Chinese smartphone brand realme is celebrating a significant milestone: 50 million users of its devices.
3 years since its founding, after a stint in the shadows as an offshoot of Oppo, realme has weathered the storm to, well, take the market by storm.
Its smartphone business has fared well with its devices garnering a respectable 69% score in the latest software/security updates rankings released by Hong Kong-based research firm Counterpoint Research, coming fifth after leaders HMD Global/Nokia and OnePlus, Samsung and Xiaomi, in that order.
Numbers from the same firm show that it had the highest growth quarter-over-quarter (at 132%, the only triple-figure on the chart) among all smartphone brands in the world in the just-ended third quarter of the year, amidst a global pandemic. Year-over-year, only Xiaomi, which dethroned Apple to become the third-largest smartphone brand in Q3 2020, beat realme. By just 1 percentage point.
According to Counterpoint, realme shipped nearly 15 million smartphones in Q3 2020 to register 4% market share, a growth of 45% year-over-year.
Even though it is widely known for its smartphones, realme has diversified its portfolio to include accessories such as smartwatches and earbuds while also dabbling in home entertainment devices like television sets in markets like India.
In a commemorative post on its forums, realme is boasting of being among the top 5 brands in at least 13 countries.
realme started selling its devices in Kenya 3 months ago with the country being one of 60 other markets where realme spread its tentacles to.
The brand currently offers the realme C3, realme C11, realme C15 and realme 6 smartphones. It also offers the realme Buds Air Neo and realme Buds Q true wireless earbuds. While the aforementioned smartwatches are yet to make their way to Kenya, the smart band, realme Band, is available locally.
Soon, the brand is set to unveil one if its latest devices, the realme 7i, in Kenya.
