OnePlus opens its first physical store in China

It looks like the improbable has happened , the folks over at OnePlus has decided to open up a traditional brick and mortar store over in Beijing. This particular store is known as the “Experience” store, and being the smartphone manufacturer’s very first retail location of such, there was a media event which was held on Tuesday in order to commemorate the physical store’s opening. Of course, this does not mean you can pop in right now, since it will only be fully opened for business five days before Christmas, although there will be a trial run that will kick off from this December 1st onward.

Since OnePlus released their ‘flagship killer’ device the One Plus One it has been rather hard to get hold of. This is largely due to wannabe owners requiring an invite to buy. Invites are typically only available via two methods. Firstly, be invited by someone who has been issued an invite. Secondly, win one of the notorious OnePlus competitions. Due to this exclusivity and elusiveness, the OnePlus One has built up somewhat of a cult following and became one of the year’s must have devices. Even with an invite, customers still had to buy online with no actual physical stores or third party sales locations available. One of the reasons OnePlus has always given for this lack of distribution was ‘keeping down the costs’. By reducing overheads and selling online OnePlus say they can offer the lower prices that they do. While other manufacturers rely on sales through third party sites and stores this is what adds to the cost of the other devices.