Oppo did not present great news in this Mobile from Barcelona. The reason was that his flagship product for this 2023 had been presented a couple of weeks before in Paris. The Oppo Find N2 Flip is finally the foldable that we all want to see. A very good phone with a folding system that incorporates a robust hinge, premium materials and a very good screen that, with the terminal open, barely shows the fold.
That Oppo has decided to bet its trump card for the premium range on folding phones seems like a sensible decision, especially to differentiate itself from other competitors. At the end of 2022 we begin to see a much more mature market for its large-scale commercialization. If the lower prices in general are added to better finished phones, which are around a thousand euros, they undoubtedly become a very attractive choice for the consumer.
During our visit to the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, we wanted to speak with Arne Herkelman, Oppo Europe’s Head of Product Management. We wanted to know What future plans does Oppo have in terms of its product catalog?if the folding will end up cannibalizing its premium terminals of the X Find family and the new products of its ecosystem, including the one focused on health and its new augmented reality glasses.
flip phones
The first question is clear. Folding phones have been with us for several years now. However, it seems that the first terminals that came out did not convince consumers. Do you think it will be easy to give the user the feeling that they are reliable and secure terminals?
arne herkelman: Indeed, the folding ones have been with us for a long time. At Oppo we started developing these types of phones five years ago. However, we did not want to launch one on the market until it met minimum quality standards, which would ensure its resistance and viability. So it wasn’t until last year that we launched the first foldable phone, and this year two more, the Oppo Find N2 and Oppo Find N2 Flip.
We have learned a lot in these years and the result is a phone that can be folded up to 400,000 times. This is our way of telling consumers that foldable phones work well and are a safe purchase.
Oppo Find N2 Flip or Oppo Find N2
At this point we know that the only model of the two that will arrive in Spain will be the Flip. However, the Oppo Find N2 model has also been very well received by the press. We were able to see it and test it and the sensations are very good. What is the reason for the strategy of betting everything on that single terminal?
arne herkelman: They are phones that go to two different audiences. The characteristics of each one, with a larger screen in the case of the Oppo Find N2, make it a phone more focused on a type of consumer interested in consuming content or spending many hours with the phone. On the other hand, the Oppo Find N2 Flip, being more compact, is the perfect phone for all those people who want a small phone, easier to store, but without having to give up a 6.8-inch screen.
Competition between the folding and future of the Oppo Find X6
Oppo has not been the only one that has presented a folding phone to match in recent weeks. HONOR and Xiaomi also have two proposals on the table. In Spain at the moment we will only see the HONOR Magic Vs in addition to the (foreseeable) continuations of Samsung and Motorola, with the Flip and Fold models in the case of the first and the Razer in the case of the second. Xiaomi, however, has already announced that it will be time to wait for the next generation to see its commercialization in Europe. Which competitive terminals attract your attention the most and which do you think is your main competitor?
arne herkelman: The truth is that I have not been able to see in depth the rest of the mobile phones of the competition and I could not tell you which is better, but I can tell you what we have done. Both the Oppo Find N2 and the Oppo Find N2 Flip are two very good phones. In fact, and following what Peter Lee, head of the OPPO Find product line, said in the presentation of the Oppo Find N2 Flip, we are not the first to release a foldable phone but it is the best foldable phone that exists today. today.
At this time of the year, Oppo would be presenting the “traditional” model Oppo Find X6 and the Oppo Find X6 Pro. However, this year it seems that we will not see it, at least for now, and its place will be occupied by the Oppo Find N2 Flip. Is this Oppo’s roadmap for the coming years?
arne herkelman: In the last ten years, mobile phones have become an indispensable object for most people. This has been marked by the evolution of the phone itself, with better cameras, better processors, more autonomy… Now with foldable phones we have the opportunity to continue evolving the smartphone market with an option that we are convinced people are excited about. . What happens in the future, with the rest of the smartphones, I can’t tell you.
Oppo diversifies its business
The phone market is highly competitive. In Europe it is distributed mainly by Samsung, Apple and Xiaomi and where other manufacturers such as Oppo seek to wage war and scratch market share. Perhaps that is why the future does not mean being only in this market but diversifying to other areas.
At the Mobile World Congress we were able to see new devices that were presented at Oppo INNO day at the end of 2022. On the one hand, virtual reality glasses, which attracted a lot of attention and whose use and usefulness seem very promising. With respect to the model we saw last year, the improvements are remarkable. This time we have glasses, with a screen on the lens (last year it was in only one eye) and we can have information about what is happening around us. Translate, see maps and directions to a place, see our appointments and meetings… Although they will not arrive in Spain in the next few years, it is a product niche that does arouse a lot of interest.
The second device was the Oppo OHealth H1, a family health monitor capable of measuring blood oxygen, performing an electrocardiogram, cardiac and pulmonary auscultation, heart rate, body temperature, and sleep monitoring. It stands out above all for being a super light device, since it only weighs 95 grams and its objective is to be able to monitor it at the moment and share it with your doctor in real time so that he can give us a first assessment. This would be a great help for a collapsed sector, especially in primary care.
arne herkelman: Opening up our ecosystem of products was the natural step for us to take. We already have good experience in the telephony, wearables and audio device markets, so we wanted to take it to other markets as well, such as the health sector, where preventive care is making more and more sense. We are also very confident in the potential of other wearables such as augmented reality glasses, which we will surely see among us soon.