Good news for broke smartphone fans – OnePlus has signalled its intent to begin retailing like a traditional smartphone company.
The OnePlus One is currently only available to those lucky enough to receive an invite, and even then you still have to actually purchase it. These invites have been more in-demand than you can possibly imagine, with a forum full of thousands of dedicated fans desperate to get their hands on one.
That weird initial approach seems to have served its purpose though, as OnePlus has obviously made enough money over its nascent few months to fund a full-on retail campaign. In a recent Q&A session on Reddit the company confirmed that it aims to do away with the invite-only scheme by October at the latest. It had even hoped to have launched the system in September, but was slightly delayed.
Waiting on a pre-order list should certainly be a lot more appealing than hanging around and grovelling for an in invite for most, though. Knowing that there’s a genuine OnePlus One out there being made for you, even if you have to wait for it, is a much nicer feeling than the uncertainty and hopelessness of the invite system.
The device will most likely still cost £229 for the 16GB version and £269 for the 64GB version, which is still an awful lot cheaper than every other Android flagship out there.
We’ll be sure to notify you when the pre-order system goes live. Don’t give up if you’ve been questing for an invite all this time though, they’ll still be accepted (and handed out) for the time being.
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