OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei has revealed that the company will launch its third smartphone before the turn of the year, despite the fact that the OnePlus 2 is yet to go on sale.
Speaking to USA Today, Pei said the as-yet-unnamed phone should land in time for Christmas, and has the potential to be its most advanced mobile yet.
“There’s going to be a second phone this year, before the end of the year. Hopefully for Christmas,” said Pei.
“It may or may not be [higher spec than the OnePlus 2]. When I saw the prototype for that phone I was like ‘Holy s*** that’s going to be my daily driver,’ but then when the OnePlus 2 production version came out it’s also super nice, so it’s really hard to decide now what to use.”
It’s an unexpected announcement, made more unusual by the fact that it comes at a time when you’d expect the company to be heavily promoting the impressive-looking OnePlus 2, which will start shipping on 11 August.
The company will again make use of its invitation-based purchasing system, whereby only select consumers can buy its wares.
This apparently ensures careful control of stock levels, simultaneously preventing the company from being overloaded with orders, and indeed from producing a surplus of handsets.
Pei’s comments, meanwhile, have the potential to put consumers off buying the OnePlus 2, though he still says the company expects to flog between 3-5 million handsets.
Related: OnePlus 3 release date
He also issued a warning to rival smartphone manufacturers, such as HTC and Sony, which he believes will fall by the wayside.
“In five years I think it will be Apple, OnePlus and Samsung because there’s no more room in the market,” he said. “Everyone else would’ve died because they couldn’t reach the scale they wanted fast enough or they couldn’t have a margin to sustain their business.”
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.