Realme splits from Oppo to become separate brand

Sky Li, former senior executive of Oppo and head of Oppo India will be heading the new separate Realme. The two companies had launched Realme 1 smartphone in India earlier this May.

Oppo Realme 1 features a 6-inch full HD+ display with 18:9 aspect ratio. (HT Photo)

Realme, a sub-brand of Chinese handset maker Oppo, has announced it is separating to become a distinct entity and will be headed by Sky Li, former senior executive of Oppo and head of Oppo India.

The Realme brand would focus on providing mobile phones in future that offer strong performance and stylish designs to young people at affordable prices, the company said in a statement on Tuesday.

"Young people across the globe may have different cellphone habits and aesthetic views but their demands are similar in terms of performance and design," said Li, who has now joined Realme as its global CEO.

"With few options available in the market to meet the ever-changing customer demand, Realme is focusing on bridging the gap by providing products with the latest innovations along with strong performance and stylish designs. As Realme is targeting global market, we aspire to inject fresh momentum into the global smartphone industry," he said.

Li had originally made the announcement of breaking away from Oppo and founding the brand Realme on Chinese microblogging website named Weibo. Notably, this is the second instance when an executive from the smartphone company has left the core business unit to start a new brand. Earlier, Pete Lau left Oppo and started OnePlus.

Oppo-Realme launched its first smartphone, Realme 1 earlier this May. Oppo Realme 1 starts at ₹8,990 for the base variant featuring 3GB of RAM and 32GB onboard storage. The company also offers a 6GB RAM plus 128GB storage model for ₹13,990. The smartphone offers a 6-inch full HD+ 18:9 display, a Helio P20 SoC, and a 3,140mAh battery.

"Realme 1 witnessed sales of four lakh units in 40 days and quickly grasped 1.4 % market share with only one month's sales in the second quarter of 2018," the company said quoting Counterpoint Research.