OnePlus

OnePlus
Private
Industry Consumer electronics
Founded 2013
Founder Pete Lau
Headquarters Shenzhen, Guangdong, China[1]
Area served
 Worldwide
Key people
 Pete Lau (Chief Executive Officer)
Products OnePlus One
Slogan Never Settle
Website oneplus.net

OnePlus is a Chinese smartphone manufacturer founded in December 2013. It is headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, China.

History

The OnePlus company was founded on 16 December 2013 by former Oppo vice president Pete Lau. According to government documentation, the only institutional stockholder in OnePlus is Oppo, although Lau has denied that OnePlus is a wholly owned subsidiary of Oppo.[2] The company's main goal was to design a smartphone that would balance high-end quality with a lower price than other phones in its class, believing that users would "never settle" for the lower-quality devices produced by other companies. Lau explained that "we will never be different just for the sake of being different. Everything done has to improve the actual user experience in day-to-day use."[3][4] He also showed aspirations of being the "Muji of the tech industry", emphasizing its focus on high-quality products with simplistic, user-friendly designs.[3] Continuing Lau's association with the platform from the Oppo N1,[4] OnePlus entered into an exclusive licensing agreement with Cyanogen Inc. to base its products' Android distribution upon a variant of the popular custom ROM CyanogenMod and use its trademarks outside of China.[5][6]

The company unveiled its first device, the OnePlus One, on 23 April 2014.[3] In December 2014, alongside the release of the OnePlus One in India exclusively through Amazon, OnePlus also announced plans to establish a presence in the country, with plans to open 25 official walk-in service centres across India.[7] Sales of the device in India were halted following a temporary injunction granted to Micromax Mobile, alleging that it violated its exclusive rights to distribute Cyanogen-branded products in South Asia as part of a new joint venture and that its agreement superseded the agreement it had established with OnePlus. The company disputed the arguments, noting that its Cyanogen-based software was different than that of Micromax's, and argued that the exclusivity agreement only meant that Cyanogen could not partner with any other company based in India, and did not inhibit the ability for OnePlus to market its products in the country with its trademarks.[5][8] One Plus developed a new android custom rom named Oxygen OS. The new shipment of OnePlus One also removed the Cyanogen Logo from its back and box in order to simplify production lines.

OnePlus disembarked in South-East Asia partnering with Lazada Indonesia on 23 January 2015 and is expected to expand during this year throughout the region.

In 2014, OnePlus hired Han Han as the product ambassador in China.[9]

On 9 March 2014 the company decided to expand its operations to all European Union countries, serving now over 35 countries and regions all over the world.

Controversy

Smash the Past campaign

On 25 April 2014, OnePlus began its "Smash the Past" campaign.[10] The promotion asked selected participants to destroy their phones on video in an effort to purchase the OnePlus One for $1 (US). Due to confusion, several videos were published by unselected users misinterpreting the promotion and destroying their phones before the promotion start date.[11]

The Campaign was heavily criticized for environmental waste and safety concerns, due to batteries and phone components posing potential hazards to participants destroying their phones.[12] OnePlus allowed the winners to donate the old phone.[13] There were 140,000 entrants in the contest with 100 winners.[14]

Ladies First

On 13 August 2014, OnePlus hosted a contest to give invites, which were hard to come by at the time, to their women forum members. Users were asked to post a photo of themselves with the OnePlus logo, photos would be shared in the forum and could be ´liked´ by other forum members.[15] Hours after being announced the campaign was stopped. OnePlus stated that a few 'rogue' employees created the campaign.

Ban In India

On 16 December 2014, The Delhi High Court banned the import and sales of OnePlus One phones in India following a lawsuit by Micromax citing the reason that Micromax has exclusivity for shipping phones with CyanogenMod software in India.[16]

As of 21 December 2014, the banning of import and selling of the device has been lifted. The device continues to be shipped with CyanogenMod ROM however a customized OS specially designed by OnePlus and named OxygenOS is currently in development and expected to ship with the devices in Q3 2015, together with the launch of their second device, the OnePlus Two.

Devices

The back cover of OnePlus One

See also

References

  1. ↑ Xiang, Tracey. "Chinese Smartphone Startup OnePlus Aims at Developed Markets". TechNode. Retrieved 2 May 2014.
  2. ↑ F., Alan (26 Apr 2014). "Is OnePlus a wholly owned subsidiary of Oppo? Chinese document suggests that the answer is yes". phonearena.com.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "Meet the One, OnePlus' $299 Nexus killer". Engadget. Retrieved 3 February 2015.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Kastrenakes, Jacob (16 December 2013). "From Oppo to OnePlus: a new company wants to build the next great smartphone". The Verge. Retrieved 14 February 2014.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 "OnePlus to Delhi High Court: Micromax's Cyanogen OS Is Different". NDTV Gadgets. Retrieved 3 February 2015.
  6. ↑ Dent, Steve (7 January 2014). "Cyanogen will partner with OnePlus on its debut phone, the 'OnePlus One'". Engadget. Retrieved 14 February 2014.
  7. ↑ "OnePlus One launched in India for $355 on Amazon". GSMArena. Retrieved 3 February 2015.
  8. ↑ "OnePlus One Sales Reportedly Halted By Delhi High Court After Micromax Plea". NDTV. Retrieved 3 February 2015.
  9. ↑ "Oppo unveils Chinese actress Mini Yang M as brand ambassador". GSM INSIDER. Retrieved 17 April 2015.
  10. ↑ "OnePlus Smash Promotion". Retrieved 27 April 2014.
  11. ↑ "OnePlus One ‘Smash the Past" contest sees hopefuls smashing their phones prematurely". Retrieved 27 April 2014.
  12. ↑ "OnePlus One "Smash the Past" is a Pretty Bad Contest". Retrieved 27 April 2014.
  13. ↑ "OnePlus revises their 'smash' contest to allow winners to donate perfectly good phones to charity instead". Android Central. Retrieved 2 May 2014.
  14. ↑ http://www.androidcentral.com/oneplus-revises-their-smash-contest-allow-winners-donate-perfectly-good-phones-charity-instead
  15. ↑ "OnePlus asks women to participate in degrading contest to get a smartphone". Verge. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
  16. ↑ http://www.androidos.in/2014/12/delhi-hc-bans-import-sales-oneplus-one-smartphone-india/

External links