Carl was also heading the Nord team at the company. (Image: @getpeid)
OnePlus: Carl Pei, the co-founder of Chinese smartphone giant OnePlus, has stepped down from the company to start his own venture. The development comes just ahead of the launch of the OnePlus 8T. 31-year-old Carl had, along with CEO Pete Lau, founded the company back in December 2013. The smartphone company became successful soon after the launch of its OnePlus One in 2014, and made Carl a prominent member of the smartphone industry. Carl was also heading the Nord team at the company. OnePlus Nord was launched in July this year in India and Europe amid much hype. Carl was also featured in the smartphone company’s documentary on Nord.
Several reports have quoted sources as saying that the departure has taken place in recent weeks.
The first person to throw light in the matter was a Reddit user, who shared two supposedly internal letters sent by the company to the staff. Both of the letters did not include Carl’s name. Moreover, the letters also referred to Emily Dai, the head of OnePlus India team, as the new head of Nord.
Ever since the company took off, Carl actively worked towards persuading media and customers worldwide to give OnePlus products a try. This eventually led to Carl becoming an active face of the company. He was also key in creating a hype around the launch of the OnePlus Nord.
While neither the company nor Carl himself have announced anything officially, the reports speculating his departure are popping up just ahead of OnePlus 8T’s launch, which is scheduled for October 14. The departure is also surprising since Carl had himself revealed in an interview that OnePlus was planning to launch a Nord-branded phone in the US market later in 2020.
On the other hand, Pete Lau, the other co-founder and CEO at OnePlus, has recently started sharing the OnePlus product announcements more actively on his social media. Still, he also joined OPlus in August as head of experience and senior vice-president. OPlus, or Ouija Holdings in China, is an investor in OnePlus. However, this would not impact his position in OnePlus, as the company had confirmed in a statement that he would continue as the CEO.
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