OnePlus CEO Pete Lau Hints At Smartwatch Plans, Admits Facebook Blunder

OnePlus has definitely come a long way from an upstart startup to one of the big boys, at least in terms of popularity and sales figures. That growth, however, wasn't with its costs. It definitely wasn't smooth sailing for OnePlus, especially in these last few months when it bid farewell to some of its most important key executives. In a recent interview, CEO Pete Lau bares some of those missteps, especially one that involved everyone's favorite social network Facebook.

When OnePlus launched the OnePlus 8 Pro earlier this year, there was much fanfare and praise for it, especially when it came to its cameras. Those, however, were quickly drowned out by the harsh criticism it received over pre-installing not just Facebook apps but Facebook's services. The former could be uninstalled but the latter could only be disabled, presuming you knew how to do that in the first place.

Lau admits it was a serious error in judgment and was a wake-up call for the company. While he doesn't exactly say they will never make such partnerships again, he implies OnePlus will be at least more forthcoming and transparent to the community about such big changes.

The company's top exec also revealed ideas about the canceled OnePlus smartwatch without publicly committing to one. It sees the smartwatch as part of a smart home ecosystem, one that includes the OnePlus smart TV that's still available only in India. While OnePlus may not be working on a smartwatch of its own, Lau did say they were working with Google on improving smartwatches in general.

Lau also touches on another sore topic with OnePlus phones, their cameras. While the OnePlus 8 Pro definitely performed better than its predecessors and peers, it just wasn't enough. OnePlus will eventually trickle down its camera technologies not just to non-Pro models but even to the OnePlus Nord, but, as always, price will play an important role in what gets cut out in the end.