Why Realme is offering the Buds Air at a ‘disruptive price’ of Rs 3999

“People are not getting better choices at a lower price point,” Sheth told indianexpress.com. With the Buds Air, we are trying to massify technology. I believe the technology should always massify and it should not be limited to certain classes,” he said.

The fact that Realme is charging Rs 3999 for a pair of truly wireless earbuds says a lot about the brand’s strategy. But that pricing is a clear indication that Realme is acknowledging that average users are not willing to spend Rs 15,000 on a pair of truly wireless earbuds. With the Buds Air, Realme is looking to expand its base, offering lower-cost wireless earbuds for the lower end of the market.

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And while the price of the Buds Air made headlines, many have also noticed that Realme’s wireless earbuds do have a striking resemblance to Apple’s AirPods. While Sheth did not directly respond to the question on the Buds Air uncanny resemblance to AirPods, he did mention that there are a lot of design limitations of what we can achieve.

“I would like to say that in a one-inch device there’s very little scope for a brand to do a lot of gimmicks owing to size of earbuds,” he said, adding that “the most important thing more than the design is how it can hold in my ear…because one bud has to fit all the size so that was our focus with the Buds Air. And it should balance while you are sweating it out, or you are doing all the work on your day to day life.”

With the Buds Air, Realme is trying to massify technology. (Image: Anuj Bhatia)

“Realme buds might not directly compete with Apple but there is a lot of scope for such devices to penetrate the entry-level segment,” said Jaipal Singh, an analyst with IDC, in an email. “We still have many recognised brands competing in the Rs10K and above segment. However, the entry-level segment ( Sub Rs 5K) still needs more brands to offer these new devices to target the mass market.”

But despite costing Rs 3999, the Buds Air wireless earbuds do seem to have respectable features. The truly wireless earbuds, like many pricier rivals, come with Bluetooth 5.0, dual mic for calling, the new R1 chipset, and of course a wireless charging case. The Buds also come in three colours black, yellow and white.

With the Buds Air, Realme joins the club of brands that are increasingly emphasising on getting bigger in the market for truly wireless earbuds. It all started with Apple AirPods, originally launched two years ago and followed up by AirPods 2 in March 2019 and AirPods Pro in October 2019. AirPods start at Rs 14,900.

By now, it’s obvious that companies like Realme and Samsung have clearly noticed the growing popularity of AirPods and that prompted them to have their own versions with identical designs and features.

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Singh agrees that there has been significant growth in the audio segment moving wireless in the last few quarters. However, a large segment in the earbuds category is wired and fragmented. The entry of Realme into the truly wireless earbuds will bring some competition in the lower price segment, where the market is flooded with unfamiliar brands. The point to remember here is that Realme has traditionally offered devices at lower prices, allowing customers the latest technology for less than what the competition charges for a device with similar specs and features.

Analyst like Jaipal expects other Chinese smartphone makers will bring their own Buds Air alternatives in the coming months. The interest in the wireless buds market is also huge because device manufacturers want to create their own mobile ecosystem, identical to Apple’s ecosystem which comprises of the iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad and Mac.

Looking forward to 2020, Sheth indicated that Realme plans another pair of wireless earbuds that could have active noise cancellation, similar to AirPods Pro. They will be out sometime in the first half of 2020.