According to different sources, winners of the Smash the Past competition, who have agreed to either smash their current smartphone or donate it to charity in exchange for a OnePlus One for $1, have started receiving their units with a small addition and two important omissions.
Gizchina posted the image above from the OnePlus One forums, where a winner in Germany shared the picture of his OnePlus One unit, which he received with a signed thank you card from Pete Lau. The card is a nice touch from the start-up company that wants to keep garnering as much positive cred as possible, especially among its earlier adopters. It also has a small “10” hand-written on top, indicating that the winner was the 10th person to get sent a OnePlus One.
However, it seems that OnePlus has missed the boat on its first shipments in another area. According to a Phandroid tipster who received his first unit, it was missing the phone’s charger and SIM tray ejector tool. These accessories are usually bundled with any other smartphone in the box, and although they are easily replaceable, everyone is accustomed to finding them there. Whether there is a delay in manufacturing these accessories, or this was a one-time snafu, we don’t know. It might also be a case of OnePlus cutting cost measures especially in its first production run. After all, every smartphone enthusiast probably has a microUSB charger and/or cable, and either a SIM ejector tool or a bobby pin at the ready.
After this first batch of one hundred units is manufactured and sent, OnePlus intends on issuing invites to the winners who can then share them with their friends. The invite system has been previously explained by the company, and will be the only means of getting a unit for the time being.
[Via Gizchina and Phandroid]Update 1: OnePlus has officially explained that the accessories were just delayed, and the winners will receive them by the end of May. The company just wanted to get the product out to the winners as quickly as possible.
Update 2: The image of the thank you card has been removed following a request from the winner who shared it. You can visit the Gizchina article (and the OnePlus One forum post that they linked to) to see it.
Update 3: The thank you card image has been re-added, after receiving a permission to publish it from the phone’s winner.
