When OnePlus originally launched the OnePlus One, they mentioned they’d need to sell phones via an invite-only system over a traditional pre-sale / first come, first serve setup. Many people forgave them for this considering they were still a very new company and likely had no other choice than to resort to unorthodox tactics. Many contests have already given tens of thousands of folks the opportunity to buy one, but there are still a ton of would-be buyers left in the dark. So when is it all going to end? Thankfully, we have a new answer, OnePlus hopes to wash their hands of this invite stuff at some point in October. That much was confirmed in an Ask Me Anything session over at the Android subreddit.
OnePlus has said that its much talked about One smartphone will move off an invitation only sales strategy to full launch in October, which means you can color us sceptical. I remember reading a Q Magazine from 1996 and seeing that the rock band Bon Jovi (those of big hair and Livin? on a Prayer fame) had won best album of the year and worst album of the year, best band of the year and worst band of the year. I say this, because at the MobileBurn awards at the end of this year, the OnePlus One is going to be in a similar situation, most anticipated handset maybe, but most frustrating, definitely. It is not the hardware’s fault either as OnePlus has built a fantastic smartphone that looks good, defies flagships with its specs, and is a bargain to boot. It seems the company knows how to put a device together, but what OnePlus seems to struggle with is everything else. Such as marketing, often coming up with terrible strategy, and of course actually getting its device into consumers hands has been problematical. The company has pushed back the launch date of the handset multiple times, delayed it again and again, finally making the device available if you were invited to buy one. The company now says that the invite only sales model is drawing to a close and that a pre-order system should be in place for September, with devices shipping in October.
