After smartwatch, OnePlus gears up to launch office devices

New Delhi, March 24 OnePlus is not settling after the launch of the new smartphone series and the first smartwatch. The brand is now making investments to launch devices in new categories including in the smart office space, a top company executive has said.

"Our teams are currently engaged in finding out which are great products and ecosystem devices that office goers will love to have in their hands or in their office spaces," Navnit Nakra, Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer, OnePlus, told IANS in an interview.

When asked if devices for the office space meant launching laptops and other PCs, Nakra said that it was too early for him to give a "specific comment" on that.

"One of the things that we are looking at is how do we build an ecosystem of devices, not just the smartphone and smart TVs," Nakra said, while talking about the new areas in which the company is investing.

"One of the areas that we are investing in is the IOT (Internet of Things) connected devices ecosystem. So this investment is going to be in four areas," he said.

These four areas include "personal IOT" which is the wearables and "smart homes."

"In the smart home category, we have already made an entry into smart TV, but in the coming years, you will see us investing a lot on new products which will bring experience in your home which is more vibrant," Nakra said.

"Third is smart offices. We are looking at what can we do to build better office space, a more connected office space which will improve employee productivity," he said.

The fourth area of focus for OnePlus is smart cars.

"Our founders also indicated that we would love to be in the smart cars journey space in the years to come," Nakra said.

The OnePlus 9 series that the company launched on Tuesday focused a lot on the camera technology.

The company earlier this month made its three-year partnership with Swedish camera manufacturer Hasselblad official.

The two companies entered into the partnership to co-develop the next generation of smartphone camera systems for future OnePlus flagship devices.

OnePlus also announced its plans to invest more than $150 million over the next three years towards further camera development and improving the imaging experience.

"The Hasselblad camera for mobile technology which will deliver aesthetic, high quality and unparallel colour reproduction which will set the stage for future of mobile imaging," Nakra said.

He said that OnePlus took a very "strong bet" on becoming 5G ready and bringing the benefits of advanced technology to Indian users.

OnePlus, which recently announced an investment of Rs 100 crore towards offline expansion in India for 2021, is also focusing a lot on making its devices accessible across the country.

"So from being a brand which largely focused on top 50 to 100 cities, our aspiration is to go to the next 1,000 cities in India and improve our distribution capability," Nakra said.

"We have taken a mandate internally to go from 60-70 cities that we are serving with our service centres to go to top 150 cities where we can have our own service centres," he added.

Nakra said that the company started the "Make in India" initiative in February 2018 and since then it has been manufacturing all its smartphone devices in India.

"As of this year, all our OnePlus smart TVs are manufactured in India," he said, adding that over the years the company is embracing this initiative of manufacturing more and more of its products in India.

OnePlus is also exploring the opportunity to export its products from India to other countries.