OnePlus started off on a great note with its first smartphone launch in 2014. The Chinese smartphone company has a come a long way since then.
After setting high expectations with its first product, OnePlus failed to impress fans with its second-gen flagship, making people think it was a one-off shot. But it managed to turn the tables around and came back to its original disruption position.
OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 3T were perceived as one of the worthiest smartphones for their price and received positive reviews from critics and users alike. While 2016 marks an important year for OnePlus, it is now planning to build on that success by focusing on customer experience.
Read: OnePlus 3 Review
OnePlus India's general manager Vikas Agarwal opened up about the company's plans for 2017 during an interview with International Business Times, India, which include the local production of its flagship smartphones in the country and new ways to connect with customers.
Below are the edited excerpts from our interview with Agarwal:
IBTimes India: What are your plans for 2017?
Vikas Agarwal: Our plan for 2017 is to build on our successful experiments from the previous year to further improve our customer experience.
Some of the key focus areas for us this year include:
- "Make in India" for local production of our flagship smartphones,
- Expand the exclusive service centre network beyond Tier-I cities to deliver on our one-hour service promise
- Focus on localisation opportunities to provide a better experience to our users.
OnePlus Pop-up stores during OnePlus 3/3T launches were one of the most engaging activations for our fans. So, we have now launched our first Experience Store in the world in Bangalore to offer a very differentiated and personalised experience to our users. Also, we will bring the pop-up stores to non-metro cities as well.
IBT: What was the biggest trend you witnessed in 2016 and what areas of technology do you plan to explore in 2017?
Agarwal: The biggest trend we've observed in the previous year is the rise in demand for a premium smartphone experience. The current average device price in India is less than half the price in developed markets, but the smartphone consumption pattern is similar. So, as the 4G services become more affordable and purchasing power improves, we expect Indian consumers to follow global trends and upgrade to premium smartphones brands during their next purchase cycle.
At OnePlus, we firmly believe in leading the change to ensure our devices are future ready. This year, we introduced our proprietary Dash Charge technology, which has revolutionised the industry. Dash Charge is our most popular feature and promises a day's power in just half an hour of charge, even while the memory intensive applications are running.
Our company is also inspired by design and premium build quality materials. Our flagship smartphones are as much popular for their sleek and sturdy design as their cutting-edge features. We will continue to push the envelope to bring the latest available technology in our future flagships.
IBT: What is the coolest piece of tech you bought in 2016?
Agarwal: The coolest gadget for me this year was the Dash Car Charger. The Dash Car Charger allows me to fast charge my OnePlus 3T even when I am on the move. It's a must for any business user as it ultimately takes away battery-related woes as you no longer have to charge your phone overnight or worry about being stuck in traffic jams.
IBT: Technology is no longer defined by smartphones, so where do you see your product line heading next?
Agarwal: Inevitably, technology touches our lives in ways which were previously unthinkable. However, as a young company with limited resources, we prefer to focus on doing few things in a best possible manner to meet our high internal standards. If we can continue to deliver great products, we have an excellent opportunity to become the best Android smartphone maker and most preferred brand in the world. The premium smartphone market is vast and competitive enough to stay focused.
IBT: What is your take on VR, AR, IoT (Smart Homes) and what will drive the innovation in 2017?
Agarwal: The VR/AR gained popularity this year and are likely to go mainstream in the near future with major production houses embracing the concept. At OnePlus, we had experienced [crazy] demand for our VR products during our product launches. Even at our pop-up stores, the most popular activity was the AR Dash Charge game.
With data charges going down and technology maturing, IoT is also likely to start gaining adoption this year. The other promising technology is the self-driving and electric vehicles which are more efficient and offer smart automation benefits.
IBT: What are your targets in terms of sales and revenue for the upcoming year?
Agarwal: As a young start-up, we are witnessing high demand for our products across all markets in the world. Currently, we are selling exclusively on Amazon and yet the demand far exceeds the available supply. So, our core focus is to scale up the production to meet the existing demand and not worry too much about sales and revenue targets. We are now starting the local production to improve the supply lead time and minimise the stock-outs.
IBT: Where does India stand in terms of innovation by the end of 2016 against countries like China, U.S.?
Agarwal: Among all major economies, India has the lowest penetration of smartphones, but it is also the fastest growing smartphone market. The market failed to take off so far due to lack of affordable smartphones and high data charges. However, with the accelerated pace of smartphone penetration, the local innovations will start to gain traction from next year onwards as market achieves a critical user base.
IBT: What are your marketing strategies for 2017?
Agarwal: We made a mark on the world without delving into traditional marketing practices and will look to explore this space as we continue to grow as a company.
We've always strongly advocated building our community to expand our reach and will continue to do so in the year ahead. In fact, the pop-up stores and management feedback sessions with our users were all done to accommodate our biggest strength, the community. We will also continue to actively leverage our digital platform assets to engage with over 4 million users on our social media channels.
Besides, we will continue to leverage our association with Amazon to provide unique value proposition like Kindle vouchers, Prime subscriptions, etc. to our users. We are also closely working with Vodafone to give our users an opportunity to experience our products at their stores.
IBT: Is wearable industry dead? What is your take on it?
Agarwal: The wearable segment has failed to take-off so far due to poor market fit and user experience. In my opinion, the industry will continue to grow at a sluggish pace till it acquires critical mass or launch a breakthrough product to get mass adoption.
IBT: What were your biggest achievements in 2016?
Agarwal: 2016 was a landmark year for OnePlus India.
The biggest achievement for us this year is the market validation and critics acceptance of our products. Both of our latest flagship products have garnered unanimously positive reviews with some of the media channels calling them Best Smartphone Ever! More importantly, our users have made both OnePlus 3 and 3T the highest rated smartphone on Amazon platform.
Starting with the local production of our smartphones at the beginning of the year, we have made significant progress in our Indian journey. During the year, we launched seven (7) exclusive service centres in key markets which allow us to achieve over 90%+ success rate in resolving the customer issues. These centres also double up as an experience zones, thus beautifully complement our online-only sales strategy. There is also a home pick-up and drop service for time-constrained and remote customers.
We also brought our globally acclaimed own e-commerce store OnePlusStore.in last quarter. The internal store ensures ready availability of genuine accessories and a more personalised experience for our users, providing better experience and closer customer connect. Also, we recently launched our first flagship experience store in Bangalore. The e-commerce and experience mediums reiterate our long-term commitment towards the Indian market and our fan community here.
From a business perspective, OnePlus was ranked the second biggest smartphone in premium smartphone segment (above $400) as per latest CMR report. This is clearly a great validation of our business model and increased brand awareness, which relies on word of mouth driven marketing to improve awareness about our products.
