The smartphone market in India is no longer just about who offers the best specifications online. With prices steadily rising across segments, brands are now being pushed to justify value in more tangible, real-world ways. realme appears to be recalibrating its strategy accordingly, with a sharper focus on offline retail, battery longevity, and experience-led selling.
In an interaction with MySmartPrice, Francis Wong, Chief Marketing Officer at realme India, outlined how the company is evolving its approach across pricing, retail, and product development.
Offline Retail Is Becoming a Decision Point, Not a Display Zone
realme's offline strategy is shifting from passive display to active demonstration. The company is investing more heavily in in-store visibility, retailer incentives, and promoter-led engagement, especially around its number series devices.
The idea is simple. Online discovery still drives awareness, but the final decision is increasingly being influenced in-store. realme is leaning into this by encouraging hands-on interactions, where elements like design, in-hand feel, and camera output can be experienced directly.
For devices like the realme 16 5G, this translates into feature-led demos in stores. Promoters are actively showcasing elements such as the rear selfie mirror, AI editing tools, and the large battery, features that are harder to communicate through spec sheets alone. The approach also extends to stronger POS visibility, ensuring that the product positioning is clear even before a conversation begins.
Rising Prices Are Forcing a Value Reset Across Segments
realme acknowledges that price inflation is now an industry-wide reality. Entry-level smartphones have seen increases of over 35 percent, while mid-range and flagship segments have also moved up significantly.
Instead of competing purely on pricing, the company is repositioning its value proposition. The focus is shifting toward what users get over time, not just at the point of purchase.
This is visible in how realme is packaging its offerings. Devices like the realme 16 5G combine large batteries, slimmer designs, and AI-led camera tools, but also extend into longer-term commitments such as 3+4 years of software support and multi-year battery health assurances. The messaging here is less about being the cheapest option and more about delivering sustained value.
Battery Innovation Is Moving Beyond Capacity
Battery has become one of the clearest areas of differentiation, but realme's approach is evolving beyond simply increasing capacity.
The company is now focusing on lifecycle performance. For instance, the realme 16 5G's 7000mAh battery is designed to support up to 1,600 charge cycles, backed by a six-year health commitment. In parallel, other products in the portfolio are pushing even further, with replacement guarantees tied to battery degradation thresholds.
Charging speed and thermal performance are also being positioned as part of the overall experience. realme claims the device can reach 50 percent charge in just over 30 minutes, while its cooling system is designed to maintain stability during extended gaming or high-load usage.
The shift here is important. Battery is no longer just about how long a phone lasts in a day, but how consistently it performs over years.
Premiumisation Without Losing the Core Audience
As pricing shifts upward, retaining younger consumers, especially in Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets, becomes more challenging. realme is not shying away from this reality.
Instead, the company is adjusting its product roadmap to ensure that even as devices move up in price, they continue to offer clear, differentiated features. This includes pushing higher-end camera systems into more accessible segments, experimenting with larger batteries in slimmer designs, and maintaining aggressive feature additions across price tiers.
At the same time, realme is strengthening its online and offline mix, recognising that accessibility is not just about price, but also about reach and availability.
Combining Experience-led Retail with Longer-term Product Commitments
The broader shift here is that the smartphone buying journey in India is becoming more layered. Discovery still begins online, but validation is increasingly happening offline. At the same time, rising prices are forcing brands to rethink how they define value.
realme's strategy reflects both shifts. By combining experience-led retail with longer-term product commitments, the company is trying to stay relevant in a market where users are becoming more cautious, more informed, and less driven by specs alone.
Whether this approach scales across segments will depend on execution, especially in offline retail. But the direction is clear. The next phase of competition is likely to be decided not just by what sits on a spec sheet, but by what users can see, feel, and trust before they buy.
