From this point onwards, 5G will become a staple for every upcoming smartphone in the high-end and upper-midrange market. As a matter of fact, there are 5G devices that are available on the lower-midrange market as well, so it will not be surprising to see 5G devices in the budget category surface as well. Realme initially had plans to enter into the budget 5G smartphone category, however, we will not be seeing an affordable 5G device from the brand this year at least.
It will be difficult to launch a 5G device under Rs.10,000:
Madhav Sheth, VP of realme’s global operations and CEO of the Indian unit of the brand has said that it will be hard for the company to launch a 5G-enabled device in the region that is priced under 10,000 INR. He went on to add that the company is trying to lower the price tag of a 5G device without having to cut down on any sort of specifications or performance of the device.
This will not be easy to do and is probably the reason why it will take longer for a 5G budget device for us to see from the brand. As of now, there is no timeline for Realme’s first affordable 5G smartphone. In a statement to Economic Times, Sheth said, “We have to make more affordable 5G devices. We want to be a prominent hardware provider for the government’s digitalization vision with 5G. There are no new 4G chips in the making, so if you need any good performance phone, we have to bring in 5G chips. For brands, the biggest challenge is not to compromise on other specs by making 5G more affordable.”
In addition to this, the CEO also believes that though entering the sub-10,000 INR market with a 5G model in 2022 is difficult, it could be possible next year since Realme has “already started seeing the democratization of 5G technology.”
5G technology should not be used as a marketing tool to push your device according to Sheth, when asked about the supply chain issues, the CEO claims the situation is much better than before as the gap between demand and supply is reducing.
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