Realme Climbs To Third Spot In Q4 2021 Sales in India

Last Updated on January 25, 2022 by Anu Joy

Ever since its inception in 2018, Realme has been giving stiff competition to another Chinese manufacturer, Xiaomi, in India. The Oppo sub-brand chose a strange strategy to adopt the Realme brand name, which rhymed with the Redmi brand of Xiaomi. It was a clear indication and an announcement about which brand would be the prime target of the Oppo sub-brand. Moreover, Madhav Sheth, CEO of Realme India, always emphasised the India-centric team behind the product development. This, along with the zest to provide smartphones to customers’ taste, has catapulted the brand to the number three position in Q4 of 2021. Suffice to say, it has taken its ‘Dare to Leap’ tagline rather seriously.

Going by Canalys’ report, Xiaomi still leads the chart with about 9.3 million shipments in Q4 2021. However, when you look at the YoY (Year over Year) analysis, it has lost 6 percent from Q4 2020 and stands at 21 percent market share in the quarter. South Korean giant Samsung enjoyed the ‘Anti-China’ sentiment during the COVID-19 pandemic, but couldn’t sustain it in 2021 as its market share declined by 2 percent and now stands at 19 percent with 8.5 million shipments in Q4 2021. However, Realme is the force to be reckoned with, as it posted a 5 percent rise in YoY and recorded a market share of 17 percent with 7.6 million shipments in Q4 2021. That’s a whopping 49 percent YoY increase in annual shipments and is the only brand registering growth when compared with Xiaomi and Samsung. 

It is the first instance that the Oppo sub-brand has entered the top three in India. If it continues the growth in Q1 2022, we could see it topple Samsung to the third position.  In fact, it could even take top honours by beating both the front-runners if it manages to sustain the growth in 2022. 

Realme’s record shipment total was made possible by innovations in planning and stock management which led to a good supply of mass-market smartphones such as Narzo 50A and C11.

Sanyam Chaurasia, analyst at Canalys

Smartphones Sales in 2021 in India

Looking at the 2021 total shipments, Xiaomi again leads the charts with 40.5 million shipments and a 25 percent market share. That’s a zero percent annual growth in shipments for the Chinese giant. Samsung holds firm in the second position with 30.1 million shipments, which is up from the 28.6 million from the previous year. That’s a decent 5 percent increase in shipments YoY and 19 percent market share in 2021. 

Here we see Realme, with a 15 percent market share, trailing behind its sister brand Vivo, which had a 16 percent market share in 2021. Realme has actually seen a rise in total shipments whereas Vivo has managed 4 percent lesser shipments than the previous year. 

Chaurasia states that India has recorded a total of 162 million smartphone shipments in 2021 despite the supply constraints due to the ongoing chip crisis. That’s a decent 12 percent yearly growth. The analyst also hopes that the 5G technology will be the key to accelerating smartphone sales even more in 2022.