It's been 460 days since OnePlus, a Chinese start-up phone manufacturer founded by CEO Peter Lau in 2013, released a new device, concentrating its efforts on the company's latest endeavor, the OnePlus 2. On Monday night, the dry spell will be broken with the Internet-based launch of its newest generation of smartphone; but then again, OnePlus is anything but conventional.
When OnePlus was launched in December 2013, it had one mission: to create a high-caliber phone with navigation-friendly interface for an affordable price. This same idealism is presented as a hallmark of the company — just check out its "About Us" page and you'll get a good idea:
"We gather exceptional talent from all over the world with various backgrounds, beliefs, and perspectives, but we all share one common dream: change things for the better and leave a mark on the world. [...] We pursue the highest standards professionally, personally, and ethically. Empowered by a bold mindset, we create products that transcend geography, customs and cultures."
Oneplus' first product, the 4G OnePlus One, was released six months after the company was formed. Its features include the Cyanogen Mod operating system, a 2.5 GHz quad-core processor, 3GB of RAM and a 13-megapixel camera.
In a Mashable review of the OnePlus One, Tech Times managing editor Brian Heater praised it as "spiffy" for its sleek design and called it "more than just a good phone; it's a statement on the state of the industry and a window of insight into a future where a brand-new phone manufacturer can take on the big guns less than a year into its existence."
OnePlus has also harnessed a sense of exclusivity to attract customers; strange, given the mantra of inclusivity in the company's manifesto. Rather than conventionally selling phones directly, customers could only purchase a OnePlus On if they obtained an invitation — essentially a digital form of will call. This practice has since been made obsolete for the OnePlus One, and reinstated with the OnePlus 2 for a limited time.
Despite its high-minded (and occasionally hit-or-miss) idealism, the company is no stranger to controversy. In 2014, a marketing campaign called "Smash the Past" gave 100 lucky users the chance to buy a flagship phone for $1 by having the selected contestants post a video of themselves smashing their old phones.
Unfortunately, the setup of the "selection process" was somehow lost in translation, and led to hopefuls decimating their phones on camera before "Smash the Past" kicked off its selection process. The contest was also criticized for being anti-environment (the campaign launched only a few days after Earth Day) and costly: many of the destroyed phones could have possibly sold for around or slightly less than the retail price of the OnePlus One itself.
Aside from the failure of the "Smash the Past" campaign, OnePlus has also dealt with a fake (and sexist) contest that the company blamed on rogue employees, and a short-lived ban of its products in India over a non-compete agreement with Micromax.
In the end, these controversies have not been crushingly detrimental to OnePlus' cult following and growing popularity. Even though the launch is only a few hours away, as of the time of this writing, specs for the phone have already been leaked.
Any way you look at it, OnePlus is bringing a new approach with its flagship killers to an Apple-dominated industry. An impressive feat for a company that has been in existence for less than two years.
The official launch on the OnePlus 2 will take place online on July 27, 7pm PT. You can download the VR app to watch the launch here.
