Realme is aggressively expanding its product portfolio in India and China. According to Realme CMO Xu Qi, the company will launch Realme TV later this year which will take on Xiaomi's Mi TV series in both the markets. After taking Xiaomi head-on in the smartphone space, Realme is targeting the brand in other segments as well. Realme already stated that it would launch various IoT devices, audio products, fitness trackers and so on this year. The brand will make an announcement regarding its fitness tracker later today in India at the Realme 5i launch event. The Realme TV will likely make its debut in China first before heading to the Indian market. The Realme CMO did not dive into more details regarding the Realme TV apart from confirming the 2020 launch timeline.
Realme TV Launching This Year: What to Expect?
Xiaomi has been launching Smart TVs in China for nearly three years now. The company entered the Indian TV market in early 2018 and it became the leading Smart TV brand in just eight months of launch. Thanks to the affordable pricing and user-friendly interface, Xiaomi managed to grab users attention. After Xiaomi, several smartphone brands like OnePlus, Motorola and Nokia entered the television market with various TVs running Android TV platform.
It has become a trend over the last couple of years that every Smart TV in India and other countries to ship with Android TV. For the unaware, Android TV is currently the most powerful television operating system with a lot of apps and games support. We expect the Realme TV launching later this year will also run Android TV out of the box.
Since Realme is a budget to premium brand, the company might launch various TVs with different specs. Xiaomi recently launched the Mi TV 5 series in China which offers some impressive features like QLED panel, latest hardware and affordable pricing. The Mi TV 5 Pro, in particular, features a Quantum Dot display and it can even play 8K video support.
Realme's Smart TV may also offer some premium features like QLED display, 8K video support, HDR 10+ support and so on.
Smart TV Market in India is Growing at a Rapid Pace
Xiaomi disrupted the Indian smartphone market back in 2014 and it became the leading brand in just three years of launching services. Similar to the smartphone market, Xiaomi entered the Television market in 2018. Xiaomi's first-gen TVs started at just Rs 12,999 for the 32-inch variant with HD display. What impressed a lot of users is the PatchWall UI which is a content aggregator platform. The second-gen Xiaomi Smart TVs came with Android TV out of the box.
Competing with Xiaomi, TV brands like TCL, Kodak, Vu and others started bringing affordable Smart TVs. Even tier-I brands like Samsung and LG came up with affordable Smart TVs to take on Xiaomi' Smart TVs. OnePlus launched two Smart TVs- the Q1 and the Q1 Pro late in 2019 at a starting price of Rs 69,990. All these TVs run on Android TV platform which has become a lot popular these days.
Right now, the Smart TV market in India is growing at a very rapid pace with Xiaomi leading the chart. Realme will be entering this segment later this year and there are some reports that Honor is also looking to bring its first Smart TV to India.
