Smartphone brand OnePlus is out to disprove the stereotype that China equals cheap and shoddy
OnePlus has catapulted to top position in the US for open market sales of US$400-US$600 models, with a 44 per cent share
The press invites were printed and about to be mailed and more than 200,000 of OnePlus’s latest smartphones had come off the production line when founder and chief executive Pete Lau told his team he was postponing the early-May launch until he was satisfied with a photography feature.
“You can imagine the amount of disruption that decision caused and the ripple effect it had on the entire marketing and supply chain,” Lau, 43, said over dinner with the South China Morning Post in Beijing earlier this month.
“But you only get one chance to get the initial impression right. Disappoint your supporters even once and the trust that you have built up for years evaporates immediately.”
Lau had slept for just four hours the night before his interview, we were told, and was making changes to his presentation script up to the last few minutes and had not had a thing to eat all day. “Our team didn’t sleep at all,” he shrugged, when asked about the late night. “I at least had some sleep.”
Lau had just come from a series of media interviews promoting the OnePlus 6, and has changed out of the two suits he wore during the presentation and into a more comfortable open-necked shirt for the dinner at an Italian restaurant near his hotel.