Speaking on the sidelines of the Realme X50 launch event in China this week, the company’s Chief Marketing Officer, Xu Qi Chase, hinted that the mobile phone brand might follow in the footsteps of Xiaomi and OnePlus to expand into the fast-expanding smart TV sector. According to Chinese tech blog, IT Home, Chase hinted that the first Realme-branded smart TVs might be released sometime this year, although, there doesn’t seem to be a more definitive timeline for that at the moment.
It’s worth noting here that Realme was rumored to launch its first smart TV by the end of last year, but for reasons unknown, those plans never quite materialized. Now that high-level officials from the company are publicly hinting about a possible launch, it will be interesting to see how much work needs to be done before the first Realme TV is ready for prime-time.
While there’s no word on how Realme will position its TVs in the market, it will be somewhat of a surprise if they cost significantly more than the Mi TV devices from Xiaomi. The BBK-owned brand is increasingly becoming Xiaomi’s biggest headache in India with an uncanny penchant for jumping headlong into most product categories the latter dominates in India.
While Realme has already established itself as the fourth major smartphone vendor in India within just a year and a half of its inception, it is also going after Xiaomi’s leadership position in the entry-level smart band segment by launching its own fitness band sooner rather than later. If it can price its televisions as sensibly as Xiaomi, it might just offer the latter its only real competition in the budget smart TV segment in India and beyond.
