OnePlus is using a thorough online survey to get feedback from its customers, and in the process it’s giving us some insight into what kinds of non-smartphone products the company has its eye on for the future. If the company’s survey questions are any indication of impending reality, we could eventually see OnePlus wearable devices and smart home products.
Early Saturday morning, OnePlus emailed customers an “Experience Survey” to gather opinions and feedback about what the company has done so far. “It will be essential for our next steps in improving the OnePlus experience,” according to the company’s email.
The 95-question survey covers a lot of ground, from how customers found out about OnePlus, to how likely they are to recommend the company to friends, to scale-based input about their level of agreement with statements about the company’s attributes (e.g., OnePlus is a transparent company). OnePlus also uses the survey to inquire about what customers value in a smartphone brand and a new smartphone device.
Near the end of the survey, OnePlus tosses a curveball with a question about wearables: “What is the most important to you when choosing a wearable product (e.g., fitness tracker, smart watch, smart glasses)?” Customers are then shown scale-based fields for battery life, design, quality, size, waterproofing and the ability to wear the device on multiple locations of your body.
After these wearables-related questions, OnePlus follows up by asking respondents if they own smart home products. Then the company asks, “Would you be interested in purchasing smart home products from OnePlus in the future?”
OnePlus is dangling incentives to get responses: an invite to purchase its 64GB Sandstone Black OnePlus One for everyone who responds to the survey by Tuesday, Jan. 20, along with a chance to win one of 10 Bamboo StyleSwap covers and one of five OnePlus Power Banks. The company asks customers not to share the link to the survey, since the available survey-related invites is intended only for the original recipients. However, a new landing page for OnePlus’ website reveals that consumers can purchase the OnePlus One without an invite on Jan. 20.
In a recent interview with Tom’s Hardware, OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei talked about the importance of starting the company with a smartphone to gain an essential foothold for future products.
“We figured if we start with a smartphone, capture the interest with the smartphone, capture the users, then we can easily expand into other categories and not the other way around,” said Pei. “If you start with a smartwatch, you cannot expand into a smartphone very easily. So, we’ve actually been experimenting with a lot of different form factors and different smart products.”
Pei added that he doesn’t see much added value from owning current versions of smartwatches, which are just “another product to tell me that I have to check something.” He said if OnePlus were to make a smartwatch, “it has to be a lot more thoughtful and useful than what’s currently available.”
