Barcelona, Gizmologi – At MWC 2022, we met realme executive Madhav Sheth. This year, for the first time realme, is participating in the world’s largest technology exhibition, Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2022.
realme is indeed a new smartphone brand, but with very fast growth. Gizmologi had the opportunity to follow realme’s steps in introducing its latest innovations this year at the event.
At the MWC 2022 event, realme not only introduced the latest flash smartphones but also innovations in the realm of increasingly fierce charging. One of them, the smartphone manufacturer from China relies on 150 watts of super fast charging.
After MWC 2022, what are the next targets that realme wants to achieve? We had the opportunity to have a live chat with the head of realme, Madhav Sheth. The man from Mumbai who was born in April 1980 has two positions at once: Vice President of realme and President of realme International.
Q&A Session with Madhav Sheth
The following is an excerpt from our interview with the President of realme International Business Group, Madhav Sheth when we met in Barcelona after announcing the presence of the realme GT2.
What are the realme heroes at the MWC 2022 event?
We have introduced the realme GT2 here. You could say, this is our ambitious project because with this we are indirectly entering the realm of flagship smartphones, jumping from entry-level to high-end smartphones, where this market is only enlivened by Samsung and Apple.
This means that the products we offer will be more diverse, from entry-level to flagship. There are many options for the community.
(read: MWC 2022, realme will announce world’s fastest charging technology)
In addition, we are also starting to commit to helping the environment, more often using materials that can be recycled or biodegradable. We want to make sure that we also contribute to reducing carbon emissions in the world. By having this smartphone, everyone also contributes.
Our target until 2025 can be achieved double zero (zero carbon emission and zero waste). So going forward, there will be many initiatives that will come from realme. We strive to make mobile phones environmentally friendly and not quickly thrown away and become garbage. The trick is to make the phone more durable to use, not just a year or two.
The way to extend the productive life of a cell phone is to offer long operating system updates. realme is one of the most frequently updated mobile phones. Basically, our relationship with mobile devices will start when we use them for 18 months to 24 months.
But what is clear is that we do not consider security updates or operating system software on smartphones as marketing tools. We just want to make sure users get what we promised. We want everyone to be able to use realme continuously. That’s why we also promise two updates, namely the security patch within three years and of course Google Update.
We also started using the best components in smartphones, such as the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip, of which realme was one of the first brands to use. There is also a TPO 2.0 display technology that has the potential to be the best in the future. Not to forget the best charging technology.
Want to compete with Samsung and Apple, what strategy will be used?
Since the emergence of realme for the first time, we have always implemented a productive strategy, distinguishing between the factors that exist in realme or the disruption factors that we apply to our products. So our strategy is very simple, will provide something very unique and different in each product that we provide to the community, of course with a special price.
What about flagship phones, has there been any contribution from flagship phones to realme’s revenue?
We’re just getting started so it’s too early to talk about revenue contribution. But what is clear is that we have ambitions to sell around 8 to 10 million units of the GT series this year. That’s a contribution of about 15 percent of the total volume of realme units that we are targeting.
Our next flagship is realme GT Neo3 which will launch in Q2 this year. Here we will embed the latest charging technology. We believe that people will be able to accept this product because, in our opinion, people will be able to accept new things if it is in accordance with what they want.
What is the fair price for this segment? Good service, constant updates, and high-end features. Can we provide all of that? What we can be certain of is. There’s a reason I believe this device is a must-have because everyone will get a chance to try it through the Experience Zone.
After realme 9 Pro and GT2, what’s next?
We will present many smartphones in all segments, from entry-level to mid-range and flagship. realme 9 is a mid-range and high-end GT class. So for new products, we will update the line again in the next 8 to 12 months. Including the Narzo and AIOT series.
At AIOT, we have the 1+5+T format. 1 is a smartphone, while 5 is a laptop, television, tablet, and others. This means that at the launch of the smartphone there will be 5 additional AIOT devices that we will launch together.
A little leak about realme’s new tablet and laptop?
We have prepared a tablet for the entry-level, maybe 8 inches. There are also 5G tablets. We’ve launched 11 and 12-inch tablets, so later there will be a new 8-inch variant and also a tablet that can operate on the 5G network.
While the new line of laptops, realme Book, we are still trying to dig deeper. Finding out what consumers want because different people have different needs.
Realme’s target position in 2022?
In the area, we operate there are a total of 30 to 60 countries. Around 16 of our market regions are already in the top five of the smartphone industry in the region. We will make sure our position will stay in that position or at least move up to the 4th position.
But the point is not the number because the number is just the output. What we want to achieve is to build a market. Users are happy with our products and appreciate the quality of our smartphones. We want people to believe in this product. So basically, we want to stay in the top 5 but also want to build a big happy community.
There’s a lot of talk about the Metaverse right now, is realme going that way too?
We could have made a VR device or something like that because basically metaverse needs the support of the whole ecosystem. We will contribute to whatever ecosystem is relevant to our community. But for now, it seems not. Because we have to first see what our community wants and needs.
realme doesn’t want to just make products but must be based on research and development. It must also be ensured that this ecosystem will work together because we are only a hardware provider, we need a complete development package starting from hardware, software, and community.
In essence, we are not currently in the development of anything related to metaverse technology, but if our users need it, we will definitely provide it right away.
“I might be coming very soon to Indonesia” – @MadhavSheth1 himself. See ya @ @realmeindonesia’s next event! #MWC2022 pic.twitter.com/SG4BWe3kL3
— Pras (@prasetyoh) February 28, 2022
The Indonesian version of this article can be read in Gizmologi.ID
