Carl Pei is the co-founder of OnePlus, and was an integral part of the company’s success over the years. Carl Pei has been there ever since late 2013, when the company was founded. He and Pete Lau are the co-founders, and while Pete Lau is still the company’s CEO, Carl Pei is no longer there. That being said, I’m wondering whether Carl Pei’s departure will affect the company in a negative way, will it destabilize it. Each of us probably have our own opinions on the matter, and in this article, I’ll share mine.
OnePlus has been doing really well ever since it came into being. The company has been growing year in, year out. At this point in time, it’s high-regarded in the tech circles, and even regular consumers know of it in some markets. OnePlus grew quite a bit over the years, and is trying to compete with the big guns now. OnePlus used to release a couple of flagship phones every year, and that was about it. In the last year or so, things changed, drastically.
The company launched its ‘Nord’ sub-brand, for budget smartphones. On top of that, OnePlus launched its smart TVs, truly wireless earphones, and several other products. The company is obviously branching out at this point, and is trying to compete in a number of different segments of the market. That is exactly why its co-founder should be present, as he has been overseeing the launch of many of the company’s products thus far. Carl Pei has, unfortunately, decided to leave the company. He issued a statement regarding it, in which he thanked the company and everyone he worked with. The gist of it is, he wanted a new challenge, and is rumored to be launching a new company.
Carl Pei was a big part of OnePlus, will its departure destabilize the company?
That being said, some people are speculating that he didn’t really like the direction the company is taking, which is why he decided to call it quits. Those are just rumors at this point, and they may or not be true. That’s not important at the moment, the important part is, will his departure affect OnePlus in a negative way? Well, the launch of the two new Nord smartphones didn’t really run as smoothly as was hoped. On top of that, it seems like the company’s very first smartwatch got delayed as well. Could those be the first indications of post-Pei issues? Well, it’s possible. Let’s dive in further, shall we.
When I say that the OnePlus Nord N10 5G and Nord N100 launch didn’t “run as smoothly”, I mean it wasn’t even announced. OnePlus usually hypes up its upcoming products quite a bit before launch, and that works well for them. Well, all we got for these two phones is a vague teaser that something Nord-related is coming. OnePlus didn’t even announce when it will launch these products. It did not even tease a launch date, let alone teased various aspects of the upcoming devices. That is really odd for this company, to say the least.
Recent OnePlus Nord smartphone launches may have been affected by his departure
You may wonder why that is? Well, Carl Pei was the main man when it comes to the OnePlus Nord launch earlier this year. He was the man who led ‘Nord’ forward, and it’s easily possible his departure affected the launch of the OnePlus Nord N10 5G and Nord N100. OnePlus didn’t even host a press conference or anything of the sort, but simply announced them. Well, these are budget phones, so the press conference part isn’t exactly odd, nobody expected a whole presentation.
The OnePlus Watch was supposed to arrive soon, but it got delayed
Now, regarding the OnePlus Watch. That device has been rumored for ages. A well-known tipster, Max J., said a while back that the watch is coming soon. He also said that it will sport a round body, and display. That being said, many people expected it to arrive alongside the OnePlus 8T, but that didn’t happen. A couple of days ago, Max J. shared some more info about the device, saying that it got delayed. That is not official info, as it comes from a tipster, but Max J.’s information is very reliable. Having that in mind, he also mentioned that the watch got postponed indefinitely, so we have no idea when will it launch.
The OnePlus Watch was supposed to become the company’s very first smartwatch. Many people were looking forward to it, as it was supposed to be based on Wear OS, but a tweaked version. OnePlus does a great job with OxygenOS, so consumers were expecting the same kind of an effect on this smartwatch. Wear OS is good, but it has quite a few issues that need to be fixed. OPPO delivered a really good experience with the OPPO Watch (after initial issues), which shipped with a tweaked version of Wear OS as well. So, it’s not exactly odd consumers had high hopes for OnePlus’ offering.
These issues may not be caused by Carl Pei’s departure, though
These are only some examples of recent mishaps. These issues may not be related to Carl Pei’s departure, of course. We can only guess. They could be an indication of them, though. Only time will tell, as there are tons of capable people over at OnePlus, of course. One person can mean a lot in the general order of things, that’s for sure. OnePlus is expected to announce the OnePlus Watch at some point in the future, while the OnePlus 9 is expected to arrive in mid-2021 as well. We’re not sure if anything is coming in-between, but it will be interesting to see how will OnePlus move forward without its co-founder.
Pete Lau is an extremely capable man, and the CEO of OnePlus. Carl Pei was the main face of the company, pretty much. He was present on almost every event, as a presenter, and many exclusive videos that the company did on the side included Mr. Pei. He was also the man behind that Nord documentary that you may recall. It will also be interesting to see what will be the next step for him as well.
He is rumored to launch a new company, as already mentioned, but he hasn’t confirmed that, nor shared any additional information regarding his next step. It would, for sure, be interesting to see a new smartphone company launched by him, but who knows if it will happen. As already mentioned, only time will tell. One thing is for sure, OnePlus will have to move on without its co-founder, and that hopefully won’t affect the company all that much.