Chinese phone maker OPPO committed itself to a more aggressive global expansion going forward, having announced its intentions to significantly expand its international footprint over the course of this year. The first stop on the company’s road to achieving that goal is Japan, a market that OPPO officially entered on Wednesday, approximately two months after first establishing a division in the Far Eastern country. With the addition of Japan, OPPO is now officially present in 31 countries across the globe, boasting a physical footprint in Asia, Oceania, Middle East, and Africa. Europe is also on OPPO’s list of markets that it plans to enter in the immediate future, as per the firm’s repeated confirmations issued in recent months.
OPPO says it’s presently the fourth largest smartphone vendor in the world by shipments, adding that the same metric places it at the top spot in Asia as of the third quarter of 2017, with its main ambition being to maintain that momentum going forward. India is another key market for the Dongguan, China-based tech giant, having tens of millions of feature phone owners that are looking to upgrade to smartphones in the near future. OPPO’s international push officially started in 2009 with its expansion to Thailand, though it took years for the firm to start establishing a stronger global presence. While its offerings are still largely targeted at Asia, its value-oriented product philosophy is likely to be a good fit for any developing market on the planet, many industry watchers believe.
OPPO is also closely monitoring the developments in the wireless space, saying it’s ready to start implementing 5G technologies into its devices as soon as the fifth generation of mobile networks begins rolling out on an international level. Large-scale 5G deployment is currently being planned to start by next year in South Korea, Japan, and the United States. The original equipment manufacturer is expected to launch at least a handful of new products in Japan over the course of this year and should officially begin its European push by the second half of 2018. The firm is expected to continue focusing on photography-oriented mid-range smartphones powered by the Android operating system, particularly those meant to compete in the mid-range segment of the market.