OnePlus makes flagship phone OnePlus 2 invite-free starting Dec. 5, 64GB available for $389, unclear on whether order delays will continue
You won't need an invite to buy the OnePlus 2 starting this Friday — If you've been interested in getting a OnePlus 2 but didn't have an invite, your wait is coming to an end.
Context & Ripple Effects
This is the second time OnePlus has dismantled its own scarcity machine. The company first loosened the system with 24-hour invite-free Tuesdays for the OnePlus One, then dropped the ritual entirely with the One going globally invite-free in April. When the OnePlus 2 launched in August it briefly reinstated invites alongside $329 starting pricing — a step backward that lasted barely four months.
Now the invite is gone outright and the 64GB tier sits at $389, and the follow-on coverage shows where this lands: the OnePlus 3 ships in June 2016 with no invite system at all, confirming the December move was a wind-down, not another promotion.
First-order effects
- Any buyer can order the OnePlus 2 directly from Dec. 5 without hunting an invite, removing the resale-and-forum gatekeeping that had throttled purchases since August.
- The article flags that order delays may persist even without invites, so the bottleneck may simply shift from access to fulfillment.
Second-order effects
- With the OnePlus 3 already slated to launch invite-free, the invite system's remaining purpose — manufactured demand signals and press cycles around each drop window — disappears from the product roadmap entirely.
- Rivals competing on flagship specs at mid-range prices lose the contrast of OnePlus's artificial waitlists, pushing competition onto price and availability alone.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, invite-gated launches prove to be a startup-phase marketing tactic rather than durable supply strategy: once production scales, brands like OnePlus converge on ordinary open retail, and scarcity theater becomes a cost rather than a moat.
The trend: OnePlus spent 2015 systematically retiring its invitation-based launch model — from weekly windows to full open sale — trading hype mechanics for volume retail as it matured.