The story behind the narzo-realme split-up

A few weeks ago, we sat down with local reps from realme Philippines and the topic of their journey from being a small-time challenger to getting the No. 1 spot in the Philippine smartphone market has been both an inspiration and envy of other brands. In that discussion, it was privately revealed to us the plans to position narzo as an independent brand from realme although we held on to the story until it became public and official.

For those not familiar, realme was once a sub-brand of OPPO. It targeted the entry-level market with sub-10k realme C-series phones.

They quickly gained recognition and following from Filipino gamers and first-time buyers.

In just a couple of years, they managed to gain significant market share. This year, they’ve held the top spot consistently.

Now comes narzo. It’s the sub-brand of realme that caters to the more budget-conscious market. Here are the reasons why I think (and this is just my personal opinion) realme found it necessary to make narzo an independent brand.

• realme no longer wants to be associated with low-end smartphones.
• narzo will focus on entry-level market with sub-Php10k smartphones while realme will focus on mid-range to flagship smartphones.
• It will be easier for realme to justify its new pricing structure for their phone series.

From a business standpoint, realme is already at the top spot and one of the best ways to gain more market share (collectively) is by introducing another player to compete and challenge the other brands for the 2nd to 5th spot, without sacrificing the equity of the primary brand.

In a way, realme wants narzo to gain the same success it achieved after its separation from OPPO. The outcome remains to be seen but if realme’s track record is an indicator/predictor, narzo might also gain some level of success in the next couple of years.