Chinese smartphone maker OPPO has confirmed to launch a new sub-brand in the Indian market and has partnered with Amazon India for the same. The new sub-brand will be officially announced tomorrow, May 1, in India along with a new smartphone under the brand. A “Notify Me” page dedicated to OPPO’s new brand went live earlier today on Amazon.in with an emphasis on technology and design of the smartphone, besides the brand’s after-sales services. OPPO has also reportedly started assembling printed circuit boards (PCBs) at its new second manufacturing unit in the country to further boost its sales while keeping costs low. There is no detail on what exactly the new sub-brand will be called, but the smartphone launching tomorrow is expected to be priced between Rs. 10,000 ($151) and Rs. 15,000 ($226).
This move by OPPO is said to be aimed at taking on Xiaomi, that recently became the largest smartphone vendor in the Asian market. OPPO has traditionally been focused on offline sales, while Xiaomi follows the online-only flash sales approach that has driven the brand to the top position. A recent report by an industry research firm showed OPPO losing almost half of its market share to Xiaomi with the former having a 5.8-percent and the latter having a 31.1-percent share in the Indian smartphone market in Q1 2018. OPPO itself is a brand owned by Chinese corporation BBK Electronics, that also owns Vivo and OnePlus, with OnePlus also partnering with Amazon India to retail its entire line of smartphones.
OPPO recently introduced its F7 Android smartphone in India priced at Rs. 21,990 ($335) to have an offering in the mid-range segment. The variant launched initially came with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of flash memory, while another variant with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage was announced earlier this month at a price of Rs. 26,990 ($411). The company has made the device available across its sales channels both online and offline, probably as part of its plan to improve its sales and market share in the Indian market. The OPPO F7 includes a 6.23-inch FHD+ display with a small cut out on its top and is fueled by a MediaTek Helio P60 processor. With the company’s emphasis on selfie cameras, an AI-backed 25-megapixel camera is placed on the front, while there is a 16-megapixel camera unit on the back.