The rapid development and explosion of generative AI have brought about a disruptive revolution across various industries. Data shows a narrowing decline in the global smartphone market in 2023, with a rebound anticipated this year. This revival is primarily driven by integrating large AI models with smartphones, expected to catalyze a new cycle of device upgrades.
Precisely capturing the pulse of the era, one of the world’s top smartphone brands, realme has actively embraced AI technology. This company will launch its latest product in the GT series in Europe, the GT 6, positioned as the new “Flagship Killer Powered by AI.”This device not only leverages cutting-edge AI technology but also sets a new benchmark for smartphones in terms of chipset, display, and camera features. The launch of the GT 6 also marks realme’s GT series’ robust return to the international market after a two-year hiatus.
The “Flagship Killer” is Back
For realme, the GT series has always been synonymous with mid-to-high-end excellence. Back in March 2021, realme launched its inaugural GT product, introducing the GT mode, which instantly sparked a frenzy,achieving a milestone of one million sales within just four months. Among tech forums and geek communities worldwide, the GT series was heralded as the “Flagship Killer” and one of the most anticipated smartphone series. However, despite the smartphone’s outstanding reputation, realme’s influence in various markets in its early years needed to be more robust to support a flagship series. For longer-term development and greater focus, realme devoted more energy to the “Numberseries” overseas. Surprisingly, however, users on realme’sofficial forums inquired almost daily when the GT series would make a comeback.
“We saw a global call from our realme users for the return of the GT series, and we could not let this expectation go unmet. This year, we felt it was time. With several years of growth behind us, we now have the confidence to bring our AI smartphones to more young people as soon as possible.” Sky Li, founder and CEO of realme, shared with Forbes. “realme aims to make AI technology accessible to everyone,” he added, underscoring the driving force behind the launch of the new GT 6 product.
Sky Li, who once served as the head of OPPO’s overseas business department and led its strong overseas expansion, laid a solid foundation for OPPO to remain at the top of the global smartphone industry. Leveraging his extensive experience in overseas markets and his deep insights into the preferences of young consumers worldwide, Sky Li founded realme in 2018. He precisely identified the pain points of young people globally, rapidly expanded into international markets, and achieved remarkable brand elevation. In just three years, he propelled realme into the top five in 30 global markets, making it the world’s fastest-growing smartphone brand.
The launch of the GT 6 once again reflects Sky Li’s keen market insight, seizing the AI opportunity. GT 6 stands out in the smartphone market by seamlessly integrating advanced AI functionalities with top-tier hardware.Together, these features position the GT 6 not only as a leader in AI innovation but also as a benchmark for future smartphone technologies, making it a true “New Flagship Killer” in the AI era.
Becoming an AI pioneer in the industry
From a market opportunity perspective, this year heralds a breakout for AI smartphones, with realme believing that AI will bring disruptive innovation to the mobile phone industry. The smartphone market remains a fiercely competitive red ocean. AI is poised to become the next game changer and a critical battleground, sparking a new wave of market explosion and reshuffling the industry landscape.
“The competition in the industry will shift from hardware alone to a combination of hardware, software, and overall technological capability. AI is becoming the next hotly contested spot,” says Sky Li, sharing his perspective, “Among these, AI imaging (a tool for entertainment and social interaction), voice (enhancing efficiency in work, learning, and information processing), and interaction (improving work efficiency and everyday convenience) will be the three major trends in the future development of AI.”
realme is seizing the opportunity to strategically align its AI development with catering to the needs of young consumers, focusing on critical areas that resonate with this demographic. This company actively deploys AI technologies across its entire product lineup, progressively enhancing the AI capabilities of its GT series, Number series, and C series. This strategy aims to extend AI features beyond flagship models, making advanced AI smartphones accessible to more young consumers.
realme is leading the charge by not only integrating AI functionalities, focusing on three key areas: imaging, efficiency, and personalization, but also innovatively enhancing the user interface to make AI features more accessible and comfortable for young consumers. By combining situational applications with algorithms and emphasizing interaction through UI optimizations, realme aims to put the user in charge, allowing for the rapid adoption of AI features. For instance, in imaging, realme has optimized AI calculations for extreme usage conditions, making AI-powered photography more accessible to a broader clientele. “Our goal is to really integrate AI into everyone’s daily life,” states Sky Li confidently. Besides, the company has established the Next AI Lab and unveiled the “AI+UI Popularizer Plan,” and launched its Next AI technology IP, recruiting AI experts globally and integrating advanced technologies from partners like Google, Qualcomm, and Microsoft to quickly bring to market exceptional AI-driven functionalities and innovative UI features. Following Samsung, realme became the second global smartphone brand to pursue a comprehensive AI strategy.
With the AI era’s dawning, consumer enthusiasm for new technologies will only grow. This critical time will test companies’ decision-making, R&D, and product-planning capabilities. The ability to transform technological capabilities swiftly and precisely into user-oriented features and features that directly address user pain points will command greater influence in the industry. realme aims to hold such influence and captivate more users with quality products in the AI era, cutting through the competitive “red ocean” market.
Capturing Young Consumers and Beyond TheirExpectations
Recalling his time leading the overseas business at OPPO, Sky Li shared a memorable story. “Once, on a business trip to India, I noticed that the local youth were fond of online shopping. At that time, the competition in smartphone specifications was already fierce, yet devices with good specs had unattractive designs, and those with both were exorbitantly priced. Young people could not find a phone that offered both performance and design at a reasonable price, so I decided to see if we could create such a product to satisfy young users.” Thus, realme was born.
Since establishing the brand, the word “young” has been tightly woven into realme’s identity. realme has consistently focused on young people, becoming a tech brand that truly understands them and bringing products with robust performance and exceptional design to young people worldwide. By focusing on the real needs of young people, the company has built a youthful team with an average age of under 30 to discern user needs in a timely and accurate manner. These commitments have propelled this young brand to achieve impressive global success in less than six years of its founding—by the end of 2023, it had already sold over 200 million smartphones worldwide.
With 2023 marking the fifth anniversary of the brand’s establishment, realme launched the “Leap-Forward Climbing Plan,” adhering to a principle of transcending boundaries with the motto “No Leap, No Launch” as its golden rule for product development. The company focuses on “imaging, performance, and industrial design” to drive technological innovations that provide young people with products with strong performance and exceptional design.
At the beginning of this year, Sky Li led the company through a new brand upgrade, repositioning its three main product lines: the GT series as the “Next-level Performance Flagship,” the Number series as the “Next-Gen Imaging,” and the C series as the “Essential Plus.” The mid-to-high-end range has always been a focus point of realme, especially with numerous standout products in the GT and Number series. The brand plans to continue expanding into new markets, aiming to cover more than 100 global markets over the next five years, to let young users around the world enjoy tech experiences that exceed expectations.”
“We’ve set higher standards for ourselves,” says Sky Li candidly, “In the future, we want realme to deliver not only great performance and design but also exceed expectations and turn the ‘impossible’ into ‘possible’.”
