Realme aims to increase premium smartphone market share in India

Realme GT 6

Realme has renewed its bid for India's premium smartphone market with the launch of the Realme GT 6, aiming to boost its market share in 2024 and challenge competitors like Samsung and Vivo.

"The demand for premium smartphones is on the rise, and we want to bring devices to tap the high-end market. We want Realme users to move to mid-to-high-end smartphones. There is an opportunity for us to move to the next level," said Chase Xu, Chief Marketing Officer at Realme.

With its latest smartphone, the Chinese handset brand also marked its entry into the Artificial Intelligence-powered device category in India and globally. It has officially introduced its NextAi technology, powering the latest Realme GT 6.

For NextAi, Realme will collaborate with partners in key markets, including India, Latin America, and Southeast Asia. "There is a global AI strategy, and we will execute that in key markets. We will analyze what our customers want from AI in key markets," the executive added.

Realme has experienced significant growth in India's mid-premium segment, driven by their Number series and GT series, which have seen a 27% year-on-year increase.

Earlier this year, Realme founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Sky Li, told Moneycontrol that the company identified the mid-to-premium smartphone segment as a critical development point in India.

In 2023, the brand secured the third position among Indian smartphone brands in the Rs 20,000-Rs 30,000 price band by September 2023.

He said the brand was making a comprehensive tech investment in India to create a complete technology ecosystem for its products. The company is leveraging its dedicated technology institute in India, launched last year, for the same.

Li also mentioned that 5G smartphones and offline expansion will drive most of the sales for the brand in India in 2024. The Realme GT 6 is the second GT smartphone to be launched by the company in 2024. The GT 6T is the flagship smartphone from Realme and is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 chipset.

Anticipating a rebound in the global smartphone market, Realme is aiming for a 10 percent sales increase to sell 10 million smartphones in 2024, with seven to eight million being 5G smartphones.

Realme surpassed 100 million shipments in India in 2023 since it began operations in 2018.

The Realme GT 6 is priced at Rs. 40,999 for the base 8GB RAM + 256GB storage variant. The 12GB + 256GB model is priced at Rs. 42,999, and the top-end one with 16GB + 512GB is priced at Rs. 44,999. The phone is available in Fluid Silver and Razor Green color options.

The Realme GT 6 will be up for pre-booking through realme.com and Flipkart from today at 2:30 PM until June 24 at 11:59 PM. Prospective buyers can also avail themselves of up to six months of screen damage protection. Realme also offers a Rs 4,000 bank discount with multiple bank cards and an additional Rs 1,000 exchange offer.