Realme has steadily been expanding its ecosystem in India that will allow the brand to take on Xiaomi more strategically. Last year, India CEO Madhav Sheth teased the first fitness band that will join the Realme family. On the latest AskMadhav episode on YouTube, Sheth finally confirmed that the company’s first fitness band will be released in February. Without sharing any specifics about the device, Sheth revealed a tentative timeline for the anticipated Realme fitness band. He also made some revelations about the introduction of advertisements on Realme phones, the India launch of Realme X50 5G, and the rollout of Wi-Fi calling on Realme phones.
The most important take-away from the session is the launch timeline for the Realme fitness band. For now, it is not known what the band will be called and what its specifications are going to be. But it can be safely assumed that the fitness band will be positioned in the lower price bracket to put up a fight with the Mi Band 4 and Honor Band 5. At the launch event of Realme 5i, a rough look of the band displayed on the stage suggested a design similar to that of Xiaomi’s Mi Band 4. Previously, a listing was also spotted on the Bluetooth certification website, hinting at an imminent launch of a fitness band from Realme. Realme could also launch a dedicated health app for seamless connectivity between the fitness band and the paired phone – much like Huawei, Honor, and Xiaomi.
Coming to the hot topic among the Realme fans (and Mi fans who are taking potshots at Realme), the company is set to introduce advertisements to the ecosystem of its smartphones something that Xiaomi has been doing since the beginning. Realme’s Sheth said that it is important that Realme is able to run a sustainable business model to compete with other top players in the industry to provide the most competitive product. The advertisements will open a new revenue stream for the company, but they, as Sheth points out, will not compromise the user experience. For those who do want to opt-in can disable the advertisements entirely. Interestingly, Realme has never missed a chance to take a jab at Xiaomi for its advertisement-loaded ecosystem called MIUI.
Sheth also shared a schedule for when the Realme smartphones will receive the Wi-Fi calling feature, which is currently offered by Airtel and Reliance Jio in India. Starting with Realme X2 Pro in January, the company will begin the rollout of the feature that will span Q3.
The list of smartphones along with the tentative timeline for the rollout of the Wi-Fi calling feature is:
- Realme X2 Pro January
- Realme X2 February
- Realme XT February
- Realme X February
- Realme 5 Pro February
- Realme 3 Pro February
- Realme 5/ Realme 5i/ Realme 5s February
- Realme 3/ Realme 3i March
- Realme 2 Pro March
- Realme U1 March
- Realme 1 March
- Realme 2/ Realme C1 March
- Realme C2 March
[“source=indiatoday”]
