OPPO hosted its annual OPPO Developer Conference (ODC) from August 29th to August 30th, 2022. Different from previous ones, ODC 2022 was hosted online. Our analysts from Wireless Smartphone Strategies (WSS) services attended the event.
The major announcement of the conference is the new ColorOS 13 while the most eye-catching spot is the unveil of Pantanal cross-platform smart system. According to OPPO, Pantanal system is designed to break the boundaries between different devices (brands) and systems. The goal to make it easier for developers to develop and deploy services across multiple platforms, and ultimately to lower cost while increase efficiency. OPPO is eager to transform itself from a pure smartphone vendor to a tech company with own ecosystem. Pantanal system is an important tech base for the mission.
The major motivation behind OPPO’s strong push to ecosystem game is to leverage the existing installed base of OPPO, OnePlus, and realme smartphones and to creates new, steady, and long-term revenue stream amid the challenging environment in hardware business. Pantanal system is only the first step. It remains to see how OPPO is going to engage more developers to join the platform and how open and fair the ecosystem will be.
Also in the event, OPPO highlighted its upgraded support plan for Chinese developers to go abroad. OPPO, OnePlus, and realme combined ranked the third in global smartphone market in 2021, according to our study. Outside home market, OPPO is well-received in South East Asia market and India market, while realme has extensive coverage in emerging markets and OnePlus has good reputation in mature markets. OPPO said that it will share its distribution resources with developers, which includes its self-operated app stores, OPPO browser, and its lock-screen. Considering OPPO’s market share as well as local business environment, we expect South East Asia will be most attractive to Chinese developers.
