Realme, the Chinese phone maker, is expanding to Thailand as part of its Southeast Asia market expansion plan.
Despite the economic slowdown and saturated smartphone market, competition in Thailand continues to simmer.
"We set up local operations here in the third quarter after our global operations were ready in May," Sirasorn Benjathikul, product marketing manager of Realme Thailand.
Realme sees an opportunity to sell more attractive designs with higher specifications to Thais at an affordable price.
"We want to offer features from the 20,000-baht price band at 10,000 baht to target teenager customers," he said.
The recent populist policy of giving free SIM cards to lower-income Thais is also promising for smartphones as Android-based smartphone users continue to purchase replacements every 12-18 months.
Mr Sirasorn said Realme will focus on smartphones priced 4,000-9,000 baht, at both online and offline channels.
"We are a global brand and we keep on expanding, starting from India, followed by the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand. We plan to sell in China soon," he said.
Founded by Sky Li, former vice-president of Oppo and head of its overseas business, Realme has already sold Realme 2 Pro through an exclusive partnership with True Corporation in Thailand, priced at 4,990 baht bundled with a one-year data package of 699 baht per month.
The company is launching Realme C1 that comes with a 6.2-inch display and 4230mAh battery at 7-Eleven stores, with a six-month warranty supported by 43 after-sales service points by its unnamed business partner.
"We are also preparing to launch a flash sale with Lazada on Dec 12," said Mr Sirasorn.
Narathip Wirunechatapant, chief marketing officer of Jaymart, a smartphone retailer, said the local smartphone market is shifting to higher average sales prices to drive overall value growth to the single digits. The market has contracted by single digits in terms of unit growth to around 15 million units during 2018-19.
Strong Chinese smartphone brands Huawei, Oppo and Vivo have shifted to higher-price bands to create trust in their brands, leaving the entry and mid-range markets to new Chinese buyers.
Consumers prefer to purchase new smartphones at a discount price, bundled with data packages, said Mr Narathip.
An industry source who requested anonymity said Advanced Info Service and True Corporation are starting to use aggressive price subsidy models to attract new subscribers.
True has an exclusive selection of models from Com7, while AIS has partnered with JayMart.