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As the market for smartphones dips in China, device makers like OnePlus plan to increase offline presence across India.
After launching customer wholly-owned stores-cum-experience centres in major cities, OnePlus plans to open a dozen outlets across the country. “There is demand for premium smartphones in the country and we believe that every smartphone buyer aspires to get into that bracket at some point in time,” said Vikas Agarwal, General Manager, OnePlus India.
The Shenzen-headquartered phonemaker believes that the Indian smartphone segment, which is estimated at 4 per cent of the overall phone market, is expected to grow significantly.
“India is where China was a decade back but grew to be one of the largest markets in the world. Now, we see a similar trend play out in India,” said Agarwal. He attributed one-third of its $1.4-billion in global sales to India, its second largest market after China.
Interestingly, smartphone shipments in China have suffered their biggest decline ever, with a 21 per cent drop in the first quarter of 2018 compared with the same period last year, according to a report from research firm Canalys.
In India, OnePlus is also banking on increasing number of first-time buyers coming to physical stores and not necessarily make their purchases online. However, Agarwal pointed out that 60 per cent of the sales currently come from online retailers like Amazon. According to data at the end of March this year, OnePlus had a 25 per cent marketshare, second after Samsung in India.
Buoyant about its prospects, OnePlus believes that a tweak in its customer experience part could be a big differentiator, such as having communities of the phone users congregate in a party-like environment.
OnePlus, which has outsourced its phone manufacturing operations in India to another Chinese phonemaker Oppo, also plans to expand its R&D operations in India.
While the numbers are not big, the R&D will focus on software, among other things. The company, however, has not firmed up its decision on where to set up the R&D centre.
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