Realme Says Xiaomi Is 'Insecure' About Its Growth In India

Realme and Xiaomi are currently in a tense competition in the fast-growing Indian smartphone market. Oppo’s sub-brand Realme began operations in the country last year and has become an independent entity. Essentially, the brand followed Xiaomi’s footstep by releasing competitive devices with an affordable price tag. With this strategy, Realme has me itself the fourth biggest smartphone player in India in just half a year, and it’s eying on the top three for the next quarter.

While the pair are competing to lead the Indian mid-range smartphone segment, their CEOs are fighting each other in a battle of words. Madhav Sheth, Realme India CEO, said while interviewed by ET that the current top smartphone player in India Xiaomi feels insecure about his company’s success in the market. The statement surfaced after Xiaomi India’s Managing Director Manu Kumar Jain tweeted that the Redmi Note 7 is better than Realme's 3 Pro. “Someone is afraid,” responding Sheth in another tweet.

In particular, Sheth pointed out the Redmi Note 7 Pro featured Qualcomm Snapdragon 675 chip, which is newer than the Snapdragon 710 used by the Realme 3 Pro. Talking to ET, Sheth said that instead of commenting on Xiaomi’s devices, they only talked about the company’s “desperation and insecurities.” Sheth added that the company keeps emphasizing that the 6-series SoC is better than the 7-series ones instead of improving user experience.

The competition between Realme phones and Xiaomi phones is turning into an ugly battle of words between the two executives. Realme is gaining big success in India, and it became the first brand to sell 6 million phones since it entered the market last May. On the other hand, Xiaomi while growing in the Indian market, is experiencing a sales slowdown in China.

About the matter, CMR Head of industry intelligence group Prabhu Ram said:

Xiaomi, currently the top player in terms of online smartphone retail segment, is working to expand its mobile sales to offline channels. At the same time, Realme is looking at the offline market. Both companies are planning to expand their offline retail stores as well as third-party channels. And in the coming time, the battle between the two Indian tech firms will sure get a lot uglier.