Realme, a smartphone brand from Oppo, is planning to set up an exclusive research and development centre in India.
The Chinese brand, which was first launched in India before making its appearance in China, has a few researchers working for it at the parent company’s R&D facility.
“Realme has a global R&D centre in China with 300 employees. But we will come out with an exclusive R&D centre to improve on the product based on local needs,” Madhav Sheth, chief executive officer of Realme India, said.
Research report from IDC shows that Realme has shipped 1.9 million smartphones in India, grabbing 6 percent share during the first quarter of 2019. Xiaomi, the smartphone market leader, has shipped 9.8 million units for 30.6 percent share.
Realme’s smartphone rank dropped to fifth position in Q1 2019. Realme has realized the importance of offline presence and started selling almost one out of three smartphones through retail stores.
Realme CEO said the company has sold seven million smartphones in the first 12 months ended May.
“We have shipped 8 million phones in the first year and there are 7 million active users. We have achieved a smartphone market share of 7 per cent in the first quarter this year,” Madhav Sheth said.
Realme said it is targeting a smartphone market share of 10-15 percent in the 150 million unit market in the country this year.
The smartphone manufacturing facility of Oppo at Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India has a production capacity of 60-80 million units annually.
Realme’s products are available in 8,000 outlets across the country. Realme earlier said it plans to expand its offline sales to 150 cities from 35, in 2019. The smartphone brand started its business with presence in 10 cities in January, with plans to add 50 every quarter.
Realme earlier announced the phone brand will have exclusive service centres in top 25 locations in the country by end of 2019. Realme will also extend these facilities to 350 Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities by making the services available at 400 service centres (ESC and multi branded service centres).