Hello everyone! I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas evening with their families! I just wanted to know if you ever heard of Invitation Only Phones... If you're not familiar with that, I suggest looking at the one phone that appears to be doing so right now. The OnePlus One. Do you believe that referral systems are the best way to market niche devices that people want? I know the OnePlus One didn't spend much on advertising whatsoever, and yet they have a global presence. OnePlus is a company based in China which created an amazing smart phone that I bought myself. I'm a proud owner of a OnePlus One, and I do believe it's a "Flagship Killer". The thing is FAST. I'm not kidding, I've never EVER seen a load screen on the phone (Except of course the bootloader for a couple of seconds). Excuse me for being off-topic, however. I was wondering, how do you believe that referral systems appear to the public? Do you think people will assume it's a pyramid scheme, or a Multi-Level Marketing Scheme? I want to know your opinions on this. Do you know of any other referral only systems that have worked? Let's narrow the topic to the mobile phone department only though, I don't want this to get too off topic. As for me, I bought into it, I definitely believe it's viable, and I think it has an opportunity to change the market as we see it.
Either way, it's a great opportunity to build buzz for a phone. The OnePlus One doesn't come without its issues, although it's a great phone overall. The device has received nearly as much buzz for the invitation only nature as it has for its brawny internals at such a low price. Therefore, whether you like these marketing tactics or not, it's done a great job of drumming up interest for the device thanks to high demand and low inventories.
I'm okay with it as long as they really have a good enough product to back their marketing strategy. I've seen a few of these get so over hyped that it's so difficult to decipher whether or not the product is good or if it's just the fans making too much noise. If e product is good then word of mouth will spread regardless and it might be worth putting in a bit more effort to get it instead of paying more because the company is paying for marketing.
I agree, for sure it's guaranteed to be hyped-up, but the long term success of that strategy isn't guaranteed yet. If the price is affordable to the masses, then maybe it can be a popular brand in the future.
I believe that this is one of the best way for marketing as a lot of people know about the product and are really happy using it. Due to the referral system many people would be interested in it although it is totally different questions whether they become the referral or not. I think it is quite an easy way to get through the event of making a particular phone very popular.
That's viral marketing. They take a disinterested approach and let consumers do most of their marketing for them while they hint at the referral system online. From what I've read it certainly is working. That said, regardless of how a device is marketed, I'd buy it only if I need it and know for sure that others have used it and can recommend it without hesitation.
This invitation system they were doing created a lot of buzz for them besides the great specs and features the phone presented. It basically created more demand and tons of buzz for them that still continues. This kinda goes to show you that most companies sell for their brand name and not for the quality of their product.
I wouldn't get one. One of the things I want from a phone is a big community that will both be able to help me should anything happen, and will actively develop new kernels/ROMs/tweaks/scripts for the device. Not saying OnePlus won't get that, but there IS that chance, so I would skip it.
The phone is actually supported by the CyanogenMod community, which is an esteemed group of Android modders. It's pretty much Open Source, so if you have an issue with the phone, you typically just raise a issue on Github, and there's usually a developer to fix it.Log In There's also xdaDevelopers to also help at any time, so there's always going to be someone to help you.
