China’s Realme apologizes after armed robbery of smartphone shipment

Chinese smartphone maker Realme has apologized to consumers for possible delays to its latest handset because the devices were stolen during transport to Spain just weeks before the product’s launch.

A shipment of GT6 smartphones from Realme, which has a launch event in Italy scheduled for Thursday, was stolen on its way to Spain “for reasons beyond our control”, the company said in a statement published on Friday on its Spanish account on X, formerly Twitter. Spanish tech media outlet Zonamovilidad.es reported on Friday that the robbery occurred at the end of May, when the vehicle carrying the devices was stolen “at gunpoint.” The theft is causing delays in Spanish and Portuguese stores, according to the report.

“We were unable to get them back despite doing everything we can, so we will not be able to guarantee the in-store experience we would have liked during launch week,” the company said, adding that it “sincerely apologizes” for the situation .

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Neither the number of devices stolen nor their value were disclosed. Realme did not respond to a request for comment.

The incident is a blow to Shenzhen-based Realme, which left Oppo in 2019, while trying to compete in Europe, one of its main markets. Its market share in the region remained stable at 4% between 2022 and 2023, according to Counterpoint Research, but shipments in the first quarter increased 59% year-on-year, driven by growth in Western Europe and a strong recovery in some important markets. such as Italy and Spain.

The launch of the GT series devices in 2021 was intended to position the company to “compete in mature markets like Western Europe and China,” the company wrote in a Wall Street Journal promotional article that year.

Realme announced the GT6 as its latest “flagship killer”, a common nickname for Chinese brands that sell smartphones with high-end hardware at relatively affordable prices. The GT6 runs on Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, according to Chinese media reports, and will have artificial intelligence functions. The company has not yet revealed any further details about the long-awaited product.

Chinese smartphone brands have been doubling down on overseas expansion in recent years, and Realme is one of the fastest-growing brands.

The story continues

Realme was originally incubated by Oppo, which along with Vivo was founded by the Chinese consumer hardware giant BBK Electronics. The company said it had sold more than 200 million devices as of last November, five years after its founding, with the majority of sales coming from outside China.

In January, on the sidelines of the CES fair in Las Vegas, Realme revealed its 12 Pro+ smartphone as part of a rebranding effort to better target young foreign consumers.

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