Oppo to start handsets assembly in India

Electronics manufacturer Oppo on Wednesday announced its plans to set up a smartphone handsets manufacturing unit in India by August this year focusing on the growing demand in the Indian market.

"India is the top priority in our expansion plans in South Asia this year. We have received tremendous support and appreciation from the customers and it is now time to reciprocate the feeling," said the company's vice president Sky Li.

"The smartphone boom in India indicates the time is just right to focus on expansion plans and increasing volume in India to a comparable level with the China market in the next five years," Li said in a statement.

"This year will be a year of expansion for us. We are already among the top three players in Indonesia, with more than 11 percent market share. Similarly we have 13 percent in Vietnam and almost 11 percent in Malaysia. Globally, we plan to sell more that 15 million units this year."

Oppo, which has presence in North America, Europe and Asia, entered the Indian market in January 2014, aiming for rapid growth and expansion across target markets in India. "OPPO will focus on setting up a state-of-art facility to manufacture world-class smartphones for key Indian audience as well as key markets overseas," Li said adding that sales and service points will be speeded up.

"We have sold around 400,000 devices in India and are targeting 1.5 million units this year. Oppo India has plans to expand more service centres this year. As of now, we have 120 service centres across India and are targeting to open 200 service centres by end of 2015," he added.