OPPO APAC Announced Regional Strategy at its New Home in Malaysia

Last December 16, 2019, OPPO held its APAC Strategy Launch in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia under the theme of “Connecting Tomorrow, Together.” The company unveiled its new business strategy for the 5G era to industry partners in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region and announced the establishment of the APAC Hub Center in the heart of the region located in Kuala Lumpur.

At the event, OPPO also announced that a total of 15 new carriers from the APAC market is now on board with “5G Landing Project”. Over 300 operators, partners, and media outlets from the APAC region attended the conference and experienced some of the latest products and technologies, including OPPO 5G CPE T1 and Enco Free true wireless headphones, cloud gaming devices, AR glasses, under-screen camera conceptual smartphone, and more.

The APAC market is a strategic foothold to OPPO’s global expansion since a decade ago. Today, OPPO has become a brand trusted by nearly 100 million active users in the region. Building upon strong leadership, professional teams, solid partnership networks, as well as premium products and service experiences, OPPO has become a leading smartphone brand in the APAC region.

The emergence of the next-generation mobile communications technology brings both new opportunities to the industry, and creates new challenges to the overall operational capabilities of companies. Following the mantra of “Think Globally, Act Locally”, OPPO is committed to orchestrating the company’s best global resources to power the development of local markets and working to engineer its strategic transformation for global business in order to evolve into a R&D-centric technology company. In the next three years, OPPO will invest over US$7 billion in R&D initiatives, as it continues to focus on developing cutting-edge technologies such as 5G, 6G, AI, AR, and big data while also building core technologies for underlying hardware and software to explore the infinite possibilities in the era of intelligent connectivity. 

Alen Wu, OPPO Vice President and President of Global Sales, commented: “OPPO has been more than just a smartphone maker. In fact, smartphones have simply been a tool for OPPO to deliver a diverse portfolio of technological services. OPPO will continue to improve its capabilities in hardware, software and services, as well as expanding its presence in the IoT field. Looking into the future, we will work with our customers and partners globally to open up more opportunities.”

OPPO will grant more flexibility to the operation of APAC Hub Center, constantly strengthening its operating capabilities backed by a series of supporting initiatives such as local recruitment, key channel building, operator customer services, product customization, co-branding, and co-marketing.

Commenting on the launch of the APAC Hub Center, Jimmy Yi, President of OPPO Asia Pacific said: “OPPO’s aspiration is more than ‘the leader in market share‘, but to become the all-round leading brand in the APAC markets. Therefore, we are already evolving beyond a smartphone company and targeting the next business expansion in the IoT space for personal and home application scenarios, digital content creation and offering mobile internet services for more diversified users,” Yi said. “Through the establishment of the APAC Hub Center, we are set to connect all markets and develop strategies more localized for the region. We will also connect with our partners to uncover more opportunities and create more value. Last but not least, we will also connect our users to more smart devices to deliver the experience of Intelligent Connectivity.”

Drive the APAC 5G rollout and explore the new intelligent connectivity ecosystem

In 2015, OPPO has already stablished a communication standard team in and has applied for 5G communication standard patents in more than 20 countries worldwide, with more than 2,500 families of global patent applications completed. OPPO launched the “OPPO 5G Landing Project” in February 2019 in Barcelona in partnership with key global operator partners, releasing Reno 10x Zoom 5G edition in Switzerland, United Kingdom, Australia, and Italy successively. The alliance partners of the “OPPO 5G Landing Project” continued to expand this year, with 15 new carrier partners in the APAC region coming on board.

According to market research firm GfK, the APAC region accounted for 50% of global smartphone sales in 2019 and will continue to maintain growth momentum due to favorable demographics. The coming 5G era is expected to generate 170 million potential shipment units for global smartphone markets. Additionally, the growth rate of the technology consumer goods market (including IoT etc.) in Emerging APAC will lead the world in 2020, reaching 5%.

Henry Tang, Chief 5G Scientist at OPPO said: “With the maturity of 5G technology and improvements of big data, cloud computing, and AI capabilities, we will usher in a broader space for ongoing development, which will lead to many unprecedented products and services. In the prelude to 5G’s arrival in 2020, OPPO will strengthen the next step innovation on 5G technology to bringing a better experience for global users. “

“Leaders are proven during each new ‘G’ transition, and OPPO is sure to be among the leading 5G innovators,” Jim Tran, Senior Vice President & GM, Handset Products Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. said, “With OPPO, we value the long standing collaboration and share the same passion for innovation. In 2020, we’re in full swing supporting OPPO with our latest products to deliver exceptional mobile experiences and achieve even greater success in the 5G era.”

Qualcomm partnered with OPPO to equip its latest Snapdragon 865 Mobile platform in the much-anticipated premium flagship device of 2020. To support early 5G deployment in the region, Qualcomm is also equipping its Snapdragon X55 5G Modem to the OPPO 5G CPE T1 that debuted at the event.

OPPO believes that the ‘Intelligent Connectivity‘, rather than the Internet of Things, will truly bring about revolutionary user experiences. To this end, Bobee Liu, OPPO Vice President and President of Intelligent Mobile Devices, said in his keynote speech that “Today, IoT, 5G, cloud, and AI cooperating with emerging core devices are vastly improving the quality and efficiency of people’s lives. We aim to create a people-oriented, multi-device, cross-scenario smart lifestyle service in four major areas—personal, home, offices, and travel—focusing strongly on interactive and experiential products. Meanwhile, we will continue to expand our interconnectivity capacity, building a service network to make a new and exciting user experience.”

OPPO and Malaysian operator Maxis jointly built a 5G network at the event to present the revolutionary experiences powered by 5G network. Morten Bangsgaard, Chief Technology Information Officer of Maxis said, “Maxis is proud to be the 5G network provider for OPPO’s APAC Strategy Launch Event. It is a testament to our network leadership and 5G capabilities. At Maxis, we have been accelerating our 5G journey by providing a glimpse into an exciting future of connectivity for consumers. With supported handsets, the possibilities of 5G is immense—almost instantaneous download speeds, higher resolution video, and next-level AR and VR capabilities. We are excited at the potential of 5G in a future of smart solutions for both consumers and businesses”

OPPO also showcased its upcoming suite of intelligent devices, including the OPPO 5G CPE T1, Enco Free true wireless headphones, AR glasses, as well as many technical achievements in flash charging technology, 5G, imaging, and software optimization. Among them, OPPO 5G CPE T1 is the connection hub developed by OPPO for scenarios such as home and office, broadening the 5G application scenario and extending the core experience of high speed and low delay 5G to Wi-Fi network equipment. OPPO 5G CPE T1 is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon X55 5G modem, supporting standalone (NSA) and non-standalone (SA) modes, dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS), and global 5G roaming.

Headphones are also one of the important emerging mobile access points in the 5G era. The OPPO Enco Free true wireless headphones, which were debuted at the event, uses low-latency dual-pass Bluetooth technology and are equipped with ultra-dynamic speakers. In addition, the devices have various functions, including AI voice noise reduction and sliding touch control. OPPO plans to launch the Enco Free headphones in the APAC region in January 2020 at a price of RM 499 (approximately US $120). The prices in other regions will be announced at a later date.

As one of the most economically dynamic regions in the world, the APAC region is expected to offer unprecedented opportunities for the development of 5G and the ecosystem construction of intelligent connectivity. OPPO will remain focused on the research, development and innovation of core technologies. From there, strengthening its regional teams and building up its operational capabilities to seize opportunities with industry chain partners in the connected future.