The OnePlus One was one of the most impressive devices of 2014, and we highlighted its upcoming successor among the top ten bits of tech that we’re looking forward to this year. But the success of the device has apparently come in spite of those who manage the company, which has repeatedly stumbled from one screw-up to the next.
In its latest error of judgement, OnePlus has been announcing release dates for its latest OS updates, and repeatedly missing them, to the immense frustration of its customers.
OnePlus originally promised that it would make its Android 5.0 Lollipop update available within 90 days of Google"s release of the final build. But five months after that final build was released, OnePlus’ Lollipop-based OxygenOS update still hasn’t arrived.
The company had also promised that it would arrive on March 27, but that date came and went without the OS being released. It also said that the CyanogenMod 12S update for the OnePlus One would arrive on March 31. Unsurprisingly, that target was also missed.
OnePlus has since apologized to its customers (we"ve lost track of how many times that"s happened since the company launched), and appears to have learnt its lesson this time around, by no longer committing to release dates that it can’t stick to. The firm has instead been issuing daily briefings on the Google certification process for the updates, which it says has been holding things up.
Unfortunately, all that came a bit too late to dampen the ire of some users, who have blamed Cyanogen for the CM12 "delay", even though it was actually OnePlus that committed to a date for its release, and not Cyanogen.
As Phandroid reports, Cyanogen’s CEO Kirt McMaster took to Twitter to respond to the complaints of some OnePlus customers, telling them to “calm the f down… it’s coming soon… when ready!”
For those keeping score, OnePlus has managed to make all sorts of embarrassing errors since it launched, including:
- forcing customers to jump through hoops to buy the One with its frustrating ‘invite system’;
- ditching the swappable covers that it promised, after admitting flaws in its design process;
- running a sexist photo contest, which invited women to submit selfies to be judged on its user forums, to be in with a chance of being able to buy its phone;
- encouraging people to smash up their own phones (a truly stupid idea, given how dangerous it can be to damage smartphone batteries); and
- redesigning the European regulatory ‘CE’ mark - a mandatory symbol which must not be altered in any way - on its handsets, resulting in the EU rejecting an entire shipment (which the company then shipped to customers with the illegitimate symbol anyway).
There have also been numerous reports of OnePlus shipping handsets with damaged bezels, missing buttons and missing accessories. Some customers also claimed that their handsets suffered from a ‘yellow banding’ issue with the display.
Amusingly, when it was busy generating pre-launch hype for its handset, OnePlus said that it would be the "perfect smartphone", and promised to offer more "thoughtful design and service" than any of its competitors.