2014 was a successful year for smartphone manufacturer OnePlus. Its first handset, the clinically named ’One’, is approaching one million handsets sold, it has a devoted following online, and its business model of rationing the handsets released to the market has created intrigue and desirability.
That was last year, and now the Shenzhen-based manufacturer has to deal with the tricky issue of ’the second album’ and how to follow up one of the desirable handsets from the last twelve months.
While the naming convention is being followed, OnePlus will be promoting the handset as the ‘OnePlus 2′, switching out the text-based branding for a digit based look. What is perhaps more surprising is the delay on the handset.
Sources have confirmed the choice of Qualcomm’s SnapDragon 810, and indicated that the launch of the OnePlus 2 has been forced back into the third quarter of 2015 because of “manufacturing challenges with the Snapdragon 810.”
These reports align with Samsung’s issues around the choice of processor for the Galaxy S6. In the case of the South Korean company, it can switch away from the Snapdragon 810 family for the first batch of handsets and use its own silicon in the form of the slower and less capable Exynos product line. Since the launch of the iPhone 5S, Android manufactures have been pushing to release their own 64-bit smartphones, in a bid to maintain ‘specification parity’ in the marketing materials and comparison pieces online.
Part of Apple’s long-term strategy with the move to 64-bit computing was surely to put the Android ecosystem ‘off-balance’ as it was forced to rush design and production. The impact of the decision to follow iOS to 64-bit as quickly as possible is still having an impact.
OnePlus has decided to ‘go long’ with its next handset and will wait for the issues to be addressed before rolling out its 64-bit handset. I suspect the company will not be alone in this decision. That gives them more time to work on the software (Android 5.0 Lollipop is the first Google version of Android to ship with 64-bit support ‘out of the box’), and more time to investigate hardware options.
The OnePlus One was famed for having some of the highest specifications on the market when it launched. The sequel needs 64-bit computing to maintain that message. I wonder what other hardware advances will be seen in the next six months that OnePlus can now incorporate on the OnePlus 2?
That was last year, and now the Shenzhen-based manufacturer has to deal with the tricky issue of ’the second album’ and how to follow up one of the desirable handsets from the last twelve months.
While the naming convention is being followed, OnePlus will be promoting the handset as the ‘OnePlus 2′, switching out the text-based branding for a digit based look. What is perhaps more surprising is the delay on the handset.
Sources have confirmed the choice of Qualcomm’s SnapDragon 810, and indicated that the launch of the OnePlus 2 has been forced back into the third quarter of 2015 because of “manufacturing challenges with the Snapdragon 810.”
These reports align with Samsung’s issues around the choice of processor for the Galaxy S6. In the case of the South Korean company, it can switch away from the Snapdragon 810 family for the first batch of handsets and use its own silicon in the form of the slower and less capable Exynos product line. Since the launch of the iPhone 5S, Android manufactures have been pushing to release their own 64-bit smartphones, in a bid to maintain ‘specification parity’ in the marketing materials and comparison pieces online.
Part of Apple’s long-term strategy with the move to 64-bit computing was surely to put the Android ecosystem ‘off-balance’ as it was forced to rush design and production. The impact of the decision to follow iOS to 64-bit as quickly as possible is still having an impact.
OnePlus has decided to ‘go long’ with its next handset and will wait for the issues to be addressed before rolling out its 64-bit handset. I suspect the company will not be alone in this decision. That gives them more time to work on the software (Android 5.0 Lollipop is the first Google version of Android to ship with 64-bit support ‘out of the box’), and more time to investigate hardware options.
The OnePlus One was famed for having some of the highest specifications on the market when it launched. The sequel needs 64-bit computing to maintain that message. I wonder what other hardware advances will be seen in the next six months that OnePlus can now incorporate on the OnePlus 2?
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