OnePlus hints at new 'luxurious' product after 'messing up' OnePlus 2 launch
On its Google+ page last week, the company posted that "something luxurious is coming to OnePlus".
The image on the post doesn't give much away, displaying a red and white band, or possibly shoelace, sitting on a piece of brown leather. In a separate blog post, OnePlus offered another elliptical hint about the forthcoming product, saying: "The British are coming".
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Given the mostly sour responses to the post, it would appear fans are less interested in a new product than being able to purchase the OnePlus 2, the company's recently-launched handset that has been bogged down in delays since orders opened in mid-August.
OnePlus last week showed off what it claims was a "huge shipment" of OnePlus 2 units at its factory, which means the company should be able to release more invites to buy the phones. At what time a customer receives one of those invites depends on where they stand in OnePlus' reservation list - as of last week, the queue was five million people long.
OnePlus CEO Carl Pei recently apologised over the launch of the OnePlus 2, which has left would-be buyers unable to get their hands the device. Pei wrote on the OnePlus forums that the company only began shipping in meaningful quantities last week, roughly a month behind schedule, and to make up for that it is considering opening up sales without an invite for an hour later in September or early October.
"We simply messed up again and apologize for that. We don't plan on making further promises for future launches, and will instead focus on showing the world how we've improved through our actions," he wrote.
The company also claims to have resolved the quality issues that were behind the delays announced in August.
Despite keen and growing interest from fans, as Pei noted, the delays have shortened the product life of the OnePlus 2 and given rivals a month to deliver competing products.
"It has put a dent on our strong forward momentum and made it harder for us to reach our full business potential as a company," said Pei.
Once OnePlus manages to unclog its invite system, people will be able to purchase the 16GB of internal storage and 3GB of RAM model for £239 (US$329), or the 64GB of storage and 4GB of RAM model for £289 (US$389).
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