Realme is aware of interest in foldables, but it plans to focus on its core market at the moment, says founder Sky Li

Realme is having a busy year. The company has been launching new smartphones in the country one after another. In the past couple of months, the company has introduced at least seven new smartphones in the country, which includes the Realme C51, the Realme Narzo 60X 5G, the Realme 11X 5G, the Realme 11 5G, the Realme C53, the Realme Narzo 60 5G and the Realme Narzo Pro 60 5G to name a new. Reports suggest that the company is planning to go strong in the coming months by introducing premium smartphones in the country. On the sidelines of these launches, we had a conversation with Realme founder and CEO Sky Li to understand Realme’s plans for the year 2023 and time beyond.

Talking about the company’s plans for launching premium smartphones, which includes the Realme GT series devices, in the year 2023, the Realme founder said that while the company does have an extensive portfolio of premium devices under its GT series, at the moment it is focusing on the mid-budget smartphone segment. “…at present, we are focusing on creating hero products and achieving a mid-to-premium breakthrough, as well as optimizing our IMS and making strides on both online and offline platforms,” Li told Techlusive in an email interaction.

About breaking into ultra-premium market segment

During our interaction, Li also talked about the possibility of breaking into the ultra-premium market segment. Li told Techlusive that the company is closely monitoring the changes that are taking place in the ultra-premium market segment and that it is looking for new ways to diversify and improve the lineup before introducing new products in the category.

“We recognise the significance of this market and are closely monitoring the changes taking place in it, even though we are continually looking for new ways to diversify our product offering…over the next 5 years, we aim to grow our customer base in the mid to high segment by focusing on “no leap, no launch” as the gold standard for product creation,” Li told Techlusive.

What about introducing foldable smartphones

Li also touched on the subject of introducing a foldable display smartphone in the market — a category that been gaining popularity in the market since past couple of years.

For the unversed, foldable market is growing steadily and it is expected to reach the 100 million-mark in 2027. While Samsung pioneered the category back in 2019, rising interest has led to companies such as Motorola, Xiaomi and Oppo introducing yearly updates and brands like, Google, Tecno, Vivo and OnePlus entering the foldables market in 2023. Realme too has been rumoured to working on its own foldable display smartphone. The company earlier this year teased the possibility of launching a foldable smartphone. It also teased possible design options. However, ever since then, the company has remained silent on the matter. Now, commenting on the possibility of launching a device dubbed to be Realme GT 2 Fold, Li said while the company is aware of the interest in the category, it will launch a foldable phone only when it is ready.

“Although we are aware of the interest in foldable phones, we think it’s crucial to focus on our core competencies and develop products that truly benefit our customers. We’ll keep a lookout on this progress and release it onto the market when we think it’s ready and can meet our strict quality standards,” Li told Techlusive.

About the future

Talking about the future and the direction in which the company heading to, the Realme founder said that the company was focusing on increasing its brand-presence amid the youth and strengthening its presence in the Rs 30K to Rs 50K market segment. “Over the next 5 years, we aim to nurture and grow our customer base in the mid to high-end segment as we will focus on bringing more innovation to our products in the INR 30000-50000 price segment while strengthening the competitiveness of the Rupees 60000 price segment,” Li told us.

“In 2023, we plan to grow our network to a total of 700+ service Centers across 532 cities and continue to expand our reach with more service centers across the country,” he added.