Realme breaks the world record for time taken to sell 50 million phones: new report

The latest smartphone market analysis has shown that it has bounced back somewhat in 3Q2020 compared to the preceding quarter, providing some changes in its landscape including Xiaomi as the new #3 brand worldwide instead of Apple. However, Realme also apparently did very well out of these last few months.

Despite coming in at #7 among individual OEMs in Counterpoint Research's 3Q2020 report, this company has attained some important degrees of success for the period studied. For example, it posted a 132% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) growth, as well as 45% year-on-year (YoY). However, the metric it may be most proud of is a new title: the brand that has sold 50 million smartphones in the shortest space of time.

The latest data shows that the brand shipped 14.8 million of them in 3Q2020, which has help push it to its new milestone in the same quarter. It also means that Realme is recorded as taking only 9 quarter-years to get there, whereas it took Samsung (the former record-holder) 10 quarters, whereas Xiaomi and Vivo took 12, Apple 13 and Huawei 14.

Realme (and Counterpoint) attributed this achievement to the "youths and young professionals, who form the bulk of its fans and customers". These consumers are likely to be located in South-east Asian nations such as the Phillppines, Indonesia and India, where the OEM holds #3 to #5 positions in their respective smartphone markets.

The brand may also have managed to alleviate pandemic-induced slumps through measures such as offering certain premium specs in otherwise cost-effective devices, as well as "its ability to offer smooth digital shopping and after-sales services in different countries", according to Counterpoint.