Oppo to invest Rs 100 crore in a phone manufacturing unit in Noida

Chinese smartphone maker Oppo will set up a local manufacturing unit in India with an investment of Rs 100 crore for the facility in Noida. The unit, which will have a capacity of 10 million handsets, will become operational in August this year. “Our Noida facility will become operational in August. With a capacity of 10 million units, the facility will be our own. We are investing Rs 100 crore in the project,” Oppo Global VP, MD of International Mobile Business and President India operations Sky Li told . He added that its present partnership with Foxconn to assemble phone locally will also continue. At present, Foxconn has production lines at its Chennai factory dedicated for Oppo’s smartphone requirements in the country. Li said the company would manufacture its entire range here but the company “is not looking at India as an export hub at the moment.” The company’s decision to locally manufacture smartphones comes at a time when handset makers are tapping into the multi-billion dollar opportunity in India, one of the fastest growing smartphone markets in the world. Handset makers like Samsung, Micromax, Xiaomi, Gionee, Lenovo and OnePlus have already set up assembly units in the country. Besides, Oppo announced its association with ace cricketer Yuvraj Singh as its first sports ambassador for this cricket season. Oppo is also focusing on the mid and premium handset segment (Rs 15,000-30,000) in India. It launched its new handset – F1 Plus – for Rs 26,990 featuring 16MP front camera, focused on selfie enthusiasts. The 4G handset has a 5.5-inch display, all-metal unibody, 2GHz MediaTek octa-core processor, 4GB RAM, 64GB memory, 13 MP rear camera and 2,850 mAh battery. First sale of the F1 Plus will kick off from mid-April across India. “This is our second device in the photography-focused F series in India after Selfie Expert F1, which created great market acceptance. Camera Phones are always our focus and we plan to bring out the best camera experiences to our consumers,” Li said. PTI