Ever since the first OnePlus device, the OnePlus One, the company behind the “flagship killer” has made plenty of noise to get their name out there, including holding contests for invites and phones. Using social media has proven to be an effective form of marketing for them in upping their brand awareness which is all well and good, but only if the community feels that things are living up to the hype. Smartphones are a competitive business, and one thing you never want to do is over promise anything and then under deliver as this almost always results in more unhappy users and consumers.
This is currently an issue that OnePlus seem to have and one that the company’s own Co-Founder Carl Pei seems to be aware of, as he took to Twitter yesterday to respond to a user, stating that OnePlus need to “as a company, practice the art of under promising.” These may be words to live by. Pei and OnePlus have already acknowledged that the OnePlus 2 launch was over hyped, and had apologized to the community for it. Whether or not it stems the tide of unhappy would-be consumers though will remain to be seen. Like the initial OnePlus One launch, the OnePlus 2 required invites to buy, which are still a little more difficult to come by as the phone hasn’t been out that long.
Some feel that the invite system and limited quantities have crippled what could have been an all-around fantastic device, but it isn’t all about the methods of how OnePlus is selling the phone. Many have been expressive of the decision to leave out the NFC capability yet add a fingerprint sensor which immediately locks the OnePlus 2 out from being capable of making any form of mobile payment. With the arrival of Android Pay and no way to use the OnePlus 2 for this purpose, many users are likely looking to other devices that will support the payment system. OnePlus stated their decision to take NFC out of their sophomore smartphone was due to an underwhelming number of users actually using the feature, which may be true, but calling the OnePlus 2 the “2016 flagship killer” and hyping it up has surely led to a larger number of people being more upset about the lack of NFC than if OnePlus had been more modest about the phone. The OnePlus 2 is no doubt a great device though, and perhaps now with OnePlus working to under promise on their upcoming devices, consumers will see something that looks more appealing when future devices launch.
.@vannoj OnePlus as a company needs to practice the art of under promising. 😉
– Carl Pei (@getpeid) September 21, 2015