- OnePlus has begun exporting devices made in India to Western markets, including the US, and will consider making the nation its production hub.
China’s OnePlus has begun exporting smartphones made in India to Western markets, including the US, and will consider making the nation its production hub, as long as the quality is high and the price is competitive, the co-founder of the company said.
By entering service room in India with the launch of OnePlus Care, Chinese handset manufacturer OnePlus takes a leaf out of Apple’s playbook and will quickly launch OnePlus Pay, exploring more places to launch fresh products to monetize its current premium handset base.
With the launch of OnePlus TV, OnePlus has forayed into Smart TV space, which analysts think will make the company take its services company more seriously.
“2019 is our best year so far (in India)as Indian infrastructure is maturing and the manufacturing ecosystem is building up, there is certainly a chance to continue investing here,” said Carl Pei, co-founder of OnePlus. He said it makes sense to use India as an export hub if the quality was high enough and the price was nice.
Pei spoke a week after India significantly reduced its new manufacturing base corporate tax to 15 percent, making it competitive with several nations around the globe in an effort to expand local production and wean away company from China and Vietnam.
He said OnePlus had set up enough SMT lines this year for its predicted volumes and began exporting India-made OnePlus 7 Pro phones to Western markets like the US.
Neil Shah, market research director Counterpoint Technologies, said it makes sense for OnePlus to look for an option in terms of its export base with the continuing US-China trade problems.
“We might be going into the service space and might be announcing more services and features. If never try, we will never know… we are looking at a lot of areas,” Pei said, adding the brand has captured the premium consumers in India and people have more disposable income which the company can tap.
Asked if OnePlus is planning to invest in start-ups or third-party service providers to enter a new domain, Pei said, “I’m making some angle investments personally, but we haven’t really addressed that at the business level yet.” Shah said with the recent move, OnePlus is apologizing for Apple’s approach, which saw its service revenue ballooning to $11 billion per quarter. “OnePlus has comparable access in Android room to the premium base, and they have more chances. Now, they can enter content and gaming domains with TV as a product accessible, “he added.
OnePlus forayed into the Smart TV section on Thursday with the launch of OnePlus TV beginning at Rs. 69,900.
Shah said content could be a cross-play for OnePlus and could offer TV and smartphone users access. “Content game is something players can prefer OnePlus over Xiaomi because of the premium client base that provides better chances of monetization,” he said, adding that OnePlus may look at construction accessories like gamepad for devices to work with future intelligent TV variants.
Xiaomi is also constructing its service business in line with its global strategy by launching multiple services in India.
