Realme, in a short span of time, has become a force to reckon with in the Indian smartphone market. It had started off as Oppo’s sub-brand but later became an independent entity. A report by Canalys reveals that Realme has now become bigger than Oppo in India.
As per Canalys, Realme shipped 4.9 million smartphone units in the second quarter of 2021 to capture 15% of the market share. Oppo, on the other hand, shipped 3.8 million smartphone units to garner 10% market share. Realme is now the fourth largest smartphone brand in India while Oppo has slipped to the fifth spot.
“Realme saw online momentum, particularly with its Narzo 30 series, as it used price cuts during ‘brand-focused days’ to overtake Oppo,” explains Jash Shah, Canalys research analyst.
Realme has been aggressive in the market — both in terms of number of products and offering value proposition. The brand has entered almost every category and has been making in roads. In the smartphone market, it has offerings from the budget to affordable premium smartphones.
Meanwhile, smartphone shipments in India fell 13% between Q1 and Q2 2021, to 32.4 million units, due to the second wave of COVID-19, which stifled demand, according to Canalys. Xiaomi remained the market leader, shipping 9.5 million units for a 29% share. Samsung stayed in second place, shipping 5.5 million units for a 17% share. Vivo came in third with 5.4 million units shipped.
“India was taken by surprise by its second wave, as the new COVID variant emerged and took hold quickly,” said Canalys Analyst Sanyam Chaurasia. “For smartphone vendors, this was a wake-up call, and shows the importance of bolstering both online and offline presences equally. Smartphone vendors in India had assumed COVID-19 would not return, and several planned to invest in infrastructure for branded stores and partnerships with third-party offline channels. But once again they were quickly compelled to pivot to an online strategy,” added Chaurasia.
timesofindia.indiatimes.com
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