OnePlus unveiled its first smartphone, the OnePlus One, back in April. Since that time, it has been available exclusively through an invitation system and a single pre-order window earlier this month. Despite not being as readily available as most other smartphones, the company has managed to notch up sales of 500,000 units. The company has now set itself the goal of reaching sales of one million units by the end of the year. “It’s going to be hard but I think it’s possible.” said Carl Pei, the company’s Co-Founder and Director, to Forbes this week.
Amazingly, OnePlus has managed to make its smartphone one of the most talked about devices this year despite a shoestring budget. “Normally when you launch a [smartphone] product it gets really hot in the first month, and in the second or third month, sales start to drop really fast. For OnePlus, when you look at our internal metrics, our sales just keep growing.”
Much of OnePlus’ success can be attributed to the price of the OnePlus One. Packing impressive specifications, it sells for a mere US$349 for the 64GB model. OnePlus acknowledges that it barely makes any money on sales of its smartphone. “We’re making a single-figure dollar amount on each phone,” Pei explained. The company instead hopes to make money through sales of accessories and eventually paid services.
To help it reach its goal, OnePlus will open another pre-order window on November 17.
OnePlus is also already at work on a successor to the OnePlus One and it could launch as the OnePlus 2 as early as Q2 2015.
Source : Forbes