OnePlus co-founders Pete Lau and Carl Pei proclaimed India “a very, very important market” for the Chinese phone maker. In a recent interview with NDTV’s Gadgets 360, the two faces of the BBK Electronics-owned firm detailed the product strategy that led to the creation of the newly released OnePlus 5T and explained why the smartphone’s camera was significantly redesigned compared to the one found on its predecessor. Regarding the latter point, OnePlus concluded owners of the OnePlus 5 cared about improved low-light photography more than retaining the optical zoom capabilities of their handset, which in turn prompted the OEM to scrap the telephoto lens found on its previous device in favor of another wide-angle one.
In terms of India, the company says it remains committed to localizing its products as much as possible in order to make them maximally suitable for consumers in the South Asian country, the world’s second largest smartphone market and one that holds OnePlus in high esteem, according to a number of industry trackers. The successor to the OnePlus 5 officially released in India today following two flash sales held last week, starting at Rs. 32,998 ($508), which is in line with the price tag attached to the device in other markets like Europe and the United States. Lau and Pei revealed that the beautification mode supported by the OnePlus 5T achieves different results depending on the region in which the device operates, i.e. its SIM card’s country of origin. According to the company officials, such behavior was developed in order to account for the fact that people from different parts of the world have varying standards for what beauty is.
Following its official release in India, the OnePlus 5T is presently being marketed in a relatively aggressive manner, with its ads spanning everything from traditional billboards and TV commercials to promotional clips ran before movie projections in theaters. Lau and Pei acknowledged their advertising push in the country but said that their core marketing focus remains confined to the digital space and word of mouth, two factors that helped the company establish its brand in India. The OnePlus 5T became the fastest-selling smartphone from the Shenzhen-based firm just six hours after going on sale last Tuesday, with many industry watchers predicting that the handset will enjoy significant success over this year’s holiday season. OnePlus already hinted that the OnePlus 6 is in development, with the next Android flagship from the company being expected to debut around May.