OnePlus traced a long road in the past few years, from a startup company to one of the most important and trending smartphone makers. The company acquired a huge amount of followers thanks to its affordable flagships. However, the increasing demand for better specifications, premium cameras, and more forced the company to adapt its strategy. Now, we can pretty much say that OnePlus produces premium smartphones, however, they still have one of the best software supports for this kind of device. The OxygenOS community is one of the reasons behind the company’s popularity. Premium smartphones and amazing software, these two features aren’t enough anymore, the company agrees. Today, OnePlus CEO, Pete Lau confirmed that the company is planning to increase to diversify its product offering. It will start with cheaper smartphones, like the rumored OnePlus Z.
Unfortunately, Lau didn’t give many details in his Weibo reveal. However, in an interview granted Fast Company, the CEO, the hinted hat is planning to resume the development of more affordable smartphones while also expands to other categories. Rumors have been pointing to the launch of a more affordable OnePlus Z device with Snapdragon 765G. The said device was scheduled to go official along with the OnePlus 8 series, but this changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. More recently, a report stated that the company is aiming at a late-June or early-July reveal.
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Pete Lau disclosed that a glimpse of the new strategy will arrive soon with an announcement for India. The big reveal of OnePlus Z might happen in India, one of the most important markets for mid-range devices. Beyond the world’s 2nd smartphone market, the company wants to bring affordable devices to North America and Europe as well.
“We indeed have come from background and roots as a hardware company, but from what we see looking forward, building an ecosystem is a forward trend,”
The company’s new goal will be building an ecosystem to attract more users. It will happen through the sales of mobile phones with lower price points. Since the company mentioned an ecosystem, we may also be looking at other smart home products. The company already has devices in the smart TV and TWS segments. However, the list may grow even more with wearables and IoT devices.
Whatever the company is planning, we’ll know more details soon.