Smartphone maker OnePlus is mulling a research and development (R&D) centre in south India, said a top official.
“We will set up our first R&D centre in the south during the third quarter of the calendar year,” said Vikas Agarwal, GM, OnePlus India. “It will come up either in Hyderabad or Bengaluru.”
OnePlus has an R&D centre in China which houses more than 100 people. The proposed centre would employ about 50 people, he said. “It will focus on understanding the local market and feedback and to incorporate those features in forthcoming models.”
Stating they are currently ranked number two in premium smartphone category after Samsung for the last three quarters, he said they are likely to occupy the top slot with the roll out OnePlus 6, which had sold one million units in 22 days.
Mr. Agarwal said they have drawn up plans to make India as second headquarters after China by setting up a full-fledged office in India to manage the brand better.
He also announced OnePlus would have its first experience store in Chennai very soon, followed by six other cities by the year end. “We are growing at the rate of 100% now. We have 50% marketshare through online sales. But that market is saturated. The key focus for the current year would be to increase the offline footprint across India. We expect the growth to come from Tier-II and Tier-III cities due to penetration of channel,” he said.
Plans are also on to double the service centres in India from 12 to 25 by the year end, he said.
