OnePlus took the smartphone market by storm couple of years back with the OnePlus One. Fast forward two years and they now have three phones in market. OnePlus has been known to use the infamous invite system to sell their phones when they are launched which has caused a lot frustration and also negative feedback. Today, OnePlus has released press statement that they are taking the next step and have released a partnership with a Finnish (YES! you read that right!) carrier Elisa.
Start of a new strategy for OnePlus?
OnePlus has stated many times that selling phones through carriers would ramp up the price as carriers tend to want a margin of the sales profit. Could the strategy for the company be changing? This could be a way for OnePlus to test the market and how profitable it would be.
Although I am a native Finn I was kind of amazed to hear that a Finnish carrier has been chosen to lead in this new strategy. Elisa is one of the three biggest carriers in Finland and they are pretty open on getting new phones to their stores. The big thing here is that in all countries of Europe, Finland was chosen. Finland has been a pretty good market for OnePlus in the past few years and Finland has been one of the biggest markets for OnePlus in Europe.
There is no sign of extra carrier price
So what about the price of the phones then? Well, I am happy to say that there is no extra pricing on the phones and the prices are exactly the same as in OnePlus’ own webshop. What makes this interesting is that users can actually get the phone cheaper if they visit one of the Elisa stores as then you won’t need to pay the delivery costs (ranging from 6 – 16euros).
Elisa is selling the phone in no-interest loan contracts on 12, 24 or 36month contract. So for a 36month contract for OnePlus 2, you pay only 9,58€/month for the phone (the total price will be 345€). This is pretty standard in Finland as carriers have moved away from the old type of phone+mobile plan bundle contracts and started to offer these no-interest loan contracts. And when I say no-interest I mean no-interest, the user doesn’t pay any extra interest on these contracts. After getting the phone they can get whatever sim they want as none of the phones sold in Finland are sim locked.
Available models
OnePlus will bring it’s two current phones, the OnePlus 2 and the OnePlus X, to Elisas web-shop and also to most of the Elisa mortar stores. As said, the OnePlus 2 will start at 9,58€/month (36mont contract) or 345€ if you pay straight up. The OnePlus X will sell for 7,46 € / kk (36month contract) or 268,56 €.
Both models are available straight away from the web-shop and also from brick and mortar stores. Elisa says that they have lot of inventory so everyone will be able to get one from starting today.
Fan meet up in Helsinki
To celebrate the partnership with Elisa, OnePlus is arranging a fan meet up this Sunday in Helsinki. The event will start at 6pm (Finnish time) and will be held at Beer house Villi Wäino in Helsinki Centrum. Willing participants can use Eventbrite to sign up for the event and OnePlus will send participants an email later on. There are limited tickets available so act fast. You can sign-up for the event here.
Eurotechtalk will be on spot and we have arranged an interview with the OnePlus staff. If you have questions you would like to be asked, please send email to juha@eurotechtalk.com. Deadline for the questions is Saturday 14th of May, 6pm GMT.
Source: Elisa
