The Chinese inquisition in the Indian smartphone ecosystem is strong and is growing at an enormously fast pace. With existing players like Xiaomi, Vivo, Lenovo and others, OnePlus is also looking to push aggressively for a larger chunk of the pie.
But instead of moving on to an offline approach to increase sales and visibility, the Chinese upstart is still looking to follow its online-only strategy to compete against other homegrown rivals. It also plans to restart its assembling plant in India for the production of the OnePlus 3T handset, released a couple days ago.
Prior to this, OnePlus had announced plans to assemble smartphones in India in partnership with infamous hardware manufacturer Foxconn. The company had even started assembling its budget offering OnePlus X at Foxconn’s Rising Stars factory in Andhra Pradesh but unsuccessful sales led to discontinuation globally. The high production cost and operation inefficiencies also led to the demise of the budget offering.
Commenting on the same, OnePlus CEO Peter Lau, states,
It was a trial run and the cost was not that low. We would like to continue local production that we have started now, and gradually manufacture here in India.
The company’s India GM Vikas Agarwal also stated:
Make in India is a very important programme for us. This year we could not do the OnePlus 3 due to supply issues, but now with the OnePlus 3T we’re ready to resume local production early next quarter. We are already in the stages of pilot production.
At the moment, OnePlus has decided to focus on the premium segment and exit the budget space completely. The plan to locally assemble its devices is in stark contrast to other Chinese smartphone makers who’re following the Make in India mission to manufacture devices in the country. Lau also believes that India’s manufacturing economy will be ripe in the next 5 years, with demand for more premium smartphones. Continuing to add to the same, Lau mentions,
After five years, manufacturing capability of India will be booming, at a global level. Many suppliers from China have already come to India to begin their factories… to meet our requirements.
On Friday, the Chinese smartphone giant finally released the upgraded version of OnePlus 3 called the ‘OnePlus 3T,’ starting at Rs. 29,999. This will replace its previous less juiced up version and includes a more powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor, a larger battery, an impressive 16 MP front facing camera for your selfie cravings.
