You cannot fool Indians with surrogate products: HTech CEO Madhav Sheth to Realme, OnePlus, other competition

Published On: October 13, 2023

Highlights

Madhav Sheth calls out Realme and other competitors for their ‘surrogate products’.
HTech is targeting the premium segment and calls the iPhone 15 a disappointment.
He gives us an idea of HTech’s road ahead including the new products and sale offers.

HTech CEO Madhav Sheth, who earlier led Realme India for five years, has spoken about this previous company in a recent interview. He threw shade at Realme and other competitors for selling ‘surrogate products’. He also called the iPhone 15 “a disappointment” and explained how Honor smartphones can offer a differentiating value to premium consumers.

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Sheth shocked the tech world by announcing his departure from Realme in June this year and subsequently reviving Honor’s smartphone business in India.

What does Sheth mean by surrogate products?

Madhav Sheth highlighted to Financial Express how many of the brands in India sell “surrogate products”. By this, he means they launch the same product under different names and promotions, which we call it ‘rebadging’ or ‘rebranding’.

“Vivo and iQOO have the same products. Samsung’s Galaxy M, F and A-series have the same products. Realme, OnePlus and OPPO have the same products. The same product is renamed and relabeled for different channels under different names with different marketing concepts and different callouts… India is a huge market with a huge population, and you cannot fool this population with surrogate products. The time is now right when consumers need a specific brand and not just surrogate products.”

Ironically, in the past, Honor is known to have rebadged Huawei phones. But, let’s see what the future holds for the brand in its second coming.

When the interviewer asked Mr Sheth what happened at Realme that made him leave the company, he just said, “Over a period, when a brand is built and when you’re in the position of any CXO, your vision and your speed will be challenged at every single point.” He didn’t say anything beyond this.

Further talking about Honor’s prospects in India, Madhav said:

“Honor will be a substantial player in the next year itself. Even my one product launch, in two months’ time of my exit [from Realme], has triggered a lot of jitters in the industry. I believe a lot of brands in India will have sleepless nights once we start to launch more products and come full-fledged to the market before the end of next year. The way that I am going to do business will create a new benchmark.”

The Honor 90 has recently been the subject of much criticism for its Rs 40,000 price point in India. To this, Sheth said, “Those comments were seeded by competing brands. Their nervousness makes me excited.”

iPhone 15 is a disappointment: Sheth

Although he doesn’t go too deep into this, he calls the iPhone 15 a “disappointment” as it doesn’t offer enough upgrades over its predecessors. He thinks premium buyers want something new and different to show for the big bucks they paid. A folding phone, in his opinion, can be what they are looking for.

He highlights how Honor Magic V2 (Chinese edition) is slim around 9.9mm even with a 5,000mAh battery inside and estimates we could get an Honor foldable in India by the first half of 2024.

Much like Apple, HTech will also have a broader ecosystem play and as part of this, we could see new product announcements soon.