On August 31, Oppo will hold its first global launch event in attendance since the start of the pandemic. The chosen location is Paris, which has a particular meaning for the company: it is the same city where in June 2018 the Chinese giant announced with great fanfare its arrival in Europe with the launch of the Find X series. novelties do not concern the family of the top of the range, but the Reno 8 series. There are not many other details for the moment, but we already know for sure that the devices will position themselves in the medium-high range and will focus a lot on photography thanks to presence of the proprietary imaging chip Marisilicon X.
Smartphone
Oppo Reno7, the first with the new photo sensor developed with Sony
The lawsuit with Nokia in Germany
Per Billy Zhang, Vice President Overseas Sales and Services di Oppo, the launch of the new Reno 8 is the right occasion to confirm the company’s commitment to the European market. A reassurance that comes just when Oppo was forced to withdraw some products from the German market, one of the most important in the Old Continent, following a lawsuit with Nokia over some 5G patents.
“I want to reassure everyone immediately about this,” Zhang explained in an interview with the international media. “We have no intention of reviewing our investments in the German or European market and will continue to offer our customers the support and service that distinguish us. Oppo is eighth in the world for number of 5G patents and we already have many agreements with the market leaders. We are confident that this situation in Germany will also be resolved soon. ” An unusually open and clear answer for an executive of a giant of this size: in other words, Oppo does not rule out the possibility that the legal dispute with Nokia in Germany will end with a financial agreement for the acquisition of licenses.
A long-term plan for Europe
Over the past four years, the company has achieved encouraging results on the European market, in line with initial expectations. In 2021 in particular, the company positioned itself at fourth place in the smartphone market of Western Europe, with a 16% growth in smartphones “shipped” globally and 94% in shipments to Western Europe.
Zhang confirmed that investments in marketing, strategy, research and development in Europe will continue to grow. And as for the products, we will soon see a expansion of the ecosystem with the arrival of new wearables and maybe even of smartphone pieghevoli. Globally, he added, Oppo has invested a good 7 billion euros in research and development in the 2020-2022 period alone.
“By the end of this year, new tablets will arrive here in Europe, but also and above all new medium-high-end wearable products, including new headphones and smartwatch“, explained Zhang.” As for foldable smartphones, ours Find N it’s a big hit in China. We do not rule out bringing it to Europe soon too, but let me tell you: this segment is promising, though a lot of work is still needed. Find N is an extraordinary device, but we must continue to invest to improve for example the folding of the screen, or the battery life. We want to bring to Europe only the best we can offer from a technological point of view, as we did with the Find and Reno series “.
Parallel lines
With the Find N folding smartphone, the difference between Oppo’s commercial plans in China or India and in Europe, already clear to insiders, became evident for everyone. Despite reviews and appreciation even outside the Chinese market, Oppo preferred to keep a clear distinction between the product lines in Europe and China. For those who deal with the smartphone market like us, the manufacturer’s range is not always easy to interpret: products that have the same name as the Chinese counterpart but completely different characteristics often arrive in Europe. Conversely, it is not uncommon to see nearly identical devices being allocated to different families depending on the market.
“We are not planning to move to a global marketing strategy where there is a one-to-one correspondence between Chinese products and the rest of the world, “explained Zhang.” We will undoubtedly work on a greater integration, for example by merging all the management of Eastern European markets with Central and Western Europe. However, it must always be considered that each market has its own peculiarities. The differentiation of products according to the market is a necessity for marketing purposes, to meet expectations that vary greatly depending on the country of reference “.
The OnePlus case
Zhang did not back down on another burning issue: the future of OnePlus. The brand, born as an independent company under the umbrella of BBK Electronics (the conglomerate that controls Oppo, Vivo, Realme and other brands) was officially incorporated by Oppo at the end of 2021.
The latest models of OnePlus devices have disappointed long-time fans.
For the Oppo executive, however, “the integration between Oppo and OnePlus brings with it many advantages. First, the possibility for a smaller brand to use our shared production capacity and our technologies”.
Zhang also confirmed that the OnePlus brand will maintain its independence: “The business teams will all remain independent, including the sales and product design teams. I am aware of the discontent about some software features and the absence of the Alert Slider on OnePlus 10T but as soon as the company is fully integrated with our technological potential, you can be sure that the benefits for users will be many “.
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A game of Go
The growth of Oppo in Europe over the past few years has coincided with the decline in Huawei’s market share, swept away by the geopolitical crisis that involved the giant and the American administration. Oppo, however, is not the only Chinese giant that has tried to own the market share that belonged to the Shenzhen giant. However, on the close competition with other Chinese brands – first of all Xiaomi – Zhang has a very clear vision and shuns the idea of a direct confrontation with neighboring brands.
“In China we have a game called GO, in which the black and white pawns of the two opponents are positioned to conquer larger and larger areas of the game board. At the end of the game there is still a winner, decided on the basis of who. he managed to conquer the largest area, but the game does not include direct attacks, “explained Zhang with a long playful metaphor. “In the company we we do not have a mindset oriented towards direct competition with competitors. We certainly observe their moves, we study their products to understand what they do better than us and how to do better, but ultimately we focus on what to do for our users, so as to conquer ever larger areas of the market, just like it happens on the board of Go “.
A Chinese-style competition that clearly deviates from Huawei’s martial approach. Even in the most complex moments of the geopolitical saga that involved it, the giant of the red lily has always maintained clear positions, declaring that the goal still remained the first position in the global smartphone market. Oppo, on the other hand, has no ambitions of this type and prefers a much less brazen strategic approach. “I will not say in any way that our goal is to scale the market to gain first place for market share. We do not think that way,” concluded Zhang. “It is important for us to maintain a general focus on the needs of the markets in which we operate. Our compass is not a position on the sales podium, but the quality of the hardware and user experience that we can give to our customers. With this approach, in the medium and long term the market shares come by themselves “.