Realme eyes Gen Z with push for high-quality phones

Chinese smartphone vendor Realme is pouring in resources to hone its prowess in design and smartphone performance, as it steps up the push to develop high-quality products.

Xu Qi, vice-president of Realme, said as the world's fastest-growing major smartphone brand, the company is dedicated to bringing consumers quality products.

Some people only noticed Realme's competitive prices, but ignored the company's advantages in design and smartphone performance, Xu said.

The comments came after Realme unveiled its latest handsets Realme GT Master Explorer Edition and Realme GT Master Edition in China on Wednesday. The phones have been designed in collaboration with celebrated Japanese industrial designer Naoto Fukasawa.

The design inspiration for the two new devices comes from suitcases with ridged patterns complete with soft-touch leather, Realme said.

According to Xu, the company has seen rapid growth in the Chinese market. During the June 18 online shopping festival, Realme sold over 1 million smartphones.

From January to March, Realme's sales in China increased by 82 percent quarter-on-quarter and 451 percent year-on-year, making it the seventh biggest smartphone brand in the country, according to Counterpoint.

Yang Wang, senior analyst at Counterpoint, said Realme grew at the fastest clip among major brands. Its distinctive yet effective marketing strategy appealed to Generation Z audiences, who tend to look for premium features that support a digital lifestyle driven by social media, photography and gaming.

Launched in 2018, Realme is a fast-growing smartphone brand and it chiefly relies on its popularity in e-commerce sales channels and its resonance with young consumers.

Xu said the company's supply chain resources and its light-asset management model enable Realme to offer consumers high-quality products at competitive prices. But price alone is not what really attracts consumers to embrace Realme's products. The key point is the company's product design and smartphone performance.

Shipments of 5G phones in China surged 100.9 percent year-on-year to 128 million units in the first half of this year, data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology showed.

The volume accounted for 73.4 percent of the country's total mobile phone shipments during the period, said the CAICT, a research institute under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.