CHENNAI: OnePlus, which launched its android phone OnePlus 6 last month, said it is planning to set up a research and development centre in India and increase its service centres from 12 to 25 across the country.
The smartphone maker, which has been virtually operating in more than 30 countries across the world, said it is planning to establish a physical presence in a country (India) other than its China headquarters for the first time since its inception.
“India is the fastest growing market for us. It constitutes one-third of OnePlus’ total revenue and the online penetration is also quite high,” said Vikas Agarwal, general manager, OnePlus India.“With respect to smartphone penetration online, OnePlus has a 50 per cent share in the online marketplace, while online sales constitute about 35 per cent of our total revenue,” he said.
However, the Chinese smartphone maker feels that it has reached a saturation point in online sales in Indian e-commerce sites and has been quickly setting up retail units and tying up with large retail smartphone dealers like Croma to acquire new customers in India.
“Penetration through the online marketplace, we feel, is a little saturated with respect to Tier-1 cities. But our presence in e-commerce sites is an important way to reach out to mobile phone users in Tier-2 and 3 cities. We’re also looking to increase the number of OnePlus experience stores and tie up with retail chains like Croma to increase traction,” said Agarwal.
When asked about the R&D centre, Agarwal said the company is planning to establish it in either Hyderabad or Bengaluru by next year and that the centre would be mainly for understanding the local tastes of smartphone users and not for engineering or product development.
“Since we’re seeing growth of more than 100 per cent in India, we’re hoping that this new R&D centre would help us in developing features that would enhance user experience in India. For example, we’re developing a feature named ‘shelf’. The user can access different apps in the shelf without accessing the apps at all,” he said.