Hmmm, not sure I would agree that “no one” will buy it, I would say, the quantity will be reduced.
In my specific individual case, once I had “sussed” the secret agenda of OnePlus, once the OP3T came out, I concluded I would buy it and probably be my last OP. In fact the feeling OP5 would be expensive, drove me to decide to buy the OP3T. With half an eye on resale value, I waited for (their manipulating hype) for the rose gold color in 64MB and got it in January. That plus my OP2 was beginning to show battery issues (post warranty).
So my irony would be if OP5 is not silly-priced, I’d be somewhat annoyed, as I could have stretched my OP2 6 months longer.
I am currently using 4 SIMs across 2 phones and a smartwatch. My OP3T most of the time has a USA T-Mobile and UK Giffgaff SIM in, so I can receive texts from both USA and UK. I keep a Moto G4 Play with USA ATT SIM in, and I keep a LG Urbane 2 with a ATT MVNO (Truphone) SIM in. Most days when I’m home I use the OP3T (T-Mobile), and when I head onto a bike I use the Moto G4P (ATT). When I do USA travel I move SIMs around and go with the OP3T with ATT and T-Mobile SIMs (and the ATT MVNO in the watch). When I visit UK I use the OP3T with the USA T-Mobile and UK Giffgaff SIM in for reasons most in USA won’t understand. The UK Giffgaff is a MVNO of a large UK provider from O2 and so I pay about $6 for 1 month of local free incoming calls (for local UK stuff) and I use T-Mobile’s free international roaming for all my data.
Dual sim phones are cool. No-one knows where I am really and its all very cheap.
Final comment (I hope): what OnePlus did was prove (to anyone watching)
- you can startup a no-brand business which is cost-neutral
- you can survive quality and support issues
- you can make a decent phone which many will buy
If OnePlus then move onto other things - that proof of their business model - will be used by someone else (who I can then buy from). The idea survives, my loyalty to OnePlus is dropped. I expect though we’d add “OnePlustards” to the “Appletards” who just have their opinion decided for them by brand then retrofit a justification ontop. I’m far from certain they are even aware they are doing it.
But the reason we both invested in OnePlus did its time - we got the handsets - we proved the market (we sort of were cost neutral so it cost us nothing) - and we move onto whoever has that same idea.