After its rather tragic launch in India, Chinese startup OnePlus is turning its gaze to Southeast Asia, starting with Indonesia. The OEM has just announced the upcoming availability of the OnePlus One in the world’s largest archipelago. But like in India, it isn’t doing it alone. OnePlus is partnering with e-tailer Lazada to bring the much hyped and much desired smartphone to the region. Hopefully this time, with fewer if not no legal headaches.
The OnePlus One was considered the “flagship killer”, at least in 2014, because of its high-end specs and killer price, two attributes more readily associated with Chinese mobile star Xiaomi. Unlike Xiaomi’s devices, however, the OnePlus One was available to many parts of the world. But beyond shipping, the biggest problem with the smartphone was availability, as getting your hands on one required an invitation.
Sadly, that same system will be in place with this Lazada Indonesia deal. Even though Lazada is an online retailer, those wishing to buy a OnePlus One in the area will need an Indonesia-specific invite, which will start going out next month. But to kick off the new availability of the smartphone, OnePlus and Lazada will be offering a no-invite needed pre-order phase starting January 27, 11:00 a.m. local time. The 64 GB Sandstone Black model will sell for 4,499,000 IDR, roughly the equivalent $360.
Lazada is considered one of the biggest e-commerce platforms in Southeast Asia, operating in countries such as Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. If its partnership with Lazada Indonesia proves to be successful, it will hopefully encourage OnePlus to expand to those other countries as well. And hopefully it will also do the same for the next OnePlus smartphone.
SOURCE: OnePlus
When the flagship of the big brands starts to ship, oneplus one will looks old (SD801).The device will works well in everyday usage…just feels old in terms of hardware….had a feeling OnePlus is just dumping sets to some country and repackage as footpints enlargement