OnePlus Expands To IoT Products And Offline Stores

After its success in the smartphone market, Shenzhen, China-based startup, OnePlus, is now looking to explore the Internet of Things (IoT) market and expand offline retail stores in India.

In a recent report, OnePlus said that it is planning to aggressively expand its presence offline, and develop new categories of IoT products made for India. However, apart from its IoT-powered smart TV, the details of other products were not disclosed by the company.

Also, during the launch of its flagship product, the OnePlus TV Q1 Pro in September 2019, the company had stated that it believes their smart TV will be a crucial step towards enabling OnePlus’s IoT journey, in terms of interconnectivity and creating smart home products in the future.

Today, the IoT market is picking up a pace in India as several new products and experiences are being introduced by smartphone manufacturers. The companies such as OnePlus, Samsung, Xiaomi and other brands are already trying to set foot in the IoT space, with plans to revamp retail experience as well as introducing new products in this category.

It is estimated that there will be over 30 Bn IoT devices active around the world by 2020. The IoT ecosystem for consumers consists of products such as smartwatches, AR devices, trackers and home surveillance, smart bulbs, smart switches and many more.

In addition to this, industries such as energy management, healthcare, logistics, fintech, manufacturing and agritech have also been focussing on IoT for automation, monitoring, surveillance and seamless connectivity, for a long time now.

Vikas Agarwal, general manager of OnePlus India, is optimistic about the company’s growth. He further told ET that an aggressive push into the offline channel will help OnePlus maintain its growth in the fourth quarter. He also added that a bigger impact will be seen next year.

“Q4 is a slower quarter but we will be able to sustain growth due to offline expansion and development of new IoT products, along with promotional event planned in the near future,” Agarwal said as reported.

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This year, the company is ahead of its sales target for smartphones (35% market share) compared to last year (33% market share). OnePlus has become a leader in this segment, followed by Xiaomi, Samsung, Vivo, Realme, Oppo, and others, as per a research report.

Since its entry into the Indian market in 2014, OnePlus has grown rapidly. The company’s smartphones have also challenged global premium smartphone makers like Samsung and Apple.

The International Data Corporation’s (IDC) Asia/Pacific Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker reported that the Indian smartphone market saw the highest-ever second-quarter shipment of 36.9 Mn smartphones in 2019. In terms of growth, the $400-$600 segment had the second-highest growth rate with 16.3% YoY growth in Q2 2019 and OnePlus led this segment with a 63.6% share, thanks to the new OnePlus 7 series.

OnePlus recently announced its commitment to invest INR 1000 Cr over the next three years in its India operations with a focus on research and development. The company launched its research and development facility in Hyderabad last year where it works on the development of India-specific software features for the company’s OxygenOS Android UI. OnePlus is now looking to expand its brand stores in India to 25 by 2020.