“Dare to Leap” DNA hikes brand realme into top smartphone ranks

realme is the recent newcomer to the global smartphone market which has shown a winning streak unlike any other such newcomers. Andy Wu, CEO, realme, Sri Lanka responds to questions unravelling the story of realme and its success among the global youth.

Q: How is it that realme a relatively newcomer is creating such a buzz in the global smartphone industry?

A: realme is an emerging global consumer technology company. In this sphere realme has been disrupting the smartphone and AIoT market by making cutting-edge technologies more accessible, especially to the youth across the world. realme was founded in 2018 at a time when the global smartphone market was already highly saturated and competitive. There were more than 200 mobile phone brands on the market. Despite this realme has become the fastest-growing smartphone brand in the world at present. We provide a range of smartphones and lifestyle technology devices with premium specs, quality, and trend-setting designs to them at affordable prices. We entered in 2018 with “Dare to Leap” spirit as our positioning and truly drove to show that we do technology-leaps in our products. Within three years, realme became the world’s 7th largest smartphone company. realme was named the fastest-growing player in global 5G smartphone sales by Counterpoint Research. By the first quarter of this year, realme was in 61 markets worldwide, including China, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Europe, Russia, Australia, the Middle East, and Africa with a global user base of over 70 million. The brand maintained its position as one of the top five players in 13 countries worldwide, and for the first time, was in the top four vendors in three European countries in terms of number of shipments in the first quarter of this year.

Q: How has realme disrupted the smartphone market?

A: Our world today is rapidly transformed by new advancements in technology. We will be left out in the cold if we are not able to keep up. The Mobile smartphone is one such technology that is at the centre of our lives and is advancing rapidly. However these advances come with a price tag and today’s youth across the world who are more tech savvy are missing this advantage due to higher price points. realme’s winning edge is in bringing such cutting edge tech to the youth market at affordable prices to them. It is due to this vision that at its recent 5G summit, the company announced its intention to put young users at the forefront of driving global 5G adoption, with the goal of providing them with 100 million 5G phones by 2024 and launching an industry-first US$100 5G mobile phone in the next few years.

Q: Tell us about realme’s “Dare to Leap” energy…

A: “Dare to Leap” energy is not ours but belongs to the youth all over the world. We just empower this “Dare to Leap” spirit towards new technology by integrating it into our DNA via our cutting edge smartphones while also making the handsets affordable to them. Advanced high tech such as 5G in midrange priced realme phones, Artificial Intelligence driven 3-4 high res-lenses in one camera, obtaining TÜV Rheinland High Reliability Certification for realme –a world’s first for smartphones- are some examples how we empower “Dare to Leap”.

Q: realme targets youth market which is usually placed among lower income segments. Therefore aren’t realme phones in cheaper basic phone range?

A: That’s where realme makes another difference. Though our phones have been high-tech but priced at affordable low range sought by the youth, it does not mean that is the only segment that we are in. For example realme introduced its highly anticipated flagship smartphone of the year, the realme GT 5G just this month. This is realme’s first foray into the global mid- to high-end smartphone segment. What is also important is that we are not only entering into the global mid-to high-end segment but with GT 5G we are setting new industry standards for this mid- to high-end segment in specs, design and price. realme GT 5G in-fact triumphantly revs up our “Dare to Leap” again towards the world’s adventurous youth.