Interview with CEO OPPO Pakistan About F1 Plus

Today, we have with us Mr. George Long, CEO of OPPO Pakistan, with us who will explain our readers the latest about OPPO products and how OPPO has become a known brand locally in Pakistan. OPPO is also ranked as 4th largest manufacturers in the world.

Our discussion with Mr. Long will mainly revolve around F1 Plus Selfie Expert, that we recently reviewed.

Let’s get to the business.

Question: Recently, OPPO launched the F series. Is the positioning of this series adjusted among all products? What are features of this series and who are the target audience?

Answer: The F series is a new series launched based on OPPO’s simple, focused strategy. According to the surveys in global major markets, we found that the selfie demands of users are increasing. At the same time, OPPO has an excellent history in imaging technology. For example, the pioneering beautify function, the N3 with the first automatic rotating camera in the world, and the Pure Image engine technology prove OPPO’s capabilities in this field.

The F series are developed with such a background. The F1 mobile phone under the F series initially highlights its selfie function.

OPPO will continuously concentrate on the user demands and accumulate technologies to better serve our target audience.

Camera & photography:

Question: Unlike other phones, the front camera of F1 Plus has 16 megapixels while the rear camera has 13 megapixels. Was this intentional and if the current 13 megapixels can indeed satisfy the main camera’s requirements? Also, as compared with the R7, the rear camera of F1 Plus is not greatly improved. What’s your opinion?

Answer: The quality of a camera shouldn’t be judged solely by the number of megapixels. What we are focused on is to meet users’ clearer and brighter selfie demands.

The front facing Camera of the F1 Plus does not only have 16 megapixels but it also features a special pixel arrangement, and this is coupled with optimized software which makes it an outstanding selfie expert.

The improvement is quite obvious for the front camera and it is an experience that we developed based on feedback we received from our consumer surveys from various markets where we operate.

Regarding the rear camera, 13 megapixels are standard for medium and high-end mobile devices these days. Other than just the megapixel count however, we have improved the imaging experience of the F1 Plus considerably, compared to the R7 series. Especially through our brand new ColorOS 3.0, we have greatly improved our image processing algorithms and the camera features to better suit our customers’ needs.

Question: Would you please describe the pixel rearrangement technology in detail for our readers?

Answer: Due to the confidential nature of our technology, I can only give you an approximate explanation. In short, we have found a way to significantly increase the amount of light a single pixel gets through increasing its size.

The benefits of large pixels are clear to all of us: improved sensitivity, improved dynamic range, better color reproduction and reduced digital noise. We call this our 16 megapixel Hi-light camera. For now, this is as much as I am allowed to say.

Question: Is the Beautify 4.0 applicable only to East Asia races? Does OPPO consider the demands of other markets when optimizing this function? Would you give us some specific examples?

Answer: Since 2014, OPPO began to vigorously expand overseas markets. Our product and image teams also actively survey the demands of local users in Southeast Asia, South Asia, and other markets.

Our staff has recently conducted a survey on beautifying preferences in India. I believe more selfie functions that can satisfy the local user demands will be launched in the near future.

Design & Appearance

Question: The appearance of F1 Plus is arguably similar to iPhone; how would you respond to such thoughts?

Answer: Unlike in the era of feature phones, where lots of different form-factors were available, the smartphone era has clearly shown strong convergence in terms of hardware design.

The incredibly complex internals and high user demands have lead to smartphone designs becoming very polished, and best practices are widely accepted by key players in the industry. Our recent innovation and differentiation is rooted in a focus on details. Such details, for example how to narrow bezels are, how large the screen-to-body ratio is, how comfortable a phone feels in hand after a long period of use, or how fast and convenient a fingerprint reader is, are what we have been focusing on, and I believe we did a great job.

Holding an F1 Plus in hand should easily convince you with its incredibly light weight, careful lines, and thin bezels.

If you carefully compare the physical products, you may find that the antenna arrangement of F1 Plus and iPhone are greatly different.

The rear antenna processes of F1 Plus and iPhone are different. F1 Plus adopts the process of integrating plastic into metal, while iPhone adopts the surface mounting process. Meanwhile, the rear antenna of F1 Plus is thinner than that of iPhone. Therefore, the antenna design and engineering of two products are greatly different.

Question: Another highlight point of F1 Plus is its ColorOS 3.0 system, which is greatly changed. However, it encounters the same similarity issues like other UIs. How would you like to clarify the doubts of the consumers?

As for ColorOS, we have focused on a building a fast, stable, and efficient system. As I emphasized, the entire system is light, which is the real core feature of our products. We have found that these are the core characteristics that our users care about, so we designed our UI to match these characteristics.

From the thin and light fonts, to the light pastel colors, it all supports the feeling of being light and easy to use.

Question: Recent OPPO phones have not offered black as a color option. In this generation, even the silver color is unavailable. May we know the reason for this?

Answer: While designing new models, we try all color options, not only the colors disclosed to the public. We carefully compare samples in each color. However, which color we choose finally is determined based on the user demands.

We do a lot of user surveys and select the most appropriate colors based on the user demands. We will have some more color options for upcoming as well as some FC Barcelona special edition devices!

Hardware

Question: Why aren’t the super VOOC and sensor anti-shake technologies, released on the MWC, included in the F1 Plus version?

Answer: These technologies are awesome. I was very surprised when I saw it in the lab for the first time. We are eager to provide more standout technologies to consumers.

However, as we all know, there is a process that any technology must go through to become mature, and our foremost concerns is assuring that we only deliver users superb products that are totally ready for the market.

Even now, the VOOC leads the industry, although it has been out for about two years. So why is it still ahead of the competitors? The outstanding safety it offers to the phone and the excellent user experience are incomparable.

We will put our new technologies through similarly rigorous development processes to make sure that they will stay relevant for a long time. We will continuously apply the technology announced at MWC to our phones in a mature manner.

Question: The memory of F1 Plus is directly upgraded to 4 GB. Would you please shed some light on large memory? Will subsequent OPPO mobile phones adopt 4 GB or higher memory?

Answer: When doing user surveys, we found that processing power is more than sufficient for most users, but memory becomes a bottleneck of the devices. Therefore, the memory of F1 Plus is improved to give users a better user experience.

4 GB memory is also defined as the start capacity for OPPO phones with this market position.

ColorOS 3.0 & Software

Question: What is your opinion about the similarity between ColorOS 3.0 and IOS 9.0 in terms of the design and UI?

Answer: The major features of ColorOS are speed, stability and efficiency. As I emphasized, the entire system is light, which is the real core feature of our products.

Centered on this core, we have made a lot of changes in design and performance. Finally, the system has become light and snappy, and the running speed is also accelerated.

The phones bring a light, refreshing experience to consumers, in terms of visual design, interaction, and the system as a whole.

Question: There is a huge difference between the new system and the previous system. However, the Android version of the new system is 5.1. Why isn’t it 6.0? Will the F1 Plus receive an update to 6.0?

Answer: With ColorOS 3.0, our main focus was making it as fast, stable, and efficient as possible, while also vastly improving our camera features. We are confident that we have created a user experience that will deliver in these areas.

We hope to promote the most stable products to our users at appropriate time, and bring our users the most stable and optimal experience.

Question: Besides the F1 Plus, what models will be upgraded to ColorOS 3.0?

Answer: We are still working on finalizing these plans. Once we have the latest road map for bringing ColorOS 3.0 to other models, we will share it with you in a timely manner.

Marketing Strategy and others

Question: The pricing of F1 Plus is a little high. Would you talk about your opinion about OPPO’s pricing strategies?

Answer: We have already done the market research before F1 Plus launch, and this is the competitive retail price as compared with our main competitors.

With F1 Plus, our customers can get the most decent and powerful mobile device with-in the price. So

I do not consider that the pricing of F1 Plus is a little high. Moreover, OPPO Pakistan — in order to meet local market economy — the prices of each handset are lower than many other markets where OPPO is operating, like China, India, Australia, and Southeast Asia

Additionally, the good news is in order to celebrate Eid Festival, OPPO reduces F1 Plus retail price to Rs. 39,999. At this price, more customers will experience and purchase great device with less cost, and make their selfie bright and beautiful in the festival.

 

Why have you not launched a flagship for 2+ years?  When can we expect the Find 9? 

Answer: Previously, we had lots of series and products in each category, which wasted our resources. We ended up creating many phones, but none of them stood out enough in its category.

Our corporate strategy has changed to become simple and focused. We now concentrate our resources on creating fewer products and not in all categories. We concentrate all of our resources on creating phones that stand out in their category.

We have felt that in this time, the Midrange and premium midrange were the categories where we could deliver the best products, and the success of our R7 and F1 series seem to support this decision.

We will continue to put our resources behind fewer products, but in turn make them better. We will have a flagship phone like the Find 9 when we feel that we can create a device that becomes the market leader in that category.

Thank you Mr. Long for the time and insights.