Realme started off its 2021 in India by launching the Realme X7 series that was powered by the MediaTek Dimensity series of processors. The company then introduced a Narzo 30 Pro a couple of days back which is powered by the same Processor as the Realme X7 that launched a few weeks back.
The point here is that Realme is cannibalizing its own products as it continues to launch new products which instantly provides almost the same (if not better) value as the product that was launched just a few weeks back.
Taking Narzo 30 Pro and Realme X7 as examples, we can see here that both the products are powered by the same processor but the Narzo 30 Pro comes with a 120Hz LCD display whereas the Realme X7 has a standard 60Hz AMOLED display. The Realme X7 has 50W Fast charging but a much smaller battery than Narzo 30 Pro which comes with a 5000mAh battery. But here, the charging speed gets slower at 30W.
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Now, the Realme X7 base variant with 6GB of RAM is priced at Rs 19,999 while the Narzo 30 Pro is also priced at Rs 19,999 but for the 8GB RAM variant while the base variant with 6GB of RAM is priced at Rs 16,999.
In this case, the Narzo 30 Pro cannibalized the Realme’s own X7 with a much lesser price but providing almost the same value as the Realme X7.
Taking another product as an example, are the Realme Buds Air 2 that launched alongside Narzo 30 Pro. Realme Buds Air 2 is the sequel to the original Buds Air introduced back in 2019. The new Buds Air 2 are offered at Rs 3,299 which is a much lesser price than what the Buds Air Pro Master Edition is offered at, and that is Rs 4,999.
Interestingly, the Buds Air Pro Master Edition was launched just last month but the Buds Air 2 are now offering a much better value at a lower price. Comparing both of them, Buds Air Pro comes with BT 5.0 whereas Buds Air 2 features BT 5.2.
Both of them have ANC, dual-mic noise cancellation for calls, 10nm bass boost driver, and both of them are claimed to offer 25 hours total playback time and 20 hours of playback time with ANC ON. Gaming Latency is lowered down to 88ms on Buds Air 2 compared to 94ms on Buds Air Pro Master Edition.
The Buds Air 2 have IPX5 ratings while its IPX4 in Buds Air Pro’s case. The Buds Air Pro Master Edition does have a slightly bigger battery but as we can see, the rest of the specifications are better on Buds Air 2, and they are priced less than Buds Air Pro, hence the former cannibalizes the latter.
Realme followed a similar product launch pattern last year when it introduced the Realme 7 and the Narzo 20 Pro. Those two devices had the exact same display and the processor and they were priced identical to each other.
This type of strategy might be beneficial for the brand as it now has more of its products in the market resulting in more sales but its not as beneficial for the consumer. A consumer wouldn’t want the brand to release a better smartphone than what he bought from the same brand, at a lesser price, and that too just within a gap of a couple of weeks.