Smartphone brands, such as realme and iQOO have announced their 5G phones – Realme X50 Pro 5G and iQOO3 respectively, recently in India. Both smartphones are priced aggressively, and sport Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 865, and paired with an external Snapdragon X55 modem for 5G connectivity. 5G in India is still two to three years away from …
Samsung faces tough but ‘doable’ challenge to rise to top in India handset market
It’s been a tough few years for Samsung in the India handset market, where it has struggled to keep pace with or beat back competition from Chinese rivals such as Xiaomi, Vivo and Oppo. The first signs of vulnerability came when Samsung lost the smartphone crown to Xiaomi in the September quarter of 2017. In …
Poco to Retain Its ‘Everything You Need, Nothing You Don’t’ Philosophy in Bid to Take on Xiaomi
It was August 2018 when Xiaomi officially announced Poco as its new sub-brand to cater to the growing demands of young smartphone users. The Chinese brand unveiled the Poco F1 as its first — and only — model that disrupted the market for mid-range smartphones with the then top-end Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 SoC and up …
Xiaomi may lose top spot in Indian smartphone market in 2020
Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi is confident that it will be able to retain its No. 1 position in the Indian smartphone market next year too, but industry experts believe that the country may see a different winner in 2020. At the end of the first quarter of 2019, Xiaomi had a market share of 30.6%, …
Realme is taking on Xiaomi in India by aping Xiaomi’s India strategy
A small Chinese smartphone brand is using its bigger brother’s tricks to beat it on Indian turf. Realme, which began as an Oppo sub-brand in May 2018, was promptly spun off into a standalone entity. Between June and August 2019, the Shenzhen-based firm posted a phenomenal 600% year-over-year growth in India. In the quarter ended September 2019, …
Camera megapixels war: Picture perfect or just a gimmick?
In 2012, Nokia, which was at the top of the mobile industry, brought 808 PureView, a Symbian operating system (OS)-based smartphone with an insane 41MP camera that created quite a buzz. Since then, Android-based smartphones started gaining traction and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) began adding more camera megapixels to lure the crowd. Now Chinese smartphone …
Can Indian Mobile Brands turn over a new leaf?
A few years ago, the smartphone market in India had a different complexion from the one now, with the likes of Micromax, Lava, Intel and Karbonn enjoying a healthy market leadership with their affordable mobile phones. Xiaomi had just entered the market, and other Chinese mobile brands were exploring their own forays into India. Circa …
Realme X is an Inspired Value for Money Smartphone
The hypercompetitive smartphone market in India is replete with smartphones, across price bands, that offer very little to distinguish them, whether it be in terms of specifications or even colors (really, blue is the new black!). Well, not quite! Take, for instance, Realme, 2018’s breakout smartphone brand that has come up with the Realme X. …
How brands like Xiaomi, Samsung building ‘India-first’ portfolio to differentiate and grow business
Growth opportunities and scalability offered by the India smartphone market has started to appeal to the Chinese brands like Xiaomi, Infinix and Realme and Korea’s Samsung as the companies are increasingly taking an “India-first” approach to differentiate and grow business in the world’s fastest-growing smartphone market. These brands are also leveraging local research and development …
Battleground 2.0: Offline a tough nut to crack for online-heavy brands like Xiaomi, Realme?
Brick and mortar shops are becoming the next battleground for handset brands in the country as brands like Samsung, Oppo and Vivo takes steps to further bolster their footprints following the entry of online-heavy brands like Xiaomi and Realme. Analysts said that brand clutter on retail counters will increase following an intense competition. However, analysts …