Vodafone keen to work with us in Europe: Realme’s Madhav Sheth

New Delhi, Sep 4 (IANS) Realme India CEO Madhav Sheth who was elevated last week to spearhead the brand’s operations in the Europe region said on Friday that the company is currently looking for local distributors and partners and some key operators, like Vodafone, have already expressed interest in working with the brand.

Operators play a major role in driving smartphone shipments in many European markets.

“We are looking at setting up our operator business from Q1 of 2021,” Sheth, Vice President, Realme and Chief Executive Officer, Realme India and Europe, told IANS.

Realme has set its sight on emerging as the leading tech-lifestyle brand in the European market, and becoming one of the top five smartphones brands by the end of 2021.

In second quarter of this year, Samsung, Apple, Huawei, Xiaomi and OPPO were the top five brands in European smartphone market.

Sheth said Realme aims to build a comprehensive 5G product portfolio with products across price segments in next two to three years.

“Realme aims to sell 15-20 million smartphones in the calendar year 2021 and will be targeting the 200-250 euros price category,” he said, adding that the company will launch its entire portfolio of AIOT (Artificial Intelligence of Things) products – including smart wearables, audio accessories and smart TVs in the region.

“We will be having 100 per cent localised sales and marketing teams across our five key markets – Germany, UK, Poland, Czech Republic, Spain, France and Italy, by the end of 2021,” he said.

Realme on Friday held its ‘2020 Brand Conference’ at IFA 2020 in Berlin.

“It is a great challenge and also a new beginning for me to be responsible for both the Europe and India market. Realme is committed to building a ‘One Europe’ strategy. We will focus on Germany as our new European headquarter and aim to be among the top 5 in Europe in 2021,” Sheth said.

–IANS

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