OnePlus Technology (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd.

 (一加科技) is a Chinese consumer
electronics manufacturer headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, in the Tairan
Building (泰然大厦) at the Chegong Temple (车公庙) subdistrict of Futian District.[6] It was founded
by Pete Lau and Carl Pei in December 2013, and is currently majority-owned by Oppo as its only
shareholder, which is a subsidiary of BBK Electronics along with Vivo, Realme and iQOO. The
company is best known for making smartphones, and officially serves 34 countries and regions
around the world as of July 2018.[2]

History[edit]

OnePlus One

OnePlus was founded on 16 December 2013 by former Oppo vice-president Pete Lau and Carl

Pei.[7] According to Chinese public records, OnePlus' only institutional shareholder is Oppo
Electronics.[4] Lau denied that OnePlus was a wholly owned subsidiary of Oppo and stated that
Oppo Electronics and not Oppo Mobile (the phone manufacturer) is a major investor of OnePlus
and that they are "in talks with other investors",[8] although OnePlus has confirmed it uses Oppo's
manufacturing line and shares part of the supply chain resources with Oppo.[9] The company's
main goal was to design a smartphone that would balance high-end quality with a lower price
than other phones in its class, believing that users would "Never Settle" for the lower-quality
devices produced by other companies. Lau explained that "we will never be different just for the
sake of being different. Everything done has to improve the actual user experience in day-to-day
use."[10][11] He also showed aspirations of being the "Muji of the tech industry", emphasizing its
focus on high-quality products with simplistic, user-friendly designs.[10] Continuing Lau's
association with the platform from the Oppo N1,[11] OnePlus entered into an exclusive licensing
agreement with Cyanogen Inc. to base its products' Android distribution upon a variant of the
popular custom ROM CyanogenMod and use its trademarks outside of China.[12][13]
The company unveiled its first device, the OnePlus One, on 23 April 2014 which was intended to
capture market from the Google Nexus series.[10] In December 2014, alongside the release of the
OnePlus One in India exclusively through Amazon, OnePlus also announced plans to establish a
presence in the country, with plans to open 25 official walk-in service centers across India.[14]
In April 2014, OnePlus hired Han Han to help market its products in mainland China.[15]
On 9 March 2014, the company expanded its operations to the European Union.[16]
On 16 December 2014, The Supreme Court of India and Delhi High Court banned the import and
sale of OnePlus One phones following a lawsuit by Micromax alleging it has exclusivity for
shipping phones with Cyanogen OS software in India.[17] On 21 December 2014, the ban was
lifted. The device continues to be shipped with Cyanogen OS; however, a customized version
of Android specially designed by OnePlus and named OxygenOS has been released, allowing
later OnePlus devices to be sold in India.[18][19]
OnePlus made its products available in Southeast Asia for the first time, partnering with Lazada
Indonesia[20] on 23 January 2015 and was expected to expand during that year throughout the
region. In June 2016, OnePlus decided to pull out of the Indonesian market due to local
regulations for imported 4G smartphones restricting sales of the OnePlus 2.[21]
At the launch event of the OnePlus 6 on 17 May 2018, OnePlus announced it would be opening
five new OnePlus Experience stores in India, as well as 10 new service centers.[22]
According to market research firm Counterpoint Research, OnePlus topped the Indian premium
smartphone market last year with a 33 percent share, beating Samsung Electronics with 26
percent. In the IDC survey, OnePlus ranked third in India's market with more than $500 in the first
quarter of this year after Apple and Samsung Electronics. And it ranked second after China's Vivo
in the 300-500-dollar market.[23]
On 16 October 2020, Carl Pei resigned as director of OnePlus.[24][25]
In 2021 Oppo and OnePlus combined their hardware research teams via OPlus.[26]
In July 2021 OnePlus merged OxygenOS With Oppo's ColorOS, Both companies’ software
remained separate, continuing to serve their individual regions (OxygenOS for OnePlus phones
globally, ColorOS on OnePlus and Oppo devices in China) but share a common codebase, which
OnePlus says should standardize its software experience and streamline the development
process for future OxygenOS updates.[27][28]

Advertising and marketing[edit]

Invitation system[edit]
Early phones were only available through a system whereby customers had to sign up for an
invitation, which OnePlus called an invite, to purchase the phone at irregular intervals. The
system was claimed to be necessary for the young company to manage huge demand.
[29]
 OnePlus ended the invitation system with the launch of OnePlus 3 on 14 June 2016.
[30]
 Announced via an interactive VR launch event, the OnePlus 3 initially went on sale within the
VR app itself. OnePlus touted the event as the world's first VR shopping experience.[31] The phone
was made available for sale later that day in China, North America and the European Union on
the OnePlus website, and in India on Amazon India.[16]

"Smash the Past"[edit]

On 23 April 2014, OnePlus began its "Smash the Past" campaign.[32] The promotion asked
selected participants to destroy their phones on video in an effort to purchase the OnePlus One
for $1 (US). Due to confusion, several videos were published by unselected users misinterpreting
the promotion and destroying their phones before the promotion start date.[33][34] OnePlus later
revised the rules of their promotion by allowing consumers to donate their old phones.[35] There
were 140,000 entrants in the contest with 100 winners.[35]

OnePlus Playback[edit]
OnePlus Playback is a series of music videos in collaboration with popular Indian singers,
beginning in 2018 .[36][37]

Brand ambassador[edit]
In May 2019, OnePlus made a deal with ‘Avengers’ actor Robert Downey Jr. to endorse OnePlus
7 Pro. Before him, it was Indian actor Amitabh Bachchan who used to endorse OnePlus in India.
[38]

Partnership with Hasselblad[edit]

On 8 March 2021, OnePlus announced a $150 million deal with Hasselblad to develop camera
technology for OnePlus, which also included the new OnePlus 9 series phones that had improved
color processing and computational photography developed in partnership with Hasselblad.[39][40]

Controversies and criticism[edit]

"Ladies First" controversy[edit]
On 13 August 2014, OnePlus hosted a contest to give invites, which were hard to come by at the
time, to their female forum members. Users were asked to post a photo of themselves with the
OnePlus logo, images would be shared in the forum and could be "liked" by other forum
members. This received major backlash for objectifying and degrading women, resulting in the
contest being pulled within hours.[41]

Criticism of customer support[edit]

The customer support at OnePlus was once the subject of strong criticism. In 2017, the company
increased the number of customer service staff and set up customer service and repair centers in
Asia, Europe, and the United States, greatly improving turnaround times for repairs and other
issues.[42]

OnePlus USB-C cable[edit]

After several weeks of customer complaints on OnePlus forums and on Reddit, Google
engineer Benson Leung showed that the USB-C cable and USB-C-to-Micro-USB adapter offered
by OnePlus at that time did not conform to the USB specification. OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei on
26 November 2015 admitted that the cable and adapter did not conform to the USB specification,
and offered refunds (although not for cables bundled with the OnePlus 2 phone).[43][44][45]

App performance throttling[edit]

In July 2021, the company was accused of, and then admitted to throttling app performance. The
throttling was uncovered by Andrei Frumusanu at AnandTech when he discovered the OnePlus 9
significantly diminishing the performance of Chrome in an effort to "improve battery life".[46][47]

Reception[edit]
XDA Developers said in 2020 "OnePlus usually does a decent job of bringing some of the new
features it launches with its latest flagships to older devices."[48]

Products[edit]
Main article: List of OnePlus products
OnePlus is known for making smartphones, headphones, wearables and TVs. Some of its
products are known as "Flagship Killers" for providing a better experience for a lower price than
their counterparts.[49][50] Their products overall have received mixed reviews.[51][52]