for the base 4GB RAM + 64GB storage variant of Realme 5s in India has been set at Rs 9,999. On the other hand, the top-spec 4GB RAM + 128GB storage model of Realme 5s costs Rs 10,999. The smartphone is available in three colour options including Crystal Blue, Crystal Purple, and Crystal Red. Realme 5s features a 6.5-inch HD+ (720 x 1600 pixels) display with 89 percent screen-to-body ratio and Corning Gorilla Glass 3+ protection.
The smartphone supports dual-SIM (Nano) connectivity and runs Android Pie with the ColorOS 6 skin on top. Under the hood, Realme 5s is powered by the octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 SoC clocked at 2.0GHz, and it is paired with 4GB of RAM.
(With inputs from PTI)
