Breaking New Grounds At Oppo

With Will Zhou at the helm of its foldable smartphone division, Oppo is rapidly dominating the conversation around foldables and their future

From bricks to bars to slates, the form mobile phones take has evolved alongside their technologies, with every major iteration redefining the user‑device interface. The advent of foldable smartphones accompanies the development of flexible OLED screens and whilst this remains a nascent category, rapid progress is being made. Oppo is among the pioneers in this product segment, with its Find N line defining—and redefining—just what is possible in this space.

At the head of the brand’s foldable phones division is Will Zhou, a veteran who has spent a decade at Oppo across various functions. “In the past 10 years, I’ve served in various functions including R&D, product strategy and quality assurance,” he shares. “I’ve even had a stint as the executive’s assistant, which was invaluable in giving me the exposure to top‑level decision‑making at Oppo.”

Zhou’s experience has put him in good stead to enable Oppo’s market dominance in the foldables battleground; he recognises how the forward march of technology has presented various opportunities and is eager to capitalise on it. “I’ve witnessed the industry’s transition from feature phones to smartphones, and seen its accompanying shift from 3G to 4G, then to 5G,” he muses. “The next major change is the move to foldable phones. My mission as Oppo’s director of foldable products is to position the brand as the leader in this space.” He shares more in this interview.

How do you define innovation, both from a personal perspective and in the context of Oppo’s brand philosophy?