Chinese smartphone vendor Oppo said on Tuesday it will invest 50 billion yuan ($7.1 billion) over the next three years into research and development, as it aims to hone its technological prowess amid the fierce competitions for the 5G-enabled internet of things era.

Chen Mingyong, CEO of Oppo, said the spending will focus on 5G research, 6G, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and other emerging technologies. Also, it will be used to finance more efforts to develop core fundamental architecture for hardware, and to boost its software capabilities.

"We have the faith of ‘sharpening a sword in 10 years' and we will ramp up efforts to build our own technical competence," Chen said.

According to him, the company will unveil smart watches, smart earphones, AR glasses, even smart robots in the future to tap into opportunities in the internet of things era.