By Alokananda Chakraborty
realme is gearing up to launch its premium tablet Pad X in India—its third in the category after the Realme Pad and Realme Pad Mini—later this month.
Earlier this week, chief executive officer, India, Madhav Sheth, tweeted a photograph of the product stirring up buzz
and anticipation.
A lot rides on this product expected to be priced upwards of `20,000—it’s a key cog in its “go premium” strategy in India.
The smartphone maker has a user base of 126 million across the globe, of which close to 50%—60 million users— are from India alone. The brand’s market share in India by volume was 16% in the first quarter of this year, up from 11% in the same period last year. In 2021, it was ranked fourth, behind Xiaomi’s 24%, Samsung’s 18% and Vivo’s 15%, and it was the only player to grow in double digits in 2021 (albeit on a smaller base), according to Counterpoint Research.
In other words, in a short span of four years, realme has been able to firmly ensconse itself among the top five smartphone marketers in India.
And now it is looking to shift gears. “We want to establish ourselves in the premium segment after establishing our dominance in the entry-level and mid-segment markets,” says Seth. “Innovation is the foundation of our “go premium” strategy and for realme there are two pillars of innovation—technology and design.”
These two factors have stood the brand in good stead till now. But the crux has been smart pricing. realme products start at 7,499, going all the way up to50,000. All the handsets it sells in India are built locally—a key factor that has helped the firm get around regulatory hurdles that have plagued many Chinese players and also Apple. This move has also helped it keep costs down, enabling it to offer feature-rich mobiles even in the budget segment. It also helps that realme
has control over component sourcing and all product design is done in-house, point out analysts.
But the real test starts now. It’s like this: “Indian consumers have shown that they are ready to pick up any brand of smartphone as long as there is a good deal. Branding in the category has been reduced to the level of “I have heard of this name” or “I have seen an ad”. So the ranking keeps changing,” says Ambi Parameswaran, brand coach, brand strategist and founder, Brand-Building.com. And that is not going to work if a brand is looking for a premium play.
You can command a premium when you have brand loyalty and you can claim brand loyalty only when there is repeat buying, says Tarun Pathak, research director, mobile devices and ecosystems, Counterpoint Research. “The average cellphone usage in India is about two and a half years. Many realme users are first-time users. When they upgrade, will they choose another realme phone at a higher price point? That is the question they have to deal with now,” he adds.
There’s another thorn in the flesh—its “Chinese” lineage. realme has been quite successful in that department with its relentless “I-am-a-made-in-India-brand” stance. Ask anyone from the company if its Chinese pedigree has been a handicap, and they just clam up. CEO Madhav Seth will go to any length explaining that “realme was established in India in 2018, and later expanded its footprints to other countries”, although a quick Google search will tell you it’s “a brand of Android based smartphones developed by Realme Chongqing Mobile Telecommunications Corporation, Ltd., a manufacturer based in Shenzhen, China”.
Some analysts say the “Chinese brand” tag has ceased to deter customers these days with dramatic improvement in product quality over the last decade or so. The same happened with Japanese and Korean products in the 1980s and 1990s.
But by making “technological prowess” the centre piece of its India strategy, realme has neutralised much of the early skepticism. “realme has consistently led the way in popularising cutting-edge technologies, including DartCharge, Paper Design, 5G, 64MP, ANC, 2K display laptops, etc,” points out Seth. “We took the initiative and became a 5G populariser at a time when the industry was not sure about the uptake of 5G smartphones.”
In fact, realme was the first to introduce a 5G smartphone in the Indian market. And with as many as 15 launches till date, the brand has had the most 5G launches in the country. “From a smartphone brand to a holistic tech brand, we have entered one new category per month since 2020 and gradually built a realme TechLife universe for our users,” sums up Seth.
If nothing else, realme is off to a good start.
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