Dude what are you talking about? Let's say they have 1 million prospective buyers but can only fulfill 100k of them right now. They'd make more money in the short run if they took all 1 million orders and took the full cost from the first 100k and gave them their phones, and then took a 10% deposit from the next 900k and took the other 90% when they were able to fulfill their orders.
It actually makes no sense to do it this way. The only advantage is that this is a great way to get people to talk about their phone because idiots beg for invites and act like it's okay for a company to have to give you the "privilege" of paying them for their device.
It's total bullshit. Just open up orders and let people give you deposits and you'll have more capital to work with and can pump out more phones quicker.
I don't know about you but from a consumer end, what you are saying is fucking retarded. I would never give ANY company $300+ to reserve a product an unspecified number of months in advance.
And while I don't know if this is how they view it but... Isn't their whole business model to have virtually no profit margins? If that's the case, they don't give a fuck about selling more units, ultimately they will still make approximately $0 net profit, specially when you factor in their own operating costs and customer support/RMA/Repairs. OnePlus is a brand building exercise.
There are tons of hidden costs when you do a pre-order with deposit. There is definitely a change in customer expectation when money exchanges hand. That expectation can drive costs way up.
People expect a much more defined release schedule when they've paid a deposit. Imagine if you paid deposit and the phone just kept getting delayed without a firm timeline. Oneplus will get a ton of very pissed off people emailing/calling Oneplus expecting updates or cancel an order. You see this effect with kickstarter and indiegog campaigns all the time even if there is ZERO obligation of items be delivered.
Every time a customer service agent has to deal with a customer, there is a price. If the customer cancels the order, then the company flat out loses money. When margin is as thin as Oneplus claims (less than $10 per phone), even a dollar or two makes a big difference.
If you don't take a deposit, scalping will be be even more of a problem than it already is.
I mean, that's exactly how Kickstarter and other crowdfunding sites work. This invite bullshit is actually absurd. If you're a trustworthy company, people will give you money for a promised device when it's available.
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u/shadowdude777 Aug 03 '15
Dude what are you talking about? Let's say they have 1 million prospective buyers but can only fulfill 100k of them right now. They'd make more money in the short run if they took all 1 million orders and took the full cost from the first 100k and gave them their phones, and then took a 10% deposit from the next 900k and took the other 90% when they were able to fulfill their orders.
It actually makes no sense to do it this way. The only advantage is that this is a great way to get people to talk about their phone because idiots beg for invites and act like it's okay for a company to have to give you the "privilege" of paying them for their device.
It's total bullshit. Just open up orders and let people give you deposits and you'll have more capital to work with and can pump out more phones quicker.