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Since its launch over a year ago, OnePlus has been creating ripples in the smartphone industry. The company is not about big numbers, but its first phone, the OnePlus One, really gave big brand a run for their money by showing the world that top end specs can come at very affordable price points. Their second phone, the OnePlus 2, starts selling in India today. Here was excerpts from an email interview with Carl Pei, the co-founder of OnePlus.
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What is your assessment of the response globally to OnePlus 2, and India in specific?
The response to the OnePlus 2 has been humbling. This being our second product, we were quite anxious. We didn’t know whether we got lucky with our first product, and weren’t sure that we could replicate it with the OnePlus 2.
We now have more than three million entries in the invite reservation list, and our global pop-up events conducted in nine cities gathered immense crowds, some of whom started lining up the day before. I think the only precedent to this is Apple.
Regarding India, we’re targeting a more savvy and worldly segment of consumers, a segment that’s growing rapidly. What we’ve seen here is that habits do not differ that much from their counterparts in the United States and Europe. They just want the best product. Period.
What are the plans for OnePlus One when the OnePlus Two sales kick off? Is there a price cut in the offing?
OnePlus One will keep being sold for a few months as OnePlus 2 sales kick off. The two products are quite different, both great in their own right. There’s no planned OnePlus One price cut. We see price cuts as slapping our early customers in the face, and will only resort to it when we have no other choice.
You have spoken about a third phone coming later this year or H2 next, will that put off some buyers?
OnePlus 2 is our only flagship phone for 2015, so I don’t think potential customers will be put off in any way.
Is there a timeline on the 16GB version? Do you think that phone could have more volumes in India?
We haven’t decided on a timeline for the 16GB OnePlus 2 yet. Our fans India are very similar to those in United States and Europe. They’re people who judge a product by its holistic experience, rather simply by specs or price. Therefore, I don’t think that 16GB will do better in India than elsewhere. We learned this with the OnePlus One.
Will you ever be open to an offline model in a country like India where that still have some value?
Our goal has always been to put great products in the hands of as many people as possible. We’re definitely open to going offline.
Will dropping NFC hit the flagshipkiller tag, along with the fact that you have left the display at Full HD?
This is where some people are misunderstanding us. You don’t kill other flagships by cramming all the specs into a device. That’s a surefire path to mediocrity. Never settle for mediocrity.
Compare a Swatch to a Rolex. On paper, the Swatch will likely have higher specs and more features, but we all know which is the better product. A flagship killer is a superior holistic product experience, made possible by a strong product vision. It encompasses things like design, material use, build quality, level of precision in the tooling, to how it feels in your hand and the software experience. For instance, we have features we feel really strongly about, such as the Alert Slider, that aren’t even visible on spec sheets.
In the short term, focusing on benefits that are not immediately evident may cost us some growth, but in the long run, I’m sure consumers are smart enough to tell which the better product is.
