Chinese smartphone vendor OnePlus (一加) yesterday said it has partnered with Taiwan’s Foxconn Technology Group (富士康) to assemble its handset products in India by the end of this year.
“Producing smartphones in India is one of the most important decisions that we have made so far at OnePlus, and we are thankful to the government of Andhra Pradesh [state] and Foxconn for helping us make this happen,” OnePlus founder and chief executive Pete Lau (劉作虎) told a news conference in Bangalore, India.
He said India is one of OnePlus’ largest markets and the company is committed to a long-term sustainable growth path there.
OnePlus India general manager Vikas Agarwal said local production would not only make the company’s operations more efficient in terms of cost and working capital, but that it would also help make products available for sales much faster than before.
The first batch of smartphones manufactured by Foxconn’s plant in Sri City in Andhra Pradesh will be commercially available by the end of this year, the firm said.
Other Chinese smartphone vendors that have announced plans to produce handsets with Foxconn include Xiaomi Inc (小米), and Gionee Communication Equipment Co Ltd (金立).
Gionee yesterday said it would produce feature phones with Foxconn in the Taiwanese manufacturer’s plant in Sri City.
Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) has also teamed up with Foxconn to make its ZenFone series in India since July.
China’s Guangdong Oppo Electronics Co (廣東歐珀) last month said it was in talks with Foxconn to produce smartphones in India.
The handful of smartphone vendors’ move to manufacture devices in India indicates the rising importance of this market.
Foxconn, also known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), said it could build as many as 12 plants in India over the next few years.
Hon Hai chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) in August said the company sees India as a large manufacturing, expansion and export base.
Hon Hai plans to manufacture smartphones, precision machines, televisions, batteries, equipment for data centers, switch routers and storage solutions there, Gou said.
India is one of the fastest-growing smartphone markets among emerging markets this year, with International Data Corp forecasting sales of 109.44 million handsets this year, up 33.75 percent from last year’s 81.82 million units.
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