Chinese smartphone brand realme is set to launch its first high-end smartphone the GT 2 Pro overseas next week at the annual Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. in a bid to grow market share in Europe and continue its rapid growth.
This is the company’s first appearance at the world’s biggest mobile trade conference, underscoring its desire to grow its market share outside of China.
“In China and the European market, we want to focus on the breakthrough to the high-end market,” Realme CEO Sky Li told CNBC in an exclusive interview
“In the European market, as well as any other market, we position ourselves as providing affordable phones with outstanding performance and trendy design. In the European market, we have the same strategy.” Li added
Realme has already made its headway into major markets and its penetration into the western market will position it for greater feats.
The company already has But Realme has made progress in markets with more price-conscious consumers where its lower-priced, yet high spec phones have found appeal. It is the second-largest smartphone player in India.
In Q4 2021, Realme joined Apple, Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo as the top six shippers, according to the latest study from global research company Counterpoint. Realme reached the elite league in the fourth quarter of 2021, with a 165 per cent year-on-year increase in unit shipments across 20 worldwide countries, including Africa. During the quarter, the Chinese phone manufacturer shipped over five million units.
CEO Li is hoping to maintain that healthy growth this year.
“In 2021, we managed 50 per cent growth. In the past three years, we kept high growth. In 2022, we want to keep the growth rate, at 40 per cent or 50 per cent,” Li told CNBC, adding the company wants to sell more than 85 million phones globally.
realme faces a number of challenges in its push to gain share in the high-end market, but it’s confident to reach its strategy with the GT Series which has maintained positive figures across all markets.
The series drove up sales in the first quarter of 2022 to break its annual 5 million sales volume market recording a 550 per cent growth.
The realme GT 2 will retail for around $600 while the GT 2 Pro will start at around $800.
