For smartphone manufacturers, competition with Apple should want to bring a knife to a shot match. Every. Single. Neighborhood.
The best iPhones are not necessarily the best phones directly (read: they are not), but the Cupertino giant has undoubtedly managed to wind a large cut of smartphone-owned consumers (perhaps indefinitely) throughout its decades long focus on building a waterproof product ecosystem. Heck, even Samsung, Apple’s biggest competitor, has seen his own homeland fall victim to iPhone fever, and Apple remains a strength to be counted in China.
So what should Apple’s rivals do to do? According to OnePlus’ Senior Product Marketing Manager Rudolf XU, there is only one thing for it: Push for Greater Compatibility with iOS.
“I think the most important thing is to build a bridge with iOS,” Xu told Techradar during a recent visit to OnePlus HQ in Guangdong, China. “That’s why, for example, on Oxygenos 15, we have a feature called part with iPhone and people love it – we get very positive feedback because it does file transfer [between Android and iOS] Much easier. It’s something that Android devices have always struggled with.
“Another thing is to share live photos,” Xu continued. “If you catch a live photo with OnePlus 13, you can actually still watch the live photo effect on an iPhone [if you transfer it]. That’s because we use the latest format to pack live photos.
“These are all the efforts we put on to build a bridge between OnePlus products and the iOS ecosystem. We do not want to build an ecosystem that closes the door to other customers. We will make [our ecosystem] As open as possible so we can attract more users. “
Personally, XU’s comment on “an ecosystem that closes the door to other customers” was not referred to Apple directly, but that highlights pretty nicely the core of the current problem. Apple will not willingly open its operating system for rival software developers (and why would it?), So there is only so much that brands like OnePlus can do to improve the compatibility between Android and IOS-based devices.
We will make [our ecosystem] As open as possible so we can attract more users.
Rudolf XU, OnePlus
In fact, Apple would never make the process of connecting AirPods to one of the best Android phones as seamless as connecting AirPods to an iPhone, but OnePlus can at least make sure its own smartphones are not completely incompatible with Apple hand sets.
Of course, compatibility is not one’s homogeneity, and OnePlus has found other ways to differentiate the best OnePlus phones from iPhones (not to mention other Android phones) in recent years.
We recently reported that consumers get tired of modern smartphone design, and although OnePlus’ XU acknowledged in our interview that there is logic behind the industry’s current uniformity, he confirmed his brand’s obligation to stand out from the crowd.
“When it comes to design language, [there’s a reason] Why more and more products look alike, ”explained Xu.” Basically each [manufacturer] Puts a camera in the upper left corner of the phone, and in fact from an R&D perspective, this has the highest efficiency for component stacking. By ‘Component Stacking’ I mean how a phone’s battery [is arranged in relation to] Its chipset etc.
“Most [manufacturers] Likes to put the battery [in the bottom half of the phone]the chipset [adjacent to the camera]and the camera [in the upper left corner]. As for F&U, this is the most effective and effective way to stack the components. So maybe that’s why we see more and more similar designed phones. There is a resonance behind it.
“But on the other hand,” Xu continued, “we are also trying to preserve our unique design language. Therefore, there is consistency across the OnePlus 10 Pro, 11, 12 and now 13. I mean it is a challenge [to develop devices that are both unique and popular]But we will preserve our unique identity across all OnePlus products. “
As far as we work, this approach-in our OnePlus 13 review, we describe the company’s latest flagship as “one of the best-looking phones you can buy.” Now OnePlus has the non-small task of putting such an impressive phone in the hands of Apple’s iPhone-owned faithful.
