OnePlus also announced that it will begin manufacturing its phone locally in India.
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Addressing the gathering on this occasion, Pete Lau, Founder & CEO, OnePlus said, “Today is a big day for us”.
He further added that India has a big consumer market, and it will make them committed to a long-term growth path that could be sustained.
The growing number of people belonging to the middle class and the sharp increase in the use of phones made India a profitable market among Chinese investors. Our dream is to catapult Andhra Pradesh to become one of the hottest destinations for local manufacturing in India, and I believe with brands such as OnePlus joining in, that dream is quickly becoming a reality.
It plans to fix that with a Foxconn partnership to build 500,000 units per month at peak production in India.
However, to recall, there were many rumours that the Chinese smartphone company will be launching its much talked about new budget smartphone the OnePlus X. However, that was not the case.
Lau said local production will make the company’s operations efficient in terms of cost and working capital requirements and also help in making its products available for sale faster than before.
Gionee president Willam Lu, said the unit at Sri City in Andhra Pradesh, close to Chennai, has a capacity to manufacture half a million phones and that it would be gradually achieved by March 2016. Xiaomi smartphones are already being manufactured at this factory. By having the manufacturing in India, it should speed up those times even more. The first batch of smartphones produced in India will be commercially available by the end of this year.
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Vikas Agarwal, General Manager – India, OnePlus, said that the company has been constrained by a few supply chain related challenges in meeting consumer demands.
