Realme to manufacture laptops and tablets in India by 2023

“We have invested Rs 26.7 crore just to make one product with KHY and will continue to invest further as we bring more products to India. We will be bringing 6-8 products in the category before the 2022 end. All will be made locally and that will decide how much incremental investment is required,” Realme India CEO Madhav Sheth told ET.

Realme to begin local manufacturing

Realme is looking to expand its local manufacturing and is planning on teaming up with three potential partners as well. Sheth said that investment and future plans to develop the manufacturing ecosystem will create over 1000 jobs. Currently, OPPO, Wingtech Mobiles, and DBG Technology manufacture smartphones for Realme, while Bhagwati and Videotex handle smart TVs for the brand.

“Our target is to locally produce 300,000 units of audio products by the year-end. Our partner has a 3.5 million total capacity across product categories. The company is seeing significant growth in the segment, driven by affordability. For TWS, consumers are looking to move from wired products and the affordability is helping them choose these products. They are moving to higher lifestyle products. Affordability is the key driver here,” Madhav Sheth noted.

As for smartwatches, he said the consumers are looking at a second screen on top of their health/fitness requirements, which is driving the growth in the segment. “The journey has started for audio and wearables in India. We want to bring manufacturing to India. We will expand the ecosystem and are evaluating talks with more [partners] for audio and wearables,” Sheth added.

Talking about 5G, the executive said the 5G auction announcement is a “positive” sign for the handset ecosystem and will allow the brands to bring more affordable 5G phones to the market. “We have brought affordable phones and will continue to democratise 5G. 50% of our handset portfolio will be 5G-enabled. In the above Rs 15,000 price segment, 90 percent of the portfolio will be 5G,” Sheth said.

The top executive further added that Realme will now focus on bringing more 5G phones in the Rs 10,000-Rs 15,000 price segment to drive users into 5G. “We will give more options for people to choose a 5G phone instead of a 4G phone with the best specification possible,” noted Sheth.