Realme plans on selling 15mn devices in 2019
Realme, the Chinese smartphone maker that targets the budget smartphone market in India, plans on selling at least 15 million smartphones in India by the end of 2019. The company right now clocks at seven per cent market share in the first quarter of 2019.
Also, read: Realme 3Pro vs Samsung Galaxy M30 vs Redmi Note 7 Pro: How Realme 3 Pro fairs against the competition
Realme came in existence in 2018 as an online-focused smartphone company and made it to the top five smartphone brands in 2018 fourth quarter with eight per cent market share.
The company Chief Executive Officer, Madhav Sheth told IANS that it would target to sell at least 15 million devices this year and the sales and shipments won't have such a huge gap.
According to Counterpoint Research, Realme had started as an online-only brand, which now gets a majority of its sale via offline channels. The company has plans of setting up six exclusive stores in metros by the end of the year and will also focus on tier-2 and tier-3 cities.
Madhav Sheth further noted that the company will explore into places like Nashik, Nagpur and Pune, along with its plans to open a pop-up store in northeast.
Realme is targetting 50 pop-up and six exclusive stores this year that would house Realme's portfolio of smartphones, Realme "Buds" and backpacks.
Madhav further said that the company already has its own earbuds under the portfolio and before Diwali, it will have its own range of accessories. The company will be launching its own powerbank, Bluetooth headset along with other few smartphones.
Realme right now has a retail presence in 50 cities that includes Mumbai, Hyderabad, Surat, Ludhiana and Chandigarh, and has plans to expand its footprint to meet the growing demands of customers.
The company executive went on to say, "We've already set up multi-brand retail outlets in 39-40 cities and we'll reach 20,000 multi-brand retail outlets across 150 cities before 2019 ends".
Realme has unveiled its first exclusive kiosk at the pop-up sale in New Delhi on Saturday that allows customers to experience and purchase from RealmE portfolio.
The company already has one of its R&D bases in Hyderabad with the other in China, whereas its manufacturing factory is located in Greater Noida that has a production capacity of almost 60-80 million devices a year.
The company had introduced the Realme 1 model in May 2018 by which the company had begun with its entry-level smartphone segment.
According to CyberMedia Research (CMR)'s a mobile handset, the company's smartphone shipment grew by over 600 per cent in September-October, compared to July-August in 2018, making it the top emerging brand in India.
Realme was born as a sub-brand of OPPO, which later became an independent brand that targets the global youth.
Also, read: Nubia Red Magic 3 Gaming phone with 12GB RAM and Snapdragon 855 SoC launching on April 28
(With IANS inputs)
