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Phone launches can be awesome, but cruel at the same time. From low stock and delayed shipping times to carriers sending out notifications that the device is available sometimes a full week after it actually launched, they don’t often get everything 100% right.
OnePlus is hoping to change that with the system they’ll be using for the OnePlus One, but we’re not so sure it’s any better. The company has announced that the initial ordering process for the device will be an invitation-only affair. That’s right — you can only buy the device if you’re lucky enough to be invited to buy the device.
So why are they doing this?
Carl Pei says it’s because OnePlus is frustrated with the usual rusty merry-go-round that’s often associate with phone launches:
- Pre-orders mean you have to pay now (in most cases) and wait to get the device later
- Even if the device is billed as available, backorder due to shortages often means you won’t see your device for weeks at a time.
- Being told that a batch of devices will be coming in on a certain date at an ungodly time, forcing you to stay up for a chance to get your order in.
And that’s just scratching the surface. OnePlus thinks their invite system works because when you’re told you can buy a OnePlus One, you know you’ll be able to buy it and have it shipped within a few short days. All of that is noble, but there’s something a tad unsettling about being told when I can buy a device as opposed to deciding for myself.
So how do you get invited?
OnePlus says they’ll be issuing invites through a variety of means. Contests are near the top of that list, natch, as well as giving them away to loyal users of their customer forums. OnePlus also says everyone who is invited will be entitled to invite someone of their own.
There are no invites being issued as of right now, though — we imagine they’ll cross that bridge when we come closer to it at the OnePlus One launch later this month. For now, be sure to sign up for an account at their forums (being genuinely active might help) and stay tuned.
[via OnePlus]
I’m not going to buy this phone if I’m forced into a contest or participating in social media just to get an invite.
It worked for Gmail.com.
Someone sent me an invite to gmail back in the day. Feel free to send me your extra invite for the One Plus One.
Will do.
sweet
same here
for sure.. I was an early Gmail user when others were using Hotmail (lol!)
Or the infamous AOL. lol
Well, that and a compelling product plus about ten times the email storage anyone else was offering.
Is the One Plus One going to be ten times better than a Nexus 5?
Yeah, but isn’t Gmail free for the most part?
I just had to Google what the hell “natch” meant. Seriously guys? It’s not that hard to type out “naturally”.
lqtm
It’s just a style of prose. I don’t use it that often ;)
natcherilly, of course!
Your spelling was so bad it gave me language cancer.
I have to concur. It’s a weird way of saying “naturally”. Sounds like Jersey Shore slang.
It’s been on Phandroid a lot lately. I think its mostly Chris’s work.. more his style :p
This phone was coming at the perfect time for me, but this news makes it look like I’ll be buying the find 7
They’re a brand new company that has never sold a device. They have no clue what he demand is going to be like. It’s impossible to gauge it. What should they do, have devices on backorders for months while you wait and wait and wait if the demand is higher than expected? Or should they overestimate and have excess stock, breaking their wallets? This is a smart move for them and for consumers buying from them.
This wouldn’t make sense for Samsung. They are not Sammy. This will work for them.
Derek always to the rescue. Lol. We as the consumer don’t care about any of that. They initially billed this process as the experience, the phone to get, the one plus one, a notch above all else … and now we’re back to lame invites. Never settle my ass.
That right there, Jay, is the textbook “Negative Norman” outlook on this. Give them a chance or choke to death on your own unreasonability. Your choice.
Hey I’ll give them a chance but I don’t have to be exuberantly happy about it in the process lol.
They should just use cyanogenmod data. Who uses it? Who uses the CM account, ect. That would show if you’re a loyal user or not, and not be some popularity contest… which is what the one+one invite system will probably be.
They can post a survey and ask who is interested in buying it for example. Then they can use the data around the forums and websites like this to see how many more devices they should stock. They were doing well on promotion so I am sure they are web savvy enough to pull that off.
“All of that is noble, but there’s something a tad unsettling about being told when I can buy a device as opposed to deciding for myself.” – makes no sense. You’re being told when you can buy a device all the time. There’s launch dates that tell you when you can buy it, backorder dates that tell you when you can buy it… this isn’t THAT different. This is the same lotto people that were going through when they tried to buy the Nexus 4 on launch day, just with a different mask.
entering a contest for a chance to buy a phone?
LOL
ok Oneplus one. sure. Welcome to early failure.
Hope it doesn’t turn out to be a Adam Notion like disastrous launch
Oh give me a break!!!! How much is it gonna be? 100 bucks?
Seriously?
Some of us are adults with stuff to do.
I guess I am getting a Nexus 5 instead.
I got my N5 a week ago and I was having some buyer’s remorse over not waiting for the 1+1. Well.. not anymore.
I hope that isn’t really how they plan to release the phone. I’d have to look elsewhere on principle if I was going to get it when it first came out. That’s seems kind of childish.
I wonder how long it will take before we start seeing invites going up on eBay and CL because you know it’s coming
They were doing such a good job to hype up the phone so far so and suddenly they fail. I don’t see myself jumping through hoops just for a chance to buy a phone. Oh well there is always HTC One. I was torn between the two anyways and this makes a decision easier. I’ll wait and see what happens within a couple of weeks after launch. If they still require me to beg for it I won’t buy.
Well I guess I’ll be “settling” for the HTC One instead. I hope that this move just ends up being temporary, like less than a month. I really don’t want to go through barrel hoops just to buy a phone. I contribute to enough forums as it is, and the idea of trying to get an invite is about as exciting as using iOS.
Damn. Time to start hitting up their forums…. Yeah right. I’ll just settle with doing the advertising for you on social media as that’s probably what they want.
Everything was going great for this device and then this brick wall shows up, no matter how much money I throw, it won’t disappear.
this is indeed a let down but this was to be expected. they were not gonna have enough units for everybody. this is a brand spankin’ new company that started 4 months ago from squat and not a multi-billion $$ company. they were going to have limited supply of this phone at launch. one could’ve figured this out from there only being 16 launch countries with 12 of them being in the continent of europe. whether they do it this way or just stuck with pre-orders, everyone who wants one isn’t going to get one, at least not initially.
I really just want too see what this phone will look like and the software cause I’m a tech geek i will never buy it though