OnePlus faces challenge to keep the momentum going

By Faisal Kawoosa, leads Telecoms and SemiTronics Practices, CMR

Currently available exclusively on Amazon through invite only mode, OnePlus is increasingly becoming popular choice in the mid price segment of Smartphones – a segment that primarily consists of evolved Smartphone users looking for more of power and performance in lieu of upgrading to a higher version of a phone.

Once, a highly underserved level, when the market was becoming highly polarised between the superphones priced above 35,000 and the base level Smartphones tagged below 10,000, the mid ranged segment is increasingly becoming interesting and happening.

OnePlus in just first year of its presence in India, infact just a month, has done some impressive numbers. Though, looking at the overall Smartphone market numbers might appear to be insignificant, but the popularity rate has been increasing rapidly. It has become a try out preference for many. This has led India to contribute approx 7% of the total devices sold across the globe. Even this number seems impressive considering it has just recently launched in India and available exclusively online.

But the challenge for the company is to keep the momentum going. While it considers the three core values to focus at, for its growth in India, the key to success will remain in ‘tangiblizing’ them. The three building blocks that the company is focusing in India can be summarised in the below figure.

OnePlus wants to closely integrate these three blocks to leverage from a strong fan base, give them the best of the class service and the product who would then help in viral-ing the brand.

Now, its not that the core values are just at the abstraction level and nothing has happened on ground. OnePlus has opened its first local office outside the headquarter location in India. They are also gradually expanding the team here. To strengthen their service, they have tied up with HCL offering the comprehensive network of walk-in centres across the country.

On the product side, their focus on innovation and product development is high. Not on the hardware designing, they are also looking at controlling the software story of the game as well by owning their ROM OxygenOS (built on open-source Android platform).

On their roadmap, they have already announced OnePlus 16GB version for 18,999 again exclusively available through Amazon. The next would be OnePlus 2 to be launched in July and the company may go for another launch towards the second half of the year. But the message is clear; the focus will be on product, quality and design. So don’t expect anything in or around 10,000.

Looking at each of the elements that the company is focusing at it all seems impressive, the only challenge is how well all this is integrated and converted into AdvantagePlus brand of Smartphone for the Indian buyers. Well, that would be an interesting thing to watch over for next few months. Definitely, it makes a brand to watch closely in India and elsewhere.

Based on an exclusive interaction with Vikas Agarwal, GM and head of OnePlus India.