The much awaited OnePlus 3 is finally setting its foot on June 15, in India, a day after its global launch. After following of its kind invite-only sales model, OnePlus once again has gone for another outlandish sales practice, calling it ‘Blind Sale‘ as around 1000 units of OnePlus 3 were put up for flash sales in China on June 6th, more than a week before the launch. The handsets, however, will be delivered only after the official launch on June 15th.
OnePlus knows how to boost the adrenaline of its consumers as the company has yet not spilled the beans about the device except its delivery box. OnePlus 3 is tagged at Yuan 2999 ($455) in China as the actual price for rest of the country will only be revealed at the launch event.
OnePlus has adopted a rather unconventional way to launch its flagship phone. The smartphone will be launched via its Loop event in space by using VR. The Virtual Reality loop will not only allow the event attendees to witness the flagship OnePlus 3 smartphone but also it’ll allow the attendees to order the OnePlus 3 smartphone beforehand.
“During the first two hours of the launch, our new flagship device (OnePlus 3) will be available exclusively in the loop,” said OnePlus.
As rumors suggest, OnePlus 3 smartphone will be available in two variants to its consumers – The standard model will house 4GB of RAM whereas the other variant will feature 6GB RAM. The company has decided to ditch 16GB storage capacity as both the variants will be available with 32GB, 64GB and 128GB internal storage.
While the jaw-dropping specifications make the OnePlus 3 lead the pack in terms of hardware, the question looms; do we really need more than 3GB RAM in a smartphone? The gap between Laptop and Smartphone has already narrowed, having a 4GB or more RAM in Laptops makes sense but in the case of the smartphone, it may be considered only as boast off feature.
Apart from boasting a hefty RAM, OnePlus 3 is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor chip and comes with a full metal body and 5.5 inches full HD display.
To strengthen its market presence and win customer’s confidence, the company has decided to open its ‘pop-up stores’ across the world where people can buy the upcoming smartphone from June 15th. The cities that OnePlus has selected to open its pop-up stores include London, Paris, New York, Berlin, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Delhi. The pop-up stores in India are yet to be opened so the consumers have to wait a while more to lay their hands on the flagship device.
Why Just 1000 OnePlus 3 smartphone flash sales
It may be considered as a path-breaking marketing strategy adopted by OnePlus. The unorthodox way (invite-based sales) of selling its devices has already bearded fruits for the Chinese smartphone giant. However, amid to the growing competition in both online and offline space, the company has decided to bid adieu to its invite-only model for once and all.
The company’s decision to make 1,000 units available for grab before the launch, in China, is being seen nothing but an act to create enough of buzz and kindle the excitement among the users for the ‘big day’. Analysts believe this is also an intelligent move by the company to test the waters and make the number of device up for grab accordingly.
Finally, OnePlus eradicated invite based sales model
The Chinese smartphone manufacturer has decided to drop its invite based sales model that it adopted to sell its earlier devices. For many interested consumers, the invite-only model proved to be a fight to grab and eradicating this practice may be considered as a boon for customers.
Carl Pei, OnePlus co-founder said that the invite based model was incorporated to set-up the company. He says that when the company was established no one knew the fate of its products so OnePlus decided to establish this invite based practice. He wanted the sustainable growth of the company rather going at a fast pace.
“We didn’t want to risk a situation where people would come to our website and find we had no stock, and no ETA on when we would get it.” Carl Pei said
In the end, the strategy bearded fruits for the firm as according to Pei, the expected sales of its devices were around 50,000 units instead the company sold more than 1 million units.
Targeting new geographies especially India
The previous smartphone variant of OnePlus, One Plus One and OnePlus 2 recorded an impressive sales figure crossing 1 million units in sales in India alone. India is one of the focused markets for OnePlus as the company has announced 3 pop-up stores in the country.
India is the 2nd largest smartphone market in the world and still possesses a vast market potential. Smartphone Penetration in India is minuscule as only 17% of the total population of India owns a smartphone thus opening a big window of opportunity for smartphone manufacturers to target 83% of those who still don’t possess it.
On the other hand, the global smartphone market is saturating. According to the latest report by IDC, the global smartphone market will foresee a tiny 3.1% growth in smartphone shipments in 2016. Whereas India being the only country where the smartphone market is estimated to register an impressive 29% surge in smartphone shipments in 2016.
The upcoming smartphone appears promising and dropping the invite-based system may favour the company’s sales all over the world. But putting 6GB of RAM under the hood appears to be simply waste of resources as the conventional apps also run smoothly on a 3GB Ram device and only power users are able to push their devices to its limits. For general users, 3GB RAM is apparently sufficient enough to get their tasks done smoothly.
