Chinese smartphone maker Oppo whose brand is already in strife in Australia, due to falling demand and massive losses by their distributor is now fighting a global problem, with market share crashing worldwide and in China, their answer is to hire Elon Musk’s mum.
Their response is to cut a deal with supermodel Maye Musk, the mum of the world’s richest man, Elon Musk to spruik their new Oppo Find X6 Pro which is not being sold by smartphone retailers or carriers in in Australia.
The arrangement will see the supermodel will be the brand face and global ambassador position for the business.
The 75-year-old dietician will see her appearing in commercials and other events to promote the flagship.
Oppo and their owner BBK Electronics is in trouble, with Zeku a business that the Chinese Company set up 2019 to design application processor chips, modems, and other connectivity parts for Oppo’s smartphones pulling the plug on the business with over 3,000 employees facing a bleak future.
Nikki Asia has revealed that BBK Electronics the owner of the Oppo and Realme brand whose smartphones failed to take off in Australia, invested A$2.1 billion into trying to turn the business into a viable Company, the Company failed after just three years.
According to industry analysis company ICwise the subsidiary managed to develop some “small chips” for images and audio but was slow to reach its main goal of producing a smartphone application processor chip, its “big chip.”
On May 12, Oppo suddenly announced its decision to disband Zeku the Company formed to take on Intel MediaTek and Qualcomm.
Analysts are claiming that Oppo’s decision could have a “domino effect” and make some peers who rely on external financing to give up or “lie flat” — withdraw voluntarily from relentless competition — in the face of difficulties, said a professor of integrated circuits.
Zeku CEO Liu Jun blamed the shutdown on “the grim situation surrounding the global economy and smartphone industry” and Oppo’s inability to meet its revenue expectations, which he said made it difficult for the company to continue investing in chip development.
Recently the struggling smartphone brand was dumped by multiple retailers in Europe after the Company was accused of stealing patents.
Liu, who is also Oppo’s chief technology officer admits that the Company is struggling in the face of new competition from the likes of Motorola and Nokia as well as market leaders Apple and Samsung.
In 2022, China’s smartphone market experienced a sharp sales contraction, with shipments falling 13.2% to 285.8 million units, the first time since 2013 that annual sales dipped below 300 million, according to IDC.
In China Oppo was the worst performing smartphone Company with their share of the domestic market dropped 3.6 percentage points to 16.8%, after logging a 28.2% decrease in shipments, the sharpest slide among the country’s top five vendors, according to IDC.
Globally, Oppo mis losing market share with this set to worsen following their withdrawal from key European markets.
One former Zeku employee recently admitted that the application processors, while being proprietary, was not very competitive compared to similar products from bigger rivals like Qualcomm and MediaTek.
In order to boost its R&D capabilities, Zeku poached staff from established mobile chipmakers including Samsung Taiwan-based MediaTek, Huawei Technologies’ HiSilicon and Qualcomm with offers of higher salaries and perks.
People hired from the same company were typically grouped together into a single team.
This led to different teams engaging in workplace conflicts or turf wars for more resources, several former Zeku employees told Nikki Asia.
