At Least Somebody Is Keeping Things Exciting
A British startup is keeping the mobile industry fresh…. on a budget.
Remember when tech used to be exciting? Launch days for new products were accompanied by queues around the block, eager fans waiting patiently for the latest release. From manic iPhone pickups to midnight Xbox drops, buyers around the world could count themselves lucky to be in that elite club of early adopters. But now? The latest iPhone drops to a whimper and the newest Xbox didn’t even have any games to launch with.
It could be argued that technology has become normalised, smartphones sitting alongside vacuum cleaners as just another piece of the post-modern puzzle. Sony are happy to just sell you shinier versions of the games you’ve always played, Apple happier still to make dull-but-reliable phones. Not everyone thinks this way though and one of those people is Carl Pei.
Together with business partner and current CEO Pete Lau they founded the brand OnePlus, a spinoff from Oppo designed to make low price, high-spec phones. Against a market of entrenched players, they established a brand that continues to break ground. Bored with how mature the smartphone market had quickly become, in 2020 Pei resigned from OnePlus, packed his bags for Europe and founded the brand Nothing.
