The affordable mobile segment is a tough fight between Xiaomi and Realme in the country, as both the brands looktolooktot attract buyers with their products.
But this ‘value for money’ formula has come at the cost of showing ads to the users, and Xiaomi has been doing that for a while now.
Soon, you will see Realme phones also showing ads, and this will be done via the future updates of the ColorOS. The company confirmed this development via a blog post earlier this week, reaching out to its community and informing them about the changes.
Having said that, Realme is allowing its users to disable the feature, which will ensure their phone’s screen is now littered with ads and shop links that can be irritating.
The company, through a software update will offer the option to disable, which will be available from the main ‘Settings’ where you will find Additional Settings’, from there you can turn off the ‘Get Recommendations’ option. As you can see below, the option will be making its way in the coming weeks.
So, why is Realme doing this, and what purpose does it solve by offering ads to its users?
“To continue offering more surprises for you and maintain a healthy and sustainable business model, we have introduced commercial content recommendation in the OS. Content recommendation will promote apps and commercial links.”Realme blog post
It’s interesting that Realme is the latest brand to venture into the ‘ads on mobile’ territory, something that’s not gone too well with users of Xiaomi users. The company also made it clear that showing ads is part of its business model and will continue to be.
On the other hand, OnePlus, through its CEO, Pete Lau, quoted in an interview recently, said, his company will always look to avoid putting ads, and would rather instead charge extra money for its phones. He was quoted saying, “ If an addition doesn’t add anything to the user experience, then the company won’t add it to the device.”
Does this mean Xiaomi and Realme are selling at lower costs, forcing them to push ads from third-party apps on their devices? Well, the picture seems clearer now in that regards.
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