Two Takeaways from the MWC

Hi everyone,

One of my (Chinese) New Year resolutions was to try to write up something every few weeks and share. In a world where it feels the focus has shifted towards tweets, gifs and photo sharing, I think its great (and healthy!) to sit down with your thoughts and write regularly.

I spent last week in Barcelona for the Mobile World Congress -- catching up with friends and our OnePlus teams in Europe, sitting down for interviews with media, and taking every chance possible to soak up the wonderful city of Barcelona. Our global community grew a lot in 2017, and I can really feel this when I join an event like the MWC. Thank you guys for making OnePlus what we are today.

Of course, I also had to find time to look around the MWC, and see some of the new devices out there. Forever a product guy at heart, nothing is quite as exciting as exploring new products and seeing what our incredible brains can create. The smartphone industry slowed in 2017, and volume actually shrank in China, with more players leaving the industry than joining, and newer entrants finding success particularly challenging. This may sound like the industry no longer offers great opportunity, but we are very optimistic and excited for what's ahead.

This year at the MWC, there was less hype and fanfare around the launch of new devices. Many of the people I had a chance to talk to asked about my thoughts on the trend of smartphones becoming more and more similar. This is the reality of the industry, but I feel this trend for now is only skin deep.

For example, I was surprised at how many of the new flagship devices in our industry are still so complicated to use. As technology advances, our tools should become simpler to use. The smartphone should become smarter by focusing on simplicity. Making great technology function simply is not easy. We try to keep our focus on building simple and intuitive smartphones that really work. Thanks to our active online community of users, we are well equipped with constant feedback on building what really matters.

That's all for now - time to get back in the office, roll up our sleeves and get to work!

Never Settle.

-Pete