2021 is still young and realme, the Chinese smartphone company has big plans for the year with their smartphones and accessories.
The company said that they are planning to have a “mobile phone + AIoT dual-drive strategy to create a trendy lifestyle for the younger generation.” This strategy involves selling smartphones as well as accessories like wireless earbuds that pair well with smartphones.
realme has previously stated that they have big plans for the Kenyan market in 2021. They are planning to release more smartphones in this market this year which follows their successful debut last year. In 2020, they released the C3, C11, C12, C15, 6 and 7i smartphones and we expect updates this year. These wireless earphones are roughly in the KES 5,000 price range which has become the median price in the wireless earbuds world.
In terms of accessories and specifically on wireless audio, realme introduced the Buds Q and the Buds Air Neo to the Kenyan market last year. The Buds Q have 10mm drivers with 20 hour battery life and feature IPX4 water and sweat resistance. The Buds Air Neo are slightly different with 13mm drivers, Bluetooth 5.0 and 17 hour battery life. According to Counterpoint research, realme had 2% of the wearable market which is mostly dominated by earwear and wristwear.
We will have to wait and see what realme is planning for this year. This is a combination of the smartphones they are planning to release as well as the accessories to boot.