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History of Realms

 History of Realme, "born" from Oppo to become one of the best smartphone brands in the world

Among the many smartphone brands in Indonesia, Realme is the youngest brand. Because this brand has just made its debut in Indonesia in 2018.

So, the existence of Realme in Indonesia is only about 3 years old. Despite this, Realme was able to achieve rapid business growth.

This brand even entered the list of top 10 smartphone sellers in the world just a year after its debut. So what is the real origin of Realme?

Here is the review.

History of Realms

Realme is a smartphone manufacturer headquartered in Beijing, China. This company was founded on May 4, 2018 by Sky Li (Li Bingzhong) who is a former vice president of Oppo.

Initially, Realme was a subsidiary (sub-brand) of Oppo. Oppo itself is a subsidiary of BBK Electronics, so Realme and Oppo are part of the group, along with Vivo and OnePlus. But since Sky Li left Oppo, he made Realme an independent brand with the slogan "Dare to Leap".

Despite debuting in mid-2018, Realme's first smartphone was actually launched in China in 2010 as Oppo Real. It wasn't until May 2018, alongside Realme's debut as an independent brand, that the first Realme-branded mobile phone was launched as Realme 1.

Realme 1 was launched in India on May 16, 2018 and became the top selling smartphone on Amazon India.

A month later, Realme officially announced its presence in the European market by launching the first smartphone with a 64 MP camera. In the same year, Realme officially hit 20 countries, including Europe, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and China.

Even in the second quarter of 2019, Realme shipped 4.7 million smartphone units globally. With this achievement, Realme is included in the list of top 10 smartphone brands in the world.

Summary from the Counterpoint website, Thursday (3/17/2022), Realme achieved its highest performance ever, shipping 16.2 million smartphone units in the third quarter of 2021.

However, this number is still far from other old players such as Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo, which are capable of sending over 30 million units every quarter.

Realme in Indonesia

In Indonesia, Realme debuted on October 9, 2018, launching Realm 2, Realm 2 Pro, and Realm C1. Since then, Realme has been aggressively introducing new smartphones, starting from the Realme 3 series, smartphones with pop-up cameras from Realme X, Realme XT to Realme X2 Pro.

Even though it debuted with cheap or entry-level smartphones, Realme continues to expand its product range by introducing mid-range and flagship smartphones. For example, the Realme GT series, which replaced the Realme X line as the company's flagship phone. There is also the Narzo series which focuses on being a mobile phone capable of supporting gaming activities.

Regarding the business strategy, Realme is implementing a 1+4+N strategy in 2020. This strategy includes three foundations, namely 1 Core, 4 Smart Hub and N AIoT Products.

Essentially, the company is not only releasing smartphones but also other products to complement the Realme ecosystem, such as TWS headphones, smartwatches, and others.

Therefore, Realme has launched Realme Buds as the company's TWS headphones for smart TVs in 2020 in Indonesia, as compiled by KompasTekno from Realme Indonesia website.

The strategy was later changed in 2021 to 1+5+T, which refers to 1=smartphone, 5=True Wireless Stereo (TWS) headphones, wearable devices, Smart TVs, tablets and laptops, while T=Techlife ( Realme AIoT product). The company made this strategy a reality by launching the Realme Book laptop in late 2021 in Indonesia.

According to IDC research, Realme ranks fifth on the list of top five smartphone brands in Indonesia. Its market share reaches 10%, lower than that of Samsung, Xiaomi and others.

Nevertheless, it seems that Realme still has the ambition to continue to exist as the top five smartphone vendors in Indonesia by producing many cellphones of different segments from entry-level to flagship at affordable prices.