Oppo launches first overseas 5G lab in India, a country still waiting for mass roll-out of the next generation mobile network
- Chinese smartphone makers such as Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo have a large share of the handset market in India – which is skewed towards the budget segment
- India has historically lagged behind the developed world in pushing out new telecommunication standards, despite narrowing the gap in recent times
Chinese smartphone maker Oppo has launched a 5G innovation lab in India, its first outside China, at a time when relations between New Delhi and Beijing have been in the doldrums after a violent border dispute earlier this year.
Located at Oppo’s Hyderabad R&D centre in southern India’s Telangana state, Oppo said that the lab will help it to promote its 5G capabilities in the country. The Shenzhen-based company also said it plans to open three more innovation labs that will focus on cameras, power & batteries, and performance.
“While we work towards developing core technologies for the 5G era and strengthen our overall ecosystem, we also aim to support India in its 5G journey,” said Tasleem Arif, Oppo’s India vice-president and head of R&D, in a statement on Tuesday. “The technologies developed at the lab should help our global footprint while making good on our vision to make India an innovation hub.”
Chinese smartphone makers such as Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo have a large share of the handset market in India – which is skewed towards the budget segment – although Samsung took over top spot in the third quarter for the first time since the fourth quarter of 2018, according to data from industry research firm Counterpoint. Oppo, budget smartphone maker Realme, and Vivo are all owned by the same Chinese company — BBK Electronics.
In June, the Indian government banned more than a hundred Chinese apps after a deadly clash between Chinese and Indian troops in a disputed Himalayan border region fanned nationwide anti-China sentiment.
“India is the second-largest market for Oppo after China, representing about 20 per cent of the vendor’s smartphone shipments in the third quarter,” said Ahmed Ahmed, Malaysia-based market analyst for research firm IDC. “Despite the political tensions … consumer demand for affordable smartphones has remained high with … more consumers needing smartphones for home-based learning and epayments [during the pandemic].”