China's OnePlus to make 3T phone in India from early 2017

By Sankalp Phartiyal

MUMBAI (Reuters) - China's OnePlus plans to make its 3T model in India from early next year to meet growing demand in the world's second-biggest smartphone market by users.

OnePlus is ranked by technology researcher IDC as the third-biggest seller of premium phones selling for more than $300 in India, behind Samsung Electronics and China's Oppo.

Earlier this year it discontinued a 2015 contract manufacturing deal with Foxconn Technology Co Ltd to make its mid-end X phones in southern India.

Vikas Agarwal, general manager of OnePlus' Indian operations, said the company was now looking to make its new 3T phone in India, starting early next quarter.

The company, a third of whose global sales are from India, says it has already received 200,000 registrations for buying the 3T model priced at 29,999 rupees ($442) since beginning sales this week on Amazon's India marketplace.

"We actually probably have lost, I would say, maybe 30 percent of sales because of stock-outs," Agarwal told Reuters on Friday by telephone, referring to sales of the 3T and an earlier model.

"The focus is on trying our best to meet the demand."

He declined to comment on the manufacturing arrangement this time, but said OnePlus will work with multiple partners including, possibly, Foxconn.

Agarwal said OnePlus had no immediate plan to sell through retail outlets and will continue to sell only on Amazon.

But it does plan to open by early January a so-called experience centre in the southern Indian technology hub of Bengaluru, where customers can come and see OnePlus smartphones.

OnePlus also plans to add six more service centres to its existing seven, Agarwal said. It also provides services through 60 third-party outlets.

($1 = 67.8351 Indian rupees)

(Editing by Devidutta Tripathy and Alexander Smith)