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    Oppo in talks with gear makers to set up production units in India

    Synopsis

    Holitech, which provides components to the world's top five brands, excluding Apple, will set up a plant in Andhra Pradesh to locally produce camera modules, touchscreen panels,

    ET Bureau
    NEW DELHI: Oppo has finalised discussions with some of its key components makers to establish production facilities in India, alongside the Chinese smartphone maker’s upcoming tech park in Greater Noida, as it seeks to deepen its presence in the world’s second largest market. “We are having ongoing discussions with a number of key component makers.

    A few have been finalised for important accessories and key components,” Charles Wong, president, Oppo India, told ETin an exclusive interaction. Wong said that for Oppo’s bigger unit, it needs all key vendors and suppliers to set up operations in the country. “After China, India is the most important market for Oppo. India is a huge market and offers enormous potential,” said Wong.

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    For the new upcoming bigger facility — ‘Industry Park’ — Oppo has already acquired land and has started work to establish operations. Wong said that Oppo wants to kick-start the new facility in 2019. “Our core components and suppliers will come for this unit.” Oppo's bigger rival, Xiaomi, is already pushing the component ecosystem in India and has already brought China's Holitech Technology to India.

    Holitech, which provides components to the world's top five brands, excluding Apple, will set up a plant in Andhra Pradesh to locally produce camera modules, touchscreen panels, TFT (thin film transistors), flexible printed circuits and fingerprint modules for Xiaomi to start with. Oppo was the fourth largest smartphone brand in the April-June quarter with 10% smartphone market share — trailing Xiaomi, Samsung and Vivo — up from 5.6% share in the January-March quarter.

    Wong, who took over as India president in May this year, said that his mandate is to strengthen the company's focus on the offline channel, besides understanding consumer needs. "Offline channel is a very crucial and important element of our India strategy. We will be working with our sales partners, including retailers and distributors, to extend our reach in the market," Wong explained.

    The company, however, is also working with ecommerce players such as Flipkart, Amazon and PayTM to sell some high-end devices in the online space, along with the offline trade. “We see Oppo start to expand into the online channel ahead of the festive season to drive sales and tackle competition. Since the market is upgrading, Oppo should look at providing incentives to its existing F series customers to upgrade to new smartphones,” said Anshika Jain, a research associate with Counterpoint.

    The company on Tuesday expanded its handset portfolio with the launch of F9 and F9 Pro, thus increasing its focus on the growing Rs 20,000-Rs 30,000 price category. Jain said that Chinese players, especially Oppo and Vivo, are realigning their offline strategies to focus on distributors that have the capabilities to sell high-end devices. The overall Rs 20,000- Rs30,000 price category stood at 7% of the overall smartphone volume market in the second quarter, compared with 3% in 2017.
    The Economic Times

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