Over the last two years, OnePlus has changed radically: the Shenzhen brand, which in 2013 was born to produce affordable smartphones, but capable of challenging the top of the range of the competition, has expanded the range, added the Nord product line mid-range and low-end, and pushed to the higher segment of the market the flagship models.
OnePlus has thus gone from producing a few, highly selected phones every year to currently offering 8 different ones, with prices from 149 to 999 euros, as well as a smartwatch and 3 different models of headphones; in India, where the brand is among the strongest on the market, a smart TV is also on sale.
The new commercial strategy of the company seems to have worked, but there have been side effects: first of all, the farewell of the co-founder, Carl Pei, which resigned in September 2020 to launch Nothing, a start-up that will produce quality audio accessories. At the helm remained Pete Lau, the “senior” co-founder: an electrical engineer, born in 1975, he began his career at Oppo in 2003, before founding OnePlus together with Pei a decade later. To give an interpretation, one might think that in a battle over the strategic future of the company, the pragmatic vision of the chief engineer prevailed over that of the visionary co-founder. It would be an oversimplification, however: if it is true that Liu “Pete Lau” Zuohu was born as an electronics expert, it is also true that it was his innovative idea to create a new smartphone based on CyanogenMod, the OnePlus One, focusing on software design and user experience.
A growing company
“This last year and a half has been difficult and complex from many points of view, but OnePlus has nevertheless recorded unprecedented success,” said Lau in an exclusive Italian interview for La Stampa, connected by videoconference from Shenzhen. Again: “During the first quarter we recorded sales growth in Europe of 388% and revenue growth of 286%. Our market share there has also grown by 85%. The real success, however, is that we have managed to keep the OnePlus experience unchanged while democratizing the offer, bringing our user experience philosophy even to devices that cost less ».
OnePlus 9 Pro: “Sales of the new flagship models are going very well,” says Pete Lau
Leading the success of the new OnePlus in the old continent were the markets of Northern Europe, above all the United Kingdom, Denmark, Finland and Germany: “Now our goal is to replicate this success in other European markets too – has anticipated Lau – The most important aspect is that if it is true that the economic products of the Nord series unveiled in July 2020 have caused demand to explode beyond our expectations, it is above all our top of the range that have contributed to global growth ».
Those smartphones from the North
After all, OnePlus’ link with Northern Europe is also reflected in the partnership inaugurated this year with Hasselblad for the creation of the cameras of the brand’s top-of-the-range smartphones. It is the result of an unusual Sino-Scandinavian connection, given that the Gothenburg brand has in fact been controlled for some years by Dji, the drone manufacturer based in Shenzhen, like OnePlus: “We have always known that to make the leap of quality we had to improve the cameras – admitted Lau – The partnership with Hasselblad goes in this direction. The goal is to create the best smartphone cameras that have ever existed ».
OnePlus 9 Pro with Hasselblad camera, photographed with a Hasselblad camera
The first two smartphones resulting from the partnership with Hasselblad are OnePlus 9 e OnePlus 9 Pro, on sale from March. And Lau has not exaggerated: they are already today, according to our tests, among the best Android photo smartphones of 2021. The partnership with Hasselblad recalls that of Huawei with Leica and comes in the wake of the serious difficulties of the Chinese giant outside the borders of the People’s Republic . But Lau is convinced that the success of OnePlus has not benefited in any way the geopolitical misfortunes of his compatriots: “We do not compare ourselves with other brands, and we do not believe that our results have anything to do with the problems of others – is his opinion – I prefer to think that the markets in which we are strongest have recognized the quality of our products and above all the attention we place in the general user experience of the product, from the point of view of hardware and software ».
US-China and Carl Pei: diplomacy wins
Pressed on the difficulties of the international situation and on the possible consequences of the tensions between the United States and China, Lau preferred a very diplomatic approach: «We do not deal with politics in any way, we are just a company that makes products with a very specific philosophy. Also in the US we have recorded excellent growth, and as long as we focus on the quality of our products we do not believe there can be problems ».
A phlegm that Lau did not lose even in the face of the most uncomfortable questions, not even when he was explicitly asked about a possible future collaboration with Nothing, the startup of former co-founder Carl Pei: “We don’t care about what our competitors – he said – but we focus only on our products ».
Foldable smartphones? No thanks
As for the future of OnePlus, Pete Lau could not reveal that much, but he wanted to make it clear that the company wants to remain focused on products that can promote growth, with concrete news (revealing that “we will soon launch a new North model” ) and a few “moonshot”. No flexible smartphones for the moment, for example: “We believe that leaflets are very interesting, the possibilities offered by the physics of materials are expanding, but there are still many difficulties to overcome – he told us – The most important thing, however, is the possibility of developing dedicated solutions that improve the user experience, but at the moment I don’t see concrete solutions. We continue our exploration and research, but there is still no solution that meets our expectations ».
The promise of augmented reality
The same goes for the other “next big thing” that is being talked about with increasing insistence, namely augmented reality and wearable devices that exploit its potential: “We do a lot of research in this field – revealed the CEO of OnePlus – This is a technology with enormous potential, which however is still in the early stages of development. The process of getting to a point where it is widely accepted and used is still a long one. It will still take at least 5 years, but the foundations must be laid now. The question we still have to answer is how these technologies will truly integrate into our lives. Everything depends, even in this case, on the quality of the user experience that we will be able to provide to customers ».