Speaking on the sidelines of the Realme X50 launch event in China this week. The company's Chief Marketing Officer Xu Qi Chase hinted that the mobile phone brand could follow in the footsteps of Xiaomi and OnePlus to expand in the rapidly expanding smart TV sector.
According to a Chinese tech blog, Chase hinted that the brand's first smart TVs Realme they could launch sometime this year 2020, though, at this point, there doesn't seem to be a more definitive timeline for that.
Realme TV could launch in 2020, according to company executive
It's worth noting here that Realme was rumored to launch its first smart TV late last year 2019. But for unknown reasons, those plans never materialized.
Now that the company's high-level executives are publicly hinting at a possible launch, it will be interesting to see how much work needs to be done before the first Realme TV is ready for prime time.
While it is not known how Realme will position its TVs in the market, it will be somewhat surprising if they cost much more than Xiaomi's Mi TV devices.
The BBK-owned brand is increasingly becoming Xiaomi's biggest headache in Asia, with an uncanny penchant for jumping headlong into most product categories the latter dominates.
While Realme has already established itself as the fourth leading smartphone vendor in India in just a year and a half since its inception, it is also pursuing Xiaomi's leading position in the entry-level smartband segment, by launching its own physical training band before.
If it can price its TVs as sensibly as Xiaomi, it could offer the latter its only real competition in the budget smart TV segment in Asia and beyond.