‘We’re never going to be a company who makes money from hardware’, says OnePlus

10 Nov 2014

Bridget Hickey, communications manager with OnePlus

In its first visit to the Web Summit in Dublin, newcomer on the Chinese smartphone market, OnePlus, is attempting to establish itself in one of the most competitive smartphone manufacturing centres in the world.

At only two years old, the company have so far released one phone, known as the OnePlus One, which they have described as this year’s ‘flagship killer’ because of its rather unique production and sales strategy, that is, selling its phone with spec as high as its largest competitors, but selling it for at barely more than cost price.

To get a sense of what spec is included in the OnePlus One, the phone has a 2.5GHz processor, 3GB of RAM, 16MP main camera and one of the most powerful batteries on the market at 3,100 mAh.

The company has just announced that they have sold 500,000 handsets, despite the fact that their sales are through invite only bar brief periods where they have limited time offers which no doubt uses exclusivity as an effective marketing tool, but has caused problems with customers online.

Speaking to Siliconrepublic.com, OnePlus’s communications manager, Bridget Hickey, said that despite being based in China, it is much more of an internet company, “We’re in China and we’re next to the hardware and our manufacturing which is why we’re there, but with the internet you can be anywhere and a be a global company.”

The Web Summit 2014: Interview with Bridget Hickey of OnePlus

Colm Gorey was a senior journalist with Silicon Republic

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