This is the OnePlus 2's improved invite system

The OnePlus One was one of the breakout devices of last year, challenging the status quo with premium specs at a very affordable price but the biggest problem was getting your hands on one. The first-generation product was sold through an invite system and getting an invite to buy the phone involved jumping through hoops, including possibly breaking your own device.

This year, the OnePlus 2 will also be available through the invite system but OnePlus has made some changes; in a blog post, the company revealed everything you need to know about the new invite system and also, the reason they chose the invite system in the first place.

Before we reveal the details of the new invite system, let’s first look at OnePlus’s reasoning behind last year’s invite system. Simply put, the company had confidence in its product but didn’t know how customers would react. As the company said in its post:

We had no clue how many people would actually want to buy it and had the challenge of managing our cash flow and inventory risk. In addition, we didn’t agree that pre-orders or having products instantly becoming sold out was a great experience. Our solution to managing risk and user experience was the invite system.

Now to the OnePlus 2’s invite system and “less-positive feedback” about last year’s invite system meant some big changes.

The biggest of these is that invites should be a lot easier to come by; with the success of last year’s handsets under its belt, OnePlus is preparing a much larger launch inventory. When they say larger, they mean there will be 30-50x the number of handsets available from the very beginning.

Moving on, the company also plans to launch a reservation list allowing people to register for an invite and not requiring them to jump through eternal hoops. If you were one of the early OnePlus forum supporters, you’ll also get priority on the reservation list so you should get a device a lot sooner.

Lastly, the key thing about last year’s OnePlus invite system was the ability to share invites with friends after you had bought the handset but these invites often took a while to become available. With the OnePlus 2, this will all change as the company will offer shareable invites a lot sooner after you buy the handset, meaning more people should be able to buy the handset sooner.

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What do you think of the new and improved OnePlus 2 invite system? Let us know your views in the comments below.