A lot of buzzing is echoed in the mobile industry as OnePlus smartphone becomes a high-end premium brand mobile in India.
The Shenzhen-based Chinese smartphone transfigured itself from leaving safety niche to dare the mainstream market. The launch of OnePlus6T on November 6, 2018, tasted the success by setting a Guinness World Record title “the most people unboxing a phone simultaneously” on the launch of OnePlus 6T.
Many big brands show interest in emerging into the Indian market due to the huge craze on the gadgets and other products. Every mobile brand appears in the Indian Market as the utilization of the smartphone is more in the country. More than half of the population in India uses Android and iOS mobiles like Samsung and Apple; these two popular brands always battle for the number one position and still continues to cheer up the market never tossing down the market as we(India) are the golden bridge that connects the market to the world.
OnePlus holds the decent ranking in India in the usage of the android phone. Surprisingly, the company turned the tables from playing safe to locking horns with the Apple and Samsung mobiles and emerged as the premium Android mobile brand of 2018 in India where One Plus 6T became the second best selling premium smartphone.
A transition from ‘Never Settle’ to Power Brand Mobile
One Plus is founded on 16 December 2013 by Oppo Vice President Pete Lau and Carl Pei. The launch of the Android phone is to primarily focus on delivering the high-end quality with just a lower price than the other mobiles. They believe that the users “Never Settles” for the lower-quality devices and always opt for something best and at a lower cost.
The first device, OnePlus One was unveiled on 23 April 2014 which is claimed to be the “2014 Flagship Killer”. In December 2014, they released its mobile in India through Amazon.
The discontinuation of the “invite system”
At the initial stages, phones were available through the invite system to avoid hiccups at the initial selling. Customers need to sign up for an invite to purchase the mobile as the blooming 6-year-old brand to sustain in the market.
With the launch of OnePlus 3 on June 14, 2016, the company ended its invite system. At a VR launch event, the OnePlus 3 went on sale within the VR app itself and touted the event as the world’s first VR shopping experience.
Not a cakewalk
Success isn’t a cakewalk for the company. They faced a lot of backlashes during its initial journey.
OnePlus, in order to draw people’s eyes has started campaigns to be different from other brands, not just to be the sake of different. But the campaigns like Smash the Past– to destroy their previous phones on video in an attempt to promote the phone and purchase it for $1, and Ladies First had a severely backfired. Other main concerns like banning the supply of OnePlus phones in India and later lifting its ban, cease of operations in Indonesia slow down the market of the company.
OnePlus Strategic Victory smashed Apple’s Market
As per the report published by the International Data Corporation(IDC), the OnePlus company has joined the powerhouses like Apple and Samsung and is honored with the highest brand in the premium segment in the April- June quarter. According to the latest research by Counterpoint Market Monitor service, OnePlus currently holds 40 percent in India market share retaining its No.1 position whereas to the surprise, Samsung stood at 35 percent and the Apple at 14 percent pulling down to the third position.
Last year Apple’s iPhone faced a downfall in the market for many reasons giving a chance to the other devices to spin money. There is a need to grow in Apple’s business in India as it is the prime target market. Out of many reasons one straight reason is its price which is more than any product.
Apple CEO Tim Cook implied the downfall of iPhone sales in the emerging markets in the company’s recent earnings call with analysts. He also mentioned the strength of the US dollar that made their products more expensive in many parts of the world.
The other reason for the slack performance is the products like OnePlus maneuvered strategically by offering all the prominent features at a reasonable cost to the customers and increasing the capacity of the device features made OnePlus devices to be considered as a sensible best selling premium brand of 2018.
Growing Milestone in a race
The brand has grown vividly and got its business even to smaller cities. There is a lot of growing demand in places like Bengaluru, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Pune. Currently, OnePlus has millions of users who had to forgo the previous mistakes by them and made them the power packed product.
OnePlus, added one more material to the whirling success. This year it plans to launch “OnePlus Television” where it strives to set a high benchmark from being a product to bigger brand.
Apart from these, OnePlus has announced deals on oneplus.in, and exclusive offers on Amazon.in with no-cost EMI on all debit and credit cards. It even offers a cashback of worth Rs 1500 on ICICI Bank credit card and Rs 1500 off with an exchange of the mobile with an older OnePlus.
In the long run, making changes with some tactical shrewdness OnePlus clinches in the Android Battle outsmarting Samsung and Apple businesses in India.
A ‘premium sarcasm’ Tweet
iDare you pic.twitter.com/iSstVVv0aI
— OnePlus India (@OnePlus_IN) January 30, 2019