OnePlus finally axes invites and lets customers pre-order in late October (updated)

By Malarie Gokey Published September 29, 2014

OnePlus has been getting all kinds of bad press in the past few weeks for its questionable marketing campaigns, but now the smartphone startup has some good news for its would-be customers. The company is working on a pre-order system that should launch in October, so girls won’t have to send sexy pictures anymore and guys won’t have to be invited to get the coveted OnePlus One smartphone.

During an “Ask Me Anything” Reddit session, a member of the OnePlus team said that the startup is hard at work on the pre-order system and expects to get it up and running by October. Then, OnePlus will kill off the invite system and stop limiting who gets its unique One smartphone. The pre-order page should have been up in September, but unforeseen problems delayed its launch.

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Updated on 09-18-2014 by Malarie Gokey: OnePlus officially announced that it will open the OnePlus One up for preorders in late October

Then, in mid-September, OnePlus officially announced that starting in late October for a limited time, anyone who wants a OnePlus One can order the phone online. If OnePlus has your phone in stock, it will ship immediately, but if the company’s sold out, you’ll be added to the preorder list. However, that means if a lot of people order the phone, preorders may get pushed back for a long time.

“No matter what, we’ll always tell you our best approximation for when it will ship before you submit the payment authorization (we’ll reserve the payment and charge you when we ship),” OnePlus added.

No exact date was given for when the preorder period will start, nor for how long it will last or how many OnePlus Ones are in supply.

Related: Check out our OnePlus One review

The invite system resulted in a very limited launch of the One to a select few users. The exclusivity of the phone, along with its innovative design and special CyanogenMod version of the Android OS, generated a lot of hype and would-be customers would do almost anything for an invite. OnePlus took full advantage of the craze and issued several social media contests, many of which have proven controversial.

Luckily, it seems that OnePlus must have learned something from its earlier blunders. Although the company did start another contest during the AMA session, it was strictly PG. OnePlus promised to send a hundred invites to users who replied to its post.

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

As DT's Mobile Editor, Malarie runs the Mobile and Wearables sections, which cover smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, and…

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