The OnePlus One is still a hot ticket item, and you can finally buy one without being invited to the club. The company made its name this year by selling a smartphone, the One, at a low off contract cost, despite offering high-end flagship specs. We love it and, so far as we can tell, so do a lot of mobile fans. But how is it going to actually continue to operate if it sells phones right around the cost it takes to make them?<\/p>\n
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That question was recently answered by OnePlus co-founder\u00a0Carl Pei in an interview with\u00a0The Wall Street Journal<\/em>.<\/p>\n Pei explained that the goal is to eventually create a loyal fanbase of users who then spend money with OnePlus in other places after buying a phone. \u201cLater on we can convert these users and monetize them through software and services,\u201d Pei told The Wall Street Journal. <\/em>\u201cThe way we see things is that hardware is increasingly becoming the distribution vehicle for software.\u201d Pei didn\u2019t explain what OnePlus will sell, through presumably it could be some sort of software \u2013 perhaps subscription services.<\/p>\n \u201cAnother thing is, selling hardware is very difficult,\u201d Pei admitted. \u201cOnce you start actually shipping this product in bigger quantities, you start to realize that the infrastructure you\u2019ve built is breaking down. Our logistics never planned for this scale, our customer support never planned for this scale.\u201d That\u2019s one reason the company has stuck to its invitation system, but one barrier it will need to overcome if it really plans to \u201ckill\u201d the flagships from Samsung and other major industry players.<\/p>\n