ONE MAIN PRODUCT leads this month's teardown, the OnePlus Two smartphone from the eponymous Shenzhen-based OEM. But the story is mostly about how this product illustrates one country's and two quite similar companies' ambitions in consumer electronics. OnePlus and its Beijing-based rival Xiaomi are poster children for China's attempt to exploit the world leadership it has earned in manufacturing so that it can start exporting high-profile and stylish products of its own. They also want to be hip players, offering a Sino-spin on the Apple cachet. As both unveiled new products this August, there was importantly a sense that the upstarts are at a turning point. It could see them soon tack closer to the mainstream in terms of marketing and hardware/software design.
展开▼
