OnePlus One availability detailed

[CafeKampuchia]

It looks like those without an invite will be able to get their hands on One in June:

Our production schedule is as follows:

• Ready now - 100 for phone smashers
• Mid to late May - Larger batch 16GB Silk White for the first batch of invites
• Early June - Larger batch 64GB Sandstone Black
• Later in June - Increased general availability, people who want it should be able to get an invite without much trouble in June

The bad news for all the early invitees and phone smashers is that they will only be able to get the white 16GB model.

Source: OnePlus forum

The whole post is worth reading for those interested.

 

[CafeKampuchia]

It looks like the Sandstone Black 64GB models have been moved up a couple weeks.

Our production schedule is as follows:

• Ready now - 100 for phone smashers
• Mid to late May - Larger batch 16GB Silk White for the first batch of invites
• Late May to early June - Larger batch 64GB Sandstone Black
• Later in June - Increased general availability, people who want it should be able to get an invite without much trouble in June

Update May 6: After seeing how popular the 64GB version was compared to the 16GB, we have pushed back the production of the 16GB Silk White in favor of getting the 64GB Sandstone Black out quicker.

Source: OnePlus forum

 

[kate]

Great to see that they are responding to market demand, and given the price points it's no surprise everyone wants to buy the 64GB version of the OnePlus One.

 

[CafeKampuchia]

For those price points, 32 & 64GB makes more sense to me. Then they'd have more demand for the white version.

 

[zipred]

For those price points, 32 & 64GB makes more sense to me. Then they'd have more demand for the white version.

I agree, it seems that if they equipped the white phone with 32GB instead of 16GB they'd sell more total units. The 16GB version is just too small.

It'll be interesting to see how this launch plays out.

 

[CafeKampuchia]

By David at OnePlus on reddit:

you will only be able to buy the One from our website.

...and eBay.

 

[mikedt]

I agree, it seems that if they equipped the white phone with 32GB instead of 16GB they'd sell more total units. The 16GB version is just too small.

It'll be interesting to see how this launch plays out.

IMO the 16GB would have been OK if the phone had removable SD storage. Somewhat to put all my songs, podcasts, photos and videos. Not having expandable and removable storage I think is rather unusual for a Chinese phone, most devices here have SD. The Oppo Find 7 takes an SD, however its predecessor the Find 5 did not.

 

[CafeKampuchia]

To defend themselves against criticism concerning availability and the invite system, OnePlus has put out this graphic:

There will always be leadtime.

 

[badutahboy]

To defend themselves against criticism concerning availability and the invite system, OnePlus has put out this graphic:

There will always be leadtime.

That's exactly how I feel about things. And if we drop the fastest and slowest releases shown, the average lead time is 64.75 days. That means in order to meet that average, the One+ One needs to be widely available (available could potentially mean backordered, as many of the devices shown were on launch date) by June 27.

 

[CafeKampuchia]

Puts things in perspective, doesn't it.

 

[Hadron]

To defend themselves against criticism concerning availability and the invite system, OnePlus has put out this graphic:

There will always be leadtime.

But there will always be data selection too, especially when a marketing department are involved. The Moto X European release was a hangover of the "old Moto" (pre-Google) way of working, where European releases were commonly 6 months or more after US - a big part of why Moto died in Europe (the G has been changing that). So including that was an extreme example. Conversely they omitted the HTC M8, which was available very shortly after launch here. So removing the X and adding the M8 would change the average significantly. By picking different examples you could make the average shorter or longer as desired (the G Flex looks carefully chosen too - far from a mainstream handset and second-longest).

That said some delay between announcement and availability is common enough. I find the shenanigans of the "phone smash" and "invites" more offputting than the delay.

 

[THE W]

But there will always be data selection too, especially when a marketing department are involved. The Moto X European release was a hangover of the "old Moto" (pre-Google) way of working, where European releases were commonly 6 months or more after US - a big part of why Moto died in Europe (the G has been changing that). So including that was an extreme example. Conversely they omitted the HTC M8, which was available very shortly after launch here. So removing the X and adding the M8 would change the average significantly. By picking different examples you could make the average shorter or longer as desired (the G Flex looks carefully chosen too - far from a mainstream handset and second-longest).

That said some delay between announcement and availability is common enough. I find the shenanigans of the "phone smash" and "invites" more offputting than the delay.

they actually did address the m8 release in the same thread as the graphic saying that HTC held off their unveiling an extra month. oneplus really couldn't do that as they were already getting many complaints on their forums prior to their reveal date on no one knowing what the phone looked like.

smash winners will be receiving new final version phones to replace the phones they got free of charge along with the actual packaging.

 

[CafeKampuchia]

they actually did address the m8 release in the same thread as the graphic saying that HTC held off their unveiling an extra month.

You beat me to the punch.

And lets not forget that HTC leaked every detail about the M8 in the months prior to its announcement making the "official" announcement date one day prior to availability a little less relevant to the discussion. All devices leak some before announcement; the M8 leaked like an open fire hydrant.

Regardless of what info OnePlus chose to put out there, their point is valid. All phones require leadtime from order to delivery, and all manufacturers must decide when to announce/leak a product's details relative to it's availability. OnePlus is doing nothing different than anyone else in that regard, except for the controversial invite system.

That said some delay between announcement and availability is common enough. I find the shenanigans of the "phone smash" and "invites" more offputting than the delay.

_____:ditto:

 

[confed]

Just to be clear about the "phone smash"

By now, most of the 100 chosen smashers have received their phones. We’re happy to say that out of those 100, 86 winners decided to donate their old phone to our friends at Medic Mobile, who will help to refurbish these phones for use by healthcare workers in impoverished regions of the world.

http://forums.oneplus.net/threads/poll-invites-for-a-cause.22069/

 

[CafeKampuchia]

Invites rolling out now:

General availability for the OnePlus One is currently slated for mid-to-late June. The initial batch of phones will be allocated to users who enter the contest and get invited to buy. Turns out those invites are apparently rolling out today.

Michael, an Android Central reader, just received an invite to grab the OnePlus One.

Source

 

[Rxpert83]

Looks like those that got invites received an email about another delay:
Cult of Android - Software issues cause yet another OnePlus One delay | Cult of Android

 

[CafeKampuchia]

Looks like those that got invites received an email about another delay:
Cult of Android - Software issues cause yet another OnePlus One delay | Cult of Android

Yup. I just read that here:

OnePlus One delayed yet again due to software issues | Phandroid

“we can’t yet confirm the exact date that the phone will ship. We are tirelessly working to make the One the phone you’ve been waiting for and so we’re going to hold off until we know that everything runs smoothly before sending them off.”

Source

I wonder what the deal is. Are they trying to ship with 4.4.3? Why would that be necessary? All the major manufactures launch phones behind the latest release of Android and with software that isn't perfect.

 

[CafeKampuchia]

Meanwhile, some smaller retailers start selling the device in Europe:

If you

 

[CafeKampuchia]

Here is the reason for the delay:

The reason for the delay? According to Cyanogenmod’s ciwrl, the reason centers around new issues with openSSL that were made public on June 5th. He says they decided to “include the correction for those vulnerabilities, in the factory release of the One”. Furthermore, a whole new firmware means the device needs to be re-certified

Source, via

So it's not a problem with CyanogenMod as some have been suggesting.

Edit:

One more quote from reddit:

Imagine what would have happened if come next week and these devices reach peoples hands and the blog posts read "OPO ships with known vulnerabilities"....
I'd rather nip it in the bud.

Here's the email they are sending out to buyers:

Spoiler

 

[SAL8116]

The hype that OPO has created has turned to anger. Their forums are almost unreadable. The mod team there is horrible are corralling the trolls and various spam threads.

They really screwed this release. I'm considering getting a Note 3.

 

[THE W]

they're still on target to make invites easy to come by at the end of this month.

if they don't make that deadline, there will be hell to pay.

 

[badutahboy]

they're still on target to make invites easy to come by at the end of this month.

if they don't make that deadline, there will be hell to pay.

True that. From where I'm sitting, they gave themselves a deadline when they posted the lead time of various phones. If theirs isn't available by June 25, they've shown that they can't hang with their competition in regard to bringing a phone to market in a reasonable timeframe. If that's the case, why would we trust that they can match quality, customer service or other aspects of the experience?

 

[mikedt]

They got some serious problems here. It's now June and is still not available. It's becoming like another JooJoo tablet debacle.

 

[THE W]

the company stated end of june for supply to meet demand.

we're not at that point yet.

 

[SAL8116]

the company stated end of june for supply to meet demand.

we're not at that point yet.

True, but will they still be able to meet that demand now with the delay? They're very quiet up until last night when I last logged in over there. I'm giving them till a little after July 4th, if nothing I'll looking into the Note 3.