Where Huawei Failed, OnePlus Seeks To Succeed; To Negotiate With U.S. Carriers

OnePlus is the smartphone company that broke onto the mobile scene relatively recently and made waves with its excellent devices. Based in China, the company seeks to enter the U.S. market in a much bigger manner. This is why the firm’s CEO recently announced that it would start speaking to major carriers in the country in an effort to have them start offering its phones.

OnePlus CEO Pete Lau made the statement at the Bellagio on Wednesday, saying that talks with major U.S. carriers could begin this year, CNET reports. The company has made quite the impression among Android and tech enthusiasts already, but it hasn’t really caught on in the U.S. market just yet.

A deal with a major carrier like AT&T or Verizon could potentially catapult OnePlus to a much bigger audience. From there, the company will capitalize on the excellence of its mobile devices, providing customers with premium handsets at budget prices.

This is also the reason why a potential deal between AT&T and Huawei was so hotly anticipated building up to CES 2018. As already reported, this deal fell through and the Chinese firm’s CEO blasted U.S. carriers for the failed arrangement.

As Android Headlines points out, however, a successful partnership with U.S. carriers could also pose potential problems for OnePlus. There’s the matter of scale, for example, which the manufacturer currently does not have much of yet. More demands for its devices would naturally mean boosting its production, which would be a huge change for the company.

So far, OnePlus has been very particular when it comes to its manufacturing standards, keeping tight control over how many units it produces. A major carrier deal could lead to loosening of these standards, thus leading to more smartphones of lower quality. Of course, this is all speculative as talks haven’t even begun yet.