OnePlus is still basking in the massive success of its 2018 flagship, the OnePlus 6 in India and abroad. But that doesn't stop the competitive smartphone makers from planning the future that could change the way we look at phones today.
OnePlus CEO Pete Lau aims at driving the company, which had its fair share of praise and setbacks, towards a promising future – a future that is focused and on track.
From strategies to future of smartphones, Lau shared his plans and ideas during a recent interview with Gadgets360.
One of the highlights of the interview was when Lau revealed the company's strategy to stick to flagship-only approach at least until 2021. This means, any rumours or hopes of seeing the OnePlus X successor can be sidelined for a couple of years.
Talking to Gadgets360, Lau said:
At least the next three years, the focus will remain on the flagship, the best flagship product, what's come to be expected of OnePlus. The feedback is very much 'we want to have the latest device', and there's not a lot of community giving feedback 'we would have an interest or a demand in being able to purchase an older device.
Lau also explained that the reason behind discontinuing older flagships after a new product launch is to gain maximum exposure for the latter. The company is also known to avoid price cuts due to its minimal profit margins, and selling older flagships at lower price could lead to an overall loss. Sticking to one flagship model per year helps OnePlus with cost efficiency, which is essential for a brand that's some 50 odd months old.
OnePlus' undivided focus on flagship product could be good news for consumers, who expect the brand to level with rivals and sometimes exceed the competition without breaking the affordability code.
Lau envisions a future where smartphones will have full-frontal screens, without the disruption of a notch or a chin as we see in smartphones these days, including OnePlus 6. Vivo has already launch X21 with an in-display fingerprint scanner to prevent eating into the display's real-estate.
According to Lau, smartphones will eventually have cameras under the display that completely eliminate the need for a notch.
"Every OEM is in the pursuit of creating an entirely full-screen experience and in perhaps 3-5 years all that will be as a smartphone device is purely full-frontal screen experience. In the future, there might be utilisation of a camera that's under the screen or combined in the screen - basically under-device so it's within, but not necessarily visible - so then you still have that full-screen experience with camera capability on the front," Lau said.
Even though it's unclear when OnePlus smartphone could have a full-screen display without a notch or a chin, such a device is indeed coming sooner or later.
