OnePlus: One smartphone will be sold at cost

According to OnePlus, the One smartphone will be sold at cost. According to the manufacturer, little money is spent on marketing, which means that prices can be kept low. In addition, OnePlus states that it will not make a profit for the time being.

The statements come from OnePlus CEO Pete Lau, who was interviewed by TechRadar. His company is best known for the One; an Android smartphone that has high-end specs but a price that is about half that of well-known high-end smartphones from manufacturers such as HTC, Samsung and LG. According to Lau, the prices are kept low because OnePlus does not have a large marketing budget. The manufacturer would use ‘word of mouth’ advertising via digital communities to reduce costs.

Lau also states that his company will not make a profit on the sale of the One in the first two years, in order to keep prices as low as possible. OnePlus wants to use that time to strengthen its brand name in the smartphone market. The company could afford not to turn a profit because it has an investor behind it, the same one who has poured money into Oppo’s smartphone arm. Lau previously worked at Oppo, and his company is frequently linked to Oppo.

The OnePlus One has a 5.5″ screen with a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels and the housing runs a Snapdragon 801 quadcore soc from Qualcomm. There is 3GB of RAM and a 13-megapixel camera is built in for photos. Users can choose between variants with 16GB or 64GB storage memory.The software is based on Android 4.4 with the custom rom CyanogenMod.The One is not yet on sale, but will be delivered on the basis of an invite system.The device has to be paid about 269 euros .