Indian court removes ban, allows OnePlus One to be sold in India for now

An Indian court has reversed the ban that halted sales of the OnePlus One in India. Micromax, a phone manufacturer that is based in the country, had demanded the ban since it has the exclusive rights to use the Cyanogen OS in India for its series of Yu smartphones. These handsets are sold online only, at a low price. The OnePlus One uses Cyanogen everywhere but China, and has the company's logo printed on the back of each unit sold in India.

Carl Pei, the founder of OnePlus, said in court that he didn't find out about the deal between Micromax and Cyanogen until just a few days before his own phone was launched in India. Pei noted that his company is working on an Android skin that will replace Cyanogen on the OnePlus One handsets.

The Indian court requested written statements from both OnePlus and Cyanogen to be received within two weeks, and will hear the case again on January 7th. The judges decided to reverse the ban of the OnePlus One in India for now, since the phone competes in a different segment of the market than the Micromax Yu. Copying from the "destructive sales" strategy employed by Xiaomi, the Yu is priced online for the equivalent of $142 USD. The OnePlus One retails in India for the equivalent of $347 USD.


source: EconomicTimes via TechCrunch