India is an important market for OnePlus and time and again we’ve seen the brand invest a significant amount of time and resources for Indian users. Today, OnePlus has made one of its biggest investments in India yet, by opening its first-ever R&D center in India. The company plans to invest Rs. 1,000 crore (Rs. 10 billion or $139 million) in the next three years to make it the biggest such center globally.
“We plan to re-focus our R&D efforts on a large scale and drive innovations in India for the global product, especially on the software side with special emphasis on Artificial Intelligence, 5G and IoT,” said OnePlus Founder and CEO Pete Lau at the opening event in Hyderabad today.
The R&D center will focus on developing India-specific features and applications for the Oxygen OS. It will house three major labs – a camera lab, communications and networking lab, and an automation lab. It is clear that the company aims to use this facility for developing its smartphone cameras, 5G, AI as well as other performance-related features. The company reveals that the facility will focus on developing five major areas: OxygenOS native apps, global product development, network and global carrier customization, software innovation, and testing.
OnePlus is reportedly conducting campus hiring programs at India’s premier institutes like IIT-Delhi and IIT-Mumbai.
