OnePlus needs to improve on several fronts: Carl Pei

The painter Carl Pei, co-founder of OnePlus, is the biggest rival of all major smartphone manufacturers – Apple iPhone. Photo: Mint

Bengaluru: OnePlus, the Chinese smartphone manufacturer, has undeniably broken the Indian high-end smartphone market, small but growing, in terms of market share and customer loyalty. Carl Pei, co-founder of the Shenzen company, evaluates his phones to only 3 out of 10 and OnePlus still has a long way to go in terms of products, services and marketing. With regard to product marketing, the reference of Pei is the biggest rival of Apple, the maker of high-end smart phones –

. grow slowly over the short term and conceded that growth in India over the next two years would come largely from market share gains rather than overall market expansion. But Pei said the company would continue to invest heavily in the country given its long-term potential.

Pei notes that the first iPhone, the first phone with a full touch screen, was introduced by Apple's creator, Steve Jobs, to consumers 10 to 10 in terms of product marketing. "If it's a 10, we're probably a 3 at this point. In each area you can find the best of the best, compare yourself to these and see that you have a big void. I'm not saying that our teams are not doing a good job, but if you want to be the best, there is still a long way to go, "said Pei, who has recently stepped back from his day-to-day operations. on a global scale, focus on branding.

The company has already managed to carve a large part of the premium market in India. OnePlus captured 30% of the premium smartphone segment and led the segment for the second consecutive quarter of the third quarter, boosted by strong demand for its OnePlus 6 phones, according to data from Counterpoint Research.

On Monday, the company launches its latest flagship product. , OnePlus 6T. Over the next year, OnePlus, which currently generates most of its sales on Amazon, will also open more offline stores to promote its products and allow new users to try its products.

OnePlus 6T was launched Monday in New York, priced at 549 dollars. The launch in India will take place today. Photo: HT

"Many people ask us about what we do in India – there is only a small percentage of Indians who can buy a premium premium phone. long term and it is perfectly fine to give up short term opportunities.The premium segment is quite small in India, but the truth is also that the economy is growing rapidly, the standard of living of people is improving and , if any, it improves its buying behavior, "said Pei.

By short-term opportunities, he refers to the" temptation "to create a cheaper smartphone. In India, Pei thinks that this could be detrimental in the long run and could alienate the core of OnePlus, which is critical to user acquisition.

Premium smartphone shipments have reached a record high in the third quarter of 2018, according to Counterpoint data Previous quarter data from International Data Corp. corroborated this trend. The high-end smartphone segment in India has almost doubled compared to the previous year, due to the continued strength of Samsung Galaxy S9 and OnePlus 6 shipments, IDC wrote in its second quarter report. ;August.