Dubai: Chinese smartphone manufacturer — Oppo — aims to attain five per cent market share this year as it turns its focus on the phone camera and the overall rendering quality of the image.
The first phone for the year — F1 — is called the “selfie expert” and was unveiled in Dubai as the trend is shifting to selfies rather than the rear cameras.
Ivan Wu, General Manager for Oppo UAE, told Gulf News that so far the company was building its image and studying the markets in the Gulf and was not keen on sales volume.
“We were focusing on mid- to high-end range phones so far, but this year also our focus will be the same but will provide more value-added features and at a much lower value. Our aim is to expand the customer base with exceptional products as our customers are young and trendy, then the customers will stay with our brand,” he said.
According to CounterPoint Research, China has nine of the world’s top 12 smartphone brands after Samsung and Apple.
The company, which is ranked eight globally, sold 50 million units last year with a year- on-year growth of 67 per cent.
The F1 is a five-inch aluminium-polished device and powered by 1.5GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 616 processor with 3GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage capacity. The capacity can be expanded up to 128GB via microSD card slot. The dual SIM card slots support 4G.
There are many selfie phones available in the market but it is the Dh899 price that will steal the attraction.
Wu said the 8MP front-facing camera with a wide f/2.0 aperture lens and a 1/4-inch sensor, allows 44 per cent more light to enter the camera than an f/2.4 aperture lens, and results in shots that are 30 per cent clearer than ones taken with an ordinary 5 MP front-facing camera.
“The software additions like Beautify 3.0 feature ensure stunning selfies in all conditions. It removes blemishes, highlights a subject’s features and includes three different beautify modes along with 8 filters. The rear cam has 13MP and has the slow shutter mode,” he said.
Oppo phones are available only in the UAE and Qatar, both online and offline.
“We are expanding into other Gulf countries this year as Saudi Arabia offers huge growth opportunities. 2016 appears to be very promising for us,” he said.
He said that consumers value devices with good features rather than the price and the line between the high- and low-end devices is blurring.
The company is expected to launch its next flagship smartphone — R9 with two new technologies like VOOC and its new sensor-based OIS system for the camera — in June.
VOOC, which stands for voltage open loop multi-step constant-current charging, is the technology developed by Oppo, and is capable of charging a 2,500mAh battery in 15 minutes. It can achieve 45 per cent charge in just five minutes.
VOOC and sensor-based OIS system features will be available on R9.
Rumours claim the six-inch device will be powered by Snapdragon 820 processor with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of ROM. It may house 21MP rear and 13MP front-facing cameras.
