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Pete Lau

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In this Chinese name, the family name is Liu (Lau).
Pete Lau
刘作虎
Born (1975-05-05) 5 May 1975 (age 49)
Hanchuan, Hubei, China
Alma materZhejiang University (BA)
Occupation(s)Co-founder and CEO of OnePlus

Pete Lau, or Liu Zuohu (Chinese: 刘作虎; pinyin: Liú Zuòhǔ; Jyutping: Lau4 Zok3fu2), is a Chinese entrepreneur and business executive. He is the co-founder and the chief executive officer of Chinese smartphone maker OnePlus.[1]

Career in Oppo

Lau started working in Oppo as a hardware engineer. He later became the director of Oppo's Blu-ray division. Lau's attention for detail became famous in tech circles during that time when he smashed a Blu-ray player's logic board to express his disappointment about the circuitry design.[2] He then became head of marketing before finally getting assigned as the Vice President. As the Vice President, he was instrumental in bringing CyanogenMod, an Android-based operating system, to Oppo N1 smartphone.[3] He resigned from Oppo in November 2013 after working in the company for over a decade.[4][5]

OnePlus

In December 2013, Lau and Carl Pei launched their own company named "OnePlus" with the aim of creating "a more beautiful and higher quality product." At the time of its founding, OnePlus had only 6 employees.[6] Cutting costs was a priority for the company early on, so Lau opted to sell his company's first product exclusively online, taking inspiration from market models of the Nexus line and Oppo. He chose Cyanogenmod as the device's operating system and extended his ties with Stefanie Kondik of Cyanogen Inc., whom he became acquainted with during his time at Oppo.[2][3]

Since OnePlus didn't have a manufacturing facility, Lau had the device manufactured in the facilities of his former company Oppo.[7] The device named OnePlus One was announced officially in April 2014 and became available for online order in June 2014.[8] OnePlus One received positive reviews from the tech community, praising the phone's specifications, performance, design and aggressive pricing.[9][10][11] The device's attention to detail, an aspect that can be attributed to Lau, was praised by several tech experts.[12][13] Due to limited product supply, the phone was initially available for purchase through an invite-only system.[14]

The phone's pricing was discussed widely in tech media. The 16 GB version of the phone cost USD 299 while the 64 GB version cost USD 349, almost half the price of other flagship devices at that time with similar specifications. Lau attributed the low prices to the lack of marketing costs, the online marketing strategy, and low profit margins. The strategy was labelled as brave and risky for a new company by tech website Tech Radar.[15] Another tech site, Phone Arena, commented that "if OnePlus can succeed selling its smartphone without television advertising, it will have done something that the major manufacturers could never accomplish."[16]

By December 2014, nearly 1 million phones were sold.[17][18][19] OnePlus announced another OS "OxygenOS"[20] for their smartphones when YU Televentures, a subsidiary of Micromax, announced that they alone had permission for the use of Cyanogen OS in India.

References

  1. ^ "Q&A with Pete Lau from OnePlus on the launch of the One". Qualcomm.com. 2014-05-16. Retrieved 2015-01-21.
  2. ^ a b Lai, Richard (2014-04-23). "Meet the One, OnePlus' $299 Nexus killer". Engadget.com. Retrieved 2015-01-21.
  3. ^ a b Wenz, John (17 December 2013). "From Oppo to OnePlus: a new company wants to build the next great smartphone". The Verge. Retrieved 2015-01-21.
  4. ^ Pete Lau (2013-11-17). "Today is my last day at OPPO". Retrieved 2015-01-21.
  5. ^ Soo, Zen (12 August 2014). "[TechCrunch Beijing] Pete Lau: How Chinese Smartphone Company OnePlus Went Global in just 8 Months". TechNode. Retrieved 2015-01-21.
  6. ^ Yoo, Eva (30 November 2014). "Interview with OnePlus CEO Pete Lau: OnePlus One Product Philosophy". TechNode. Retrieved 2015-01-21.
  7. ^ Moon, Mariella (2013-12-16). "Ex-Oppo exec reveals new company OnePlus, plans to make 'the perfect smartphone'". Engadget.com. Retrieved 2015-01-21.
  8. ^ "OnePlus One - Full phone specifications". Gsmarena.com. Retrieved 2015-01-21.
  9. ^ "OnePlus One review: When opportunity strikes". GSMArena.com. 2014-07-09. Retrieved 2015-01-21.
  10. ^ Brad Molen. "OnePlus One review". Engadget. Retrieved 2015-01-21.
  11. ^ Mundydocument, Jon (2014-05-29). "OnePlus One | Techradar India". In.techradar.com. Retrieved 2015-01-21.
  12. ^ "Hands On Review | One Plus One: Simple Math". Thedailystar.net. Archived from the original on 2015-01-21. Retrieved 2015-01-21.
  13. ^ Raj, Hitesh (2014-12-10). "ET Review: OnePlus One a revelation at Rs 21,999 - The Economic Times". Economictimes.indiatimes.com. Retrieved 2015-01-21.
  14. ^ Sawers, Paul. "OnePlus founder talks NFC, meeting demand, and what ‘never settle’ really means", 14 November 2015. Accessed 10 December 2015.
  15. ^ Beavisdocument, Gareth (2014-05-14). "Revealed: the reason the OnePlus One is so cheap | Techradar India". In.techradar.com. Retrieved 2015-01-21.
  16. ^ "OnePlus CEO Lau: We're selling the OnePlus One at cost". Phonearena.com. Retrieved 2015-01-21.
  17. ^ "Nearly a million units of OnePlus One sold last year - GSMArena.com news". Gsmarena.com. Retrieved 2015-01-21.
  18. ^ "How $300 Of Advertising Sold One Million Smartphones". Forbes. 2015-01-12. Retrieved 2015-01-21.
  19. ^ Michael Kan. "China's OnePlus targets flagship phones from big players". PCWorld. Retrieved 2015-01-21.
  20. ^ "OnePlus launches new ROM OxygenOS". SmartFoneArena. Retrieved 12 December 2015.
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