OnePlus, a Chinese smartphone maker, has recently announced the launch of their fourth device, the OnePlus 3, which will be available on June 14. As with one of its earlier units, the launch will be done in a virtual reality environment. However, one thing that sets it apart is that the OnePlus 3 will also be on sale for a brief period exclusively in VR in what the company calls "The Loop," which is a multi-use space.
According to Venture Beat, the Loop will open at 12:30PM Eastern Time. That is, 12:30 PM (New York), 9:30 AM PDT (San Francisco), 4:30 PM UTC/GMT, 5:30 PM BST (London), 6:30 PM CEST (Paris), 10:00 PM IST(Bengaluru). However, the new unit will be openly available via OnePlus.Net at 3:00 PM Eastern Time.
What is exceptionally special this time around is that guests no longer need invites in order to purchase the model. Carl Pei, the company's co-founder, explained this decision over the OnePlus website. "We're releasing the OnePlus 3 invite-free, right from launch day," he wrote on the post. He also confirmed that any and all future releases, will no longer require invites as well.
He went on to explain that the practice first started as a way to control the amount of units that were released by the company. Because it was so small, those behind OnePlus needed to think of a method where interested buyers would not be waiting indefinitely for a unit, nor would the units be sold out completely.
The team then came out with the invitation system, which would give customers a chance to buy a phone as soon as the unit was in stock. However, because of the company's consistent growth, OnePlus believes it is now within its power to provide the units, invitation-free, from the beginning.
OnePlus is a Chinese smartphone manufacturing company that is still in its infancy stages. It was founded in 2013 and has thus far released only three models - the OnePlus One, OnePlus Two and OnePlus X. The company is growing rapidly, as it services upwards of 40 countries and regions around the world.
