Oppo to set up handset manufacturing unit in India by August

NEW DELHI: Chinese handset maker OPPO will set up a handset manufacturing unit in India by August where it will make smartphones for India and overseas markets.

Oppo is the latest among its Chinese peers including Xiaomi, PhiComm and Coolpad to evince interest in making mobile phones in India. The local manufacturing moves from most across industry also come after the government made it more expensive to import fully made phones into India.

"India is the top priority in our expansion plans in South Asia this year," Sky Li, Vice President, OPPO said.

"The Smartphone boom in India indicates the time is just right to focus on expansion plans and increasing volume in India to a comparable level with the China market in the next five years," he added.

2015 will be a year of expansion for the brand that has presence in North America, Europe and Asia.

It is among the "top three" players in Indonesia, with more than 11 percent market share. It owns 13 percent of the Vietnamese device market and almost 11 percent in Malaysia. "Globally, we plan to sell more that 15 million units this year", Li further added.

OPPO, which entered the India market in January last year, will focus on setting up a state of the art facility to manufacture world class smartphones for the Indian audience as well as key markets overseas.

OPPO India is speeding up sales and service network and expects a fair growth and a bigger share of the market in the times to come, the company said.

"We have sold around 400, 000 devices in India and are targeting for 1.5 million units this year (2015)," Li added.

OPPO India has plans to expand more service centers this year. As of now, it has 120 service centers across India and is targeting to open 200 service centres by end of 2015.

According to CMR India Monthly Mobile Handsets Market Review, a total of 53 million mobile handsets were shipped in first quarter of calendar Year 2015. Out of these, 19.5 million or about 37% of handsets, were smartphones, while the rest were feature phones.