As always in hardware, established volume manufacturers are going to have a huge edge on any newcomer. Companies like Samsung and Apple have an astonishing vertical range in their manufacturing process, with their own IP cores / custom processors / custom operating systems / custom antenna design / custom case design. You can't just go out and beat all that at once, and offer the same product but cheaper.

I find the comments who say "omg it's not cheap why should I buy this" a bit condescending. You can't be any cheaper than the big companies, or else you'll have to beat them at what they're good at. If you can, you're an established player, good on you, but you most likely don't belong on HN.

As always in startup terms, you have to find your individual edge. This will always be a small gadget type of thing initially (as with most web startups), hoping to attain more traction down the line, enabling you to extend your product step by step. I really liked the Jolla phone with its I2C interface and the "second half" concept. Sweet stuff. Unique to the market, catering to the small production volumes they would be confronted with, and most importantly attracting just the right crowd of producers. If Seth Godin's Tribe Marketing rings a bell with you, then this is it.

Oneplus One, or Oppo for short, brings none of this to the table. They have a good high-volume manufacturing process, and have been selling single quantities on aliexpress for a long time. They seem good, but they had nothing unique going for them whatsoever. They used to be the archetypal me-too chinese manufacturer that tries to make a difference by striving for spec high scores (more megapixels! yay!), but neccessarily failing to deliver in other regards.

They have been looking for their edge for some time now, first with that rotatable camera gadget instead of a separate front camera, which at least got them some attention. Alas, there was a reason all other products came with two separate cameras, one being distinct usage scenarios for the two cameras and another being the rather complex case design. So at the end of the day, their design was just a stunt to demonstrate their manufacturing capabilities, and also their ability to justify large investments into injection molds. Impressive, but not attractive to me.

So their next attempt is a tacked on piece of open source software. Of course, these two companies are looking for a match here, with cyanogenmod having no clear business process but a distinctive product, and Oppo having everything else. It still feels like a cheap concept, and evidently they are centering their sales pitch around price. This always feels like a warning sign to me, indicative of a low emphasis on R&D. (Especially when compared to Samsung and Apple, who pump out a remarkable lot of innovative stuff even though they are market leaders.)

So, yeah. Personally I'll be using my second-hand Samsung Note 2 for the time being, and as soon as I feel adventurous I'll try out the Jolla. I'll be watching Oppo, but I could be more excited tbh, and I certainly don't buy into their newly-acquired startup flair. Open Source software just doesn't give you street cred like that anymore.