Case Study -1

Consumer Behaviour

Kirtish Bhavsar
(20MBAGEN025)

(One Plus: Crossing the Chasm in the smartphone market)

  Introduction:
Pete Lau and Carl Pei founded OnePlus in Shenzhen, China, in December 2013. Lau
previously worked as a Vice President at Oppo Mobile, a company that shared investors
with OnePlus. Regardless of the fact that the smartphone market was saturated, the
founders saw an opportunity for a new entrant. They presumed that most smartphones had
flaws such as bloatware, cheap plastic hardware, and unappealing designs. Company's
intentions were clear from the start: to create high-end, user-friendly devices that delivered
a better experience at a lower price than any other device on the market.
OnePlus launched its first smartphone, called OnePlus One, in April 2014 and quickly found
success in India, Europe, and the United States. (The OnePlus One was released in India in
December 2014 exclusively though Amazon.)
By October 2014, the OnePlus One was available in 34 countries worldwide, and the
company had recorded revenues of $300 million.

 Facts:
 OnePlus unveiled its first product, the OnePlus One, in April 2014 and released it
internationally in June 2014. The OnePlus One came pre-installed with a modified
version of the Android operating system called Cyanogen. The phone featured a high-
quality build, a fast processor, an excellent display, and a very attractive price. Promoted
as a “flagship killer,” it was priced at $299 for the 16GB version and $349 for the 64GB
version.
 The OnePlus One was sold exclusively on the OnePlus website, marking a departure
from the typical industry practice of selling through wireless carriers. OnePlus used the
invite system for two reasons. First, the company had a limited supply of phones, so the
invite system allowed it to control supply and demand for the phones and so that the
customers perceive it is a hard-to-get hands on phone.
 The company introduced its second- generation smartphone, the OnePlus 2, in July
2015.The phone was priced at $389 (for the 64GB version), almost half the price of rival
phones like Apple’s iPhone 6 and Samsung’s Galaxy S6.
 In October 2015, OnePlus launched its third phone, the OnePlus X. The OnePlus X
featured an elegant design and high-quality hardware, but it sacrificed performance to
achieve the very affordable price of $249 and it lacked a lot of features compared to the
previous phones launched.