It all happened over a cup of coffee. A few top executives of a firm that makes Android-based phones found themselves using iPhones. Laughing at the irony, they wanted to build an Android phone with the best features available at a ‘reasonable’ price. In a way, they wanted to build a phone that can ‘rival’ an iPhone in the Android ecosystem.

With their base at Shenzhen in China, the OnePlus team is not in a hurry. While most of their peers have already launched multiple models, OnePlus has just launched its second phone after one year of releasing its maiden one.

“Why, the second phone we have just started shipping is going to be our flagship phone for 2016 too,” Vikas Agarwal, General Manager of OnePlus India, told BusinessLine .

In Hyderabad recently as part of the eight-city pop-up meets to promote the ₹24,999 phone, Vikas says it hardly spends anything on promotion. “See, it takes anywhere about 15 per cent (of the total cost of the phone) on the distribution channel. We are selling online only,” he said.

But then there are a few others who are also selling online. “But we are not going to deny phones to those who registered with us. We send invites with a 15-digit code to those in our community, indicating their place in the queue. If you give phones to only 10 or 20,000, you are making majority of others fret, distancing them from the product,” he explained.

To reach out to a larger audience, the firm has demonstrated the product through a VR (virtual reality) campaign.

In the first three days that the firm opened the new phone for registration, about 10 lakh people made a request for a number. “Whoever buys our phone will get a few more invites that can be offered to others. Those who promote can move up the queue,” he said.

India interest Vikas says India, which emerged as a top-three market for the firm, has shown significant interest in the product since last year.

Acknowledging the huge interest, the firm set up a base in India, the first country to have a team outside of China. It has a team of 15 people in the country. “We are targeting to sell 10 lakh phones in India,” he said.

Asked about competition and the slew of models that are being launched every other day, he said that the firm was not in a hurry. “We are not in a hurry. We give the best possible phone. It is difficult to better it immediately,” he pointed out, ruling out the possibility of launching multiple phones.

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