Guangdong-based Chinese consumer electronics and mobile manufacturer, OPPO says it plans to spend &1.43 billion (10 billion yuan) on Research and Development (R&D) to improve its technological capabilities. The company’s spending plan represents a 150 per cent year-on-year increase. It has also sets its sights on African markets like Nigeria.
In a statement sent to BusinessDay, the company disclosed that the R&D will focus mainly on the areas of artificial intelligence (AI), 5G technology and the internet of things.
Tony Chen, CEO of OPPO, noted that the company was committed to leverage AI to develop a wide range of smart devices including smart watches and smart home technologies to explore and meet the increasingly rigid demands of consumers in the age of the internet of things (IoT).
“The vision is to dare to explore, dare to make breakthroughs and dare to innovate,” says OPPO team. “In the future, OPPO will truly integrate technological innovation with art and humanity, to develop smart devices and smart homes with the smartphones at their core.”
R&D spending has recently been on the upward as most of the big manufacturers move to deepen their innovation. Spending in AI in particular has been leading other segments and in 2019, a Gartner report predicts it will grow further by 3.2 per cent as organisations shift from ownership to service.
5G is also another area predicted to grow. OPPO says it is positioning to become the first manufacturer in the world to launch 5G smartphones. The plan go as far back as 2015 when it established a 5G team which have continued to work backstage till it achieved a major breakthrough in October 2018.
OPPO’s range of 5G phones will fully integrate with applications and user insights, and continuously innovate to provide users with revolutionary, necessary convenient and seamless experiences.
With personalised experiences through technology as target, the company says it has applied AI technologies across a wide range of applications including photography, facial recognition and fingerprint identification while introducing many innovative features including an AI-powered beauty camera, 3D portrait lighting and intelligent recognition scenarios.
OPPO is envisioning a future where smartphones will become intelligent personal assistants and as such are already investing in R&D to make this happen first.
