Chinese smartphone maker OnePlus was planning to be more aggressive in the global retail markets with the release of its next flagship smartphone, the OnePlus Two, later this year but had to recast its marketing strategy after it abruptly ended its relationship with software provider CyanogenMod recently.
OnePlus has been seriously considering a more holistic marketing approach to be able for its upcoming flagship smartphone and all other future devices to penetrate retail markets via the mainstream channel.
As a matter of fact, the company announced on April 22 its first telecom partnership with Maxis of Malaysia. Maxis is the second largest telco carrier in the country. The deal shall make the OnePlus One and other upcoming devices from the Chinese smartphone maker including the OnePlus Two and the OnePlus One Lite to become available on all Maxis retail locations all over Malaysia.
The partnership could be the start of a bigger strategy for OnePlus to do the same in various markets in the world but that has yet to be confirmed.
Stumbling block
However, OnePlus hit a major stumbling block for the same strategy when it decided to enter the Indian retail market recently.
When OnePlus decided to expand its market for its flagship smartphone OnePlus One to India, local smartphone maker Micromax decided to bring the matter into the New Delhi High Court particularly with regards to the issue of the Cyanogen OS mobile operating system that the smartphone is loaded with out of the box.
Micromax and CyanogenMod have a prior agreement that gave the former company exclusive rights to the latter’s software products over India and other South Asian markets including Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan, and Myanmar.
OnePlus, on the other hand, was given by CyanogenMod a global non-exclusive license for the use of its OS on its devices.
The New Delhi High Court ruled in favor of Micromax, concurring with the local smartphone company’s position that allowing the entry of OnePlus devices in India with Cyanogen software on it is an infringement to the exclusive rights granted to Micromax.
While the court decision does not bar OnePlus from penetrating the Indian market, it can only do so with a different mobile operating system other than CyanogenMod. As a result, OnePlus Two will be officially launched in June with its own mobile operating system called Oxygen OS. More significantly, OnePlus has decided to severe its business ties with CyanogenMod for good.
Although CyanogenMod made it clear that it will still continue to provide needed support for OnePlus One smartphones which are still running on their OS, but it is most likely that the new batches of OnePlus One will already shift to Oxygen OS sooner than later.
New marketing strategy in the pipeline
OnePlus is using again its invite-only strategy for the launching of OnePlus Two next month, which is the same approach it employed for its widely successful OnePlus One.
This may already be an indication that the Chinese smartphone maker has revised its marketing strategy, which means that it will produce OnePlus Two in lesser volume just like it did with OnePlus One, notes the Christian Today.