One Plus is a subsidiary of BBK Electronics, which is the largest smartphone maker in China. One Plus is itself based in China as well, in the city of Shenzhen. It was founded back in the year 2013. The company’s co-founders are Pete Lau and Carl Pei. Currently, One Plus is serving in 34 countries worldwide. Not only One Plus sells mobile phones, but also various mobile accessories as well. One Plus is also planning now to enter the smartphone market as well.
As of 2017, the total revenue earned by One Plus is about $1.4 Billion. There are currently 776 employees working in One Plus.
History Of One Plus
Since its inception in 2013, One Plus’ main goal was to provide flagship level specifications in their smartphones. All these at an affordable price for the customers. That’s why One Plus started with the Never Settle slogan, for its marketing purposes. Therefore, One Plus put heavy emphasis on user-friendliness, simplicity, and intuitiveness. One Plus first started using Cyanogen OS. Then on they moved onto a custom-made Android version of their own, known as the Oxygen OS.
In 2014, One Plus introduced their first flagship phone. It was known as the One Plus One. It was a critically acclaimed smartphone. Reviewers praised the specs as well as the user-experience as well. The One Plus One was also made available in India as well, with the help of Amazon.in. One Plus also planned to open 25 walk-in service centers in India as well, which they fulfilled very easily. After the success of One Plus One in 2014, One Plus now operated in countries like Hungary, France, Bulgaria, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Germany, etcetera.
Developments In The Mobile Space
After releasing the One Plus One, One Plus was quick to react, to launch the next generation as well. One Plus also invented the invite system. This is a system where phones will only be sold to customers who have the specific invitation code. And this invitation code was given out to users who signed up. This system was introduced since One Plus wanted to manage high demands of the device in a much better way. But the invite system got excessive flak from a lot of users, and currently, the system is almost non-existent.
The One Plus 2 was launched in 2015, almost a little less than a year after One Plus was launched. At first One Plus decide to release a phone every year, which was later changed to a 6 months interval between flagships. After One Plus 2, One Plus X was launched which was a phone in the budget category. It had AMOLED display as well. In 2016, the One Plus 3 and 3T were launched. Both were almost the same phone, with minor differences in specifications. In 2017, the One Plus 5 and 5T was launched. One Plus skipped the 4 moniker, due to a Chinese legend saying 4 is an unlucky number in China. Finally, as of 2018, the company has already launched One Plus 6. One Plus also plans to launch One Plus 6T as well, by the end of 2018.