Chinese smartphone titan Oppo will maintain Germany as its fundamental operational hub for its European enterprise regardless of just lately withdrawing gross sales from the nation, Billy Zhang, the agency’s vice chairman of abroad gross sales and providers, mentioned instructed media on Monday.

Oppo halted gross sales in Germany this month after dropping a patent lawsuit to the Finnish telecoms large Nokia, which alleged that Oppo’s use of sure 4G and 5G signaling applied sciences had infringed on its patents.

OnePlus, which was folded into Oppo as a sub-brand final 12 months, has additionally suspended gross sales in Germany.

Realme, a younger cellphone model related to the Chinese electronics behemoth BBK, which can be credited for spawning Oppo, Vivo, and OnePlus, mentioned it’s “closely monitoring the situation” of Oppo’s patent challenges in Germany, Madhav Sheth, president of Realme’s worldwide enterprise group, mentioned on a press name in early August.

Germany is a well-liked regional base for Chinese tech corporations’ Europe expedition. Huawei’s European head workplace is in Düsseldorf. Autonomous driving unicorn Momenta picked Stuttgart as its first abroad cease to be near its automaking companions.

Back in 2020, Oppo opened its European headquarters in Düsseldorf.

“Our long-term commitment to the European and German markets stays the same,” Zhang mentioned on the decision. “There isn’t an impact on our choice of office location, and the German office, where our European hub is located, will operate as usual.”

The smartphone maker accounted for five% of Europe’s smartphone shipments within the second quarter, placing it in fourth place, in keeping with research firm Counterpoint. Oppo is ready to maintain serving its present clients in Germany, Zhang reassured, although some merchandise have been placed on maintain over Oppo-owned channels within the nation.

Though Oppo isn’t shaking up its German workplace, it’s making broader adjustments throughout the continent. Starting in August, the corporate will combine sure assets from Central and Eastern Europe with these of Western Europe, Zhang mentioned.

Such inside reorg can doubtlessly reduce prices and comes as no shock amid international financial headwinds. Smartphone cargo worldwide fell 9% in Q2, according to research from Canalys, with Oppo and its rivals Xiaomi and Vivo posting double-digit declines of their dwelling market China.

It stays to be seen how rivalry performs out between China’s smartphone darlings abroad. Realme has quickly grown its piece of the pie in Europe, ending Q2 within the fifth place by cargo quantity.

“We have big aspirations in Europe for sure. We will continue to grow, and we would like to be in the top three or five in a lot of countries,” mentioned Sheth.