Realme is one of the youngest smartphone brands in India. Within just a little over a year, it has not only been able to sell over 15 million handsets but also has won over a huge fan base in the country. In a price-sensitive market like India, the latter is a tough ask.
Realme came into existence as OPPO’s sub-brand and started selling smartphones in May 2018. Since then it has been able to give a tough time to quite a few peers including Asus, Samsung and especially Xiaomi.
As per IDC, Realme is the fourth-largest smartphone maker in India with a 14.3% market share, while Xiaomi leads the table with a 27.1% share, followed by Samsung (18.9%), and Vivo (15.2%) in the third quarter. Exactly a year back, Realme had just 3.1% market share and Xiaomi had around 30%.
The immense growth is driven by the sheer number of smartphone models (15 and counting) that the company has introduced coupled with aggressive pricing and marketing strategies, which interestingly sounds similar to what Xiaomi does.
The company which started with an online-only model has recently started selling its phones via brick and mortar stores and aims at a 70:30 split between online and offline sales.
The company's CEO, Madhav Sheth is confident that the company will be able to double its sales figures for the next year and plans to launch smartphones every price point between Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 30,000.
