China Oppo partners with Vodafone for greater European momentum – TechCrunch

Huawei faces a difficult challenge in the foreign market, as its next devices do not have the full range of applications and services from Google. This leaves ample room for Chinese rivals to sue foreign consumers.

Including Oppo Vivo's sister brand under electronics based in Dongguan holding BBK. In an announcement made Monday, the Chinese firm announced a partnership with Vodafone to bring its smartphones to the markets of the European mobile operator. The deal starts in May and will sell the oppo portfolio of advanced 5G devices, as well as value-for-money models in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy , Portugal, Romania and Turkey.

While Vodafone Last year when it removed Huawei phones from its UK 5G network following the export ban in the United States. United States which has removed certain Android models from certain Android services, the British operator can now take advantage of Oppo's wide range of mobile products in a stormy race to enroll 5G customers. The partners will jointly explore online sales channels, as many parts of the European physical facilities remain closed due to COVID-19.

Oppo, currently The second longest The smartphone supplier in its home country, after Huawei, has seen sales increase in Europe since entering the market in mid-2018. one of the first Last year it will launch commercially available 5G phones in Europe and is now ranked fifth on the continent.

"Oppo offers a range of products that can reach most of the same segments as Huawei, allowing it to gain market share at the expense of Huawei," Peter Techson, research director at Counterpoint Research, told Heaven32. “Oppo has always used a fairly European flavor in the design of its products. This extends to things like choice of colors, packaging and advertising materials. This makes it acceptable to European consumers. "

Interestingly, Richardson noted that Oppo, which has a less "Chinese" name than its national rivals Xiaomi and Huawei, will help it get around some of the "negative media surrounding China at the moment: Huawei's difficulties around threats for security and, more recently, the COVID-19 pandemic. "