OnePlus opens second store in B'luru

Smartphone maker OnePlus on Monday announced expansion of its retail stores including experience centres. The premium brand has opened its second offline store at Jayanagar in Bengaluru, apart from two more in Mumbai and Kolkata.

It is set to open over 10 new offline stores in key markets in the second half of this year. Vikas Agarwal, General Manager of OnePlus India said they are also planning to open one experience centre in Chennai soon. "The Indian market is the biggest revenue generator for us, and it makes for over one-third of the company's revenue in 2017. Our global revenue stood at $1.4 billion in 2017," Agarwal said, adding that they are looking to increase focus on offline to reach out to a majority of the Indian market that prefer tangible stores for experience before purchase.

However, the premium smartphone maker will continue to be a digital-first brand. "We have 25% market share in the premium segment. Bengaluru is the home market for us in India and has always been our most key market," Agarwal said.

OnePlus will also open an R&D centre in India, and it is scouting for locations for this. "At present we have a five-member team for R&D. Our total workforce in India is 85 and we will take this to 125 this year," Agarwal said.

Talking about its latest flagship, Agarwal said the OnePlus 6 is the first smartphone to be released in the country featuring Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor with 8GB of RAM and up to 256 GB of storage.

"It features an all-glass design and is available in four variants - mirror black, midnight black, red and silk white," he said.