OnePlus CEO Pete Lau has said that his company plans to get back to making affordable phones.
After the pricey OnePlus 8 and 8 Pro released in Canada, people began to wonder if OnePlus had shifted its formula to offer two high-end phones a year while selling last year’s device at a discount to hit the lower-cost market.
This isn’t a bad strategy, and I still recommend the OnePlus 7T to my friends, but it wasn’t what the company was initially known for. When OnePlus launched, it made its name selling smartphones with excellent specs and a great design at a low price. The company called these phones “flagship killers.” While they had some trade-offs, for the most part, the value was almost unbeatable.
While Lau doesn’t specifically mention a new smartphone, this shift would mark a return to what helped OnePlus build its brand. Rumours indicate this cheaper OnePlus device will be called the OnePlus Z. Lau also said in a recent Fast Company interview that people will get the first glimpse of this new strategy with an announcement for the India-based market.
Later this year is when North America is rumoured to get OnePlus next low-cost smartphone, according to the interview.
This is big news for Canadians because OnePlus doesn’t have any carrier partnerships in Canada, so you can only buy its phones directly from the company. This means you need to pay the full price for the phone at the time of purchase. This isn’t a huge deal if the phone costs $500 CAD or so, but once you start getting near $1,000 or more, it gets a lot harder to consider a OnePlus device when you could get a smartphone from Samsung, Google or Apple phone for $0 upfront on a contract.
Source: Fast Company
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