In the last twenty four hours, OnePlus has finally made their third device, the OnePlus X officially available to buy in Europe. That is, available to buy by OnePlus logic. As the OnePlus X again adopts the same selling strategy that has been in place for both the OnePlus One and the OnePlus 2. An invite strategy. As a result, anyone interested in picking up the latest OnePlus device will need to firstly secure themselves an invite. From there, they will be able to purchase a OnePlus X.
This is a strategy that has raised much criticism for the company with many potential buyers upset at having to effectively search out or beg for an invite. In fact, when it came to the OnePlus 2 launch a few months back, OnePlus even apologized for their approach to the launch, admitting that they had messed up and were not fulfilling orders as quickly as they had intended. Which was followed by further announcements that invite sending would be increased.
Well, in an interesting turn of events, OnePlus CEO, Carl Pei was speaking in Dublin today and made it clear that the company is intentionally trying to control the company’s level of growth at a small pace. In fact, according to Pei, they are “self-inflicting a slower rate of growth“. The logic Pei provides for why they are purposely slowing down their own growth, is that they expect a number of companies to exit or fold from the smartphone market over the course of the next 3-5 years. So from the OnePlus perspective “it is as much about survival as it is about growth“. Instead, Pei and co-founder Pete Lau are both hoping to create a sustainable company and counting on growth which occurs at a more “healthy pace“.
In fact, Pei goes on to further note that due to what they expect to be an exodus of smartphone manufacturers in the next five years, OnePlus will inevitably go on to be one of the biggest brands that operates within the market. Of course, to achieve this they do need to start making moves to ensure devices do reach consumers more effectively.