• 2 months ago
Transcript
00:00Okay, so I think I should preface this video with a quick note.
00:06I like OnePlus as a company, I really like what they've tried to do over the past few
00:10years, I like most of their products, however I do feel like there's a shift in the direction
00:16of the company, so I thought I would make a video on that.
00:19Everyone knows this phone.
00:20This is the OnePlus 7 Pro.
00:21This came out about a month ago.
00:23It is a phone with a super smooth display, it's 90Hz, stuff just looks crazy smooth on
00:27it.
00:28It's got AMOLED, it's in my opinion one of the best looking displays in the smartphone
00:31market right now.
00:32It also has a pop-up camera to keep the front display really clean, but when they announced
00:37this phone, it became apparent that in some parts of the world, including the United States
00:41and Canada, this would be the only OnePlus phone that you would be able to buy, the more
00:46expensive Pro variant of the OnePlus 7.
00:49The regular OnePlus 7 would not be available in those markets, so if you're in the US or
00:54Canada, you could only buy the OnePlus 7 Pro, not the regular OnePlus 7.
00:58If you wanted a cheaper OnePlus, you would be able to buy last year's model, like remaining
01:02stock of the OnePlus 6T.
01:04Now having used the OnePlus 7 phone for a little bit, this is a fantastic phone.
01:08Now if you convert it, like again, because it's not available here, I can't get exact
01:12pricing, but if you converted it from whatever markets they're available in to US dollars,
01:17it's around $500, $550 US dollars, so it's a reasonable price for what's essentially
01:21an upgraded version of the OnePlus 6T.
01:24Now as cool as this phone is, the thing that I found more interesting was the fact that
01:27they were not selling this phone in North America.
01:30Now when they first made that announcement of, we're not selling this phone, the sentiment
01:35that I got online was that OnePlus is being greedy.
01:37Why are they doing this?
01:38Why are they selling this phone only like in Asia and in India, like why aren't they
01:42selling it in North America?
01:44And that is the real question.
01:46So earlier this year, Counterpoint Research put out some data, and the headline of their
01:50article was that OnePlus was now one of the top 5 smartphone manufacturers when it came
01:55to the premium segment.
01:57So you have your big names like Apple and Samsung who've lost a little bit of market
02:00share, and then you have Huawei, Oppo, and OnePlus who've all gained in market share.
02:05And it's not like, you know, they're the best companies in the world all of a sudden,
02:09but the fact that OnePlus, who has always been a small company, is now top 5 in premium
02:15smartphone manufacturers, and there's like 40 of them or something, there's a lot of
02:18them, and they're top 5, that's impressive.
02:20But buried in this article was a more interesting note.
02:24When it came to region, it was China, India, and Western Europe that drove 4 fifths of
02:29its global shipments.
02:30So that means that 80% of the phones that were moved went to China, India, or Western
02:35Europe.
02:36There's no mention of the United States, there's no mention of Canada, there's no mention of
02:39North America at all.
02:40It all went to those three places, or the majority of it went to those three places.
02:44And if you take a step back and look at the history of OnePlus, like they started off
02:48as a company selling budget phones, $300 smartphones that were designed to shake up the market,
02:54and it worked.
02:55And obviously that business model wasn't sustainable long term, you can't just keep selling these
02:58super cheap phones with really low margins, that's just a really bad way to do business,
03:02but it got them the attention of enough people.
03:05And every year that went by, they bumped up the price a little bit while improving the
03:09phone, and the strategy works.
03:11Like you basically take the fastest SoC at the time, package it into a nice looking case,
03:15mid-tier camera, and you sell it.
03:16And they've made a great name for themselves doing just that.
03:20And they've made waves with that product in Asia, India, China, people love OnePlus there.
03:25But in North America, they've made some moves, they're just not super popular yet.
03:30And like any business minded company, you want to penetrate North America, because that's
03:34where a ton of users are.
03:36If you can get people in North America to buy this phone, you win.
03:39So that's what this phone is designed to do.
03:41The OnePlus 7 Pro, with the 90Hz OLED panel, the pop-up camera, crazy fast storage, warp
03:46charging, and then add a splash of Robert Downey Jr. for some ads in Asia, and maybe
03:51you got a winning formula.
03:53But in doing so, by only selling the OnePlus 7 Pro in North America, and not the regular
03:57OnePlus 7, it's shown how much the company has shifted from their original business model.
04:02It's shown how much the company has grown over the years, but it's also shown how much
04:06the market has shifted.
04:08So when they first had the original OnePlus 1, they made a name for themselves as flagship
04:13killers, and over the years, more and more companies have done the exact same thing,
04:17making these mid-tier phones designed to disrupt the flagship market, and it's a very crowded
04:22space at this point.
04:23And when you have to compete with phones like the Pocophone and the K20, it is very hard
04:28to make money in that business.
04:29So they've shifted targets to a very different demographic.
04:33They're now selling premium smartphones, and that's a market that I think they can be very
04:36competitive in over the next few years.
04:39Now, the reason why I made this video was not because I dislike OnePlus or anything
04:42like that, it's because the regular OnePlus 7 is so good.
04:46I'm not going to do a review on this thing, it really is like an upgraded version of the
04:496T, but it's a shame that they didn't sell this in North America.
04:53I get why they did it, like it makes perfect sense, and I don't blame them for going down
04:57this business route, but I can't help but be a little bit disappointed because if I
05:01had to choose, like, one of these phones to recommend to the average person in North America,
05:06it would be the regular OnePlus 7, not the OnePlus 7 Pro.
05:10Okay, I hope this video was helpful, hope you guys enjoyed it, thumbs if you liked it,
05:14subs if you loved it, see you guys next time.