The Giant Slayer

The Shenzen-based smartphone maker has edged out bigger rivals to claim the top spot in India’s premium smartphone market and is looking to use this experience overseas.

- Abhik Sen and Ashish Gupta

IT IS A DILEMMA THOUSANDS of young Indians have been wrestling with in recent years. Apple or Samsung? And if that wasn’t a tough enough choice, now there’s a not-so-new kid on the block that’s also teasing mobile users in the world’s fastest-growing smartphone market: Shenzen-based smartphone company OnePlus. Pete Lau, founder and CEO of OnePlus, offers a few pointers to help make a decision: The 44-year-old says since you’re going to use your phone every day, the overall experience should be light, fast, and the device should feel just right in your hand.

It might sound like marketing spiel, but Lau knows his product and his customer. The self-confessed perfectionist’s conception of the smartphone experience has helped OnePlus steal a march over bigger rivals such as U.S. giant Apple and South Korea’s Samsung to lead the Indian premium phone market. We meet Lau during his recent visit to India and ask him about the company’s journey and its future plans. Clad in a white T-shirt, black trousers and jacket, and his signature white Christian Louboutin sneakers, he looks every bit a new-age tycoon, but without the hyper energy. Calm and collected, he explains through an interpreter that since he also looks at himself as the company’s chief product officer, all phones must pass his scrutiny. It is better to wait and perfect something than have a half-baked product, he says. And he’s done that numerous times—from rejecting the design of the phone because it didn’t ‘feel’ right in his hand, to holding back a feature because it didn’t meet his standards.