China smartphone vendor Oppo is gearing up to extend its sales tentacles into Europe countries, particularly the UK, Turkey and Poland in 2019, as part of its efforts to pursue new growth momentum.

Bolstered by high price/performance ratios for its smartphones, Oppo recorded sales of some 20 million units in China for a market share of 20% in the fourth quarter of 2018, second only to Huawei's corresponding figures of 30 million units and 29%.

After seeing its annual sales break the level of 100 million units in 2018, Oppo is stepping up venturing its smartphones into Europe, and will debut its new 10x hybrid optical zoom technology at the upcoming 2019 MWC.

The vendor has also announced plans to set up a 5G smartphone design center in London to pave the way for commercial runs of 5G mobile communications in 2020.

Since the inception of its 5G R&D team in 2015, Oppo has obtained close to 1,000 5G patents. The company said it will team up with Qualcomm to showcase related 5G technologies at this year's MWC slated for February 25-28.