500 thousand OnePlus Ones sold, 1 million by the end of the year

Despite issues with the pre-orders, OnePlus has managed to sell 500,000 of its OnePlus One smartphones. The number was revealed by co-founder Carl Pei, who said the company is targeting a million sales by the end of 2014.

OnePlus isn't making much money on those sales - “We’re making a single-figure dollar amount on each phone,” says Pei. The company plays it smart, however, and has created a well-known brand with an advertising budget of $300, spend on trying out different Facebook ads, but now the brand is spreading by word of mouth.

With such razor-thin margins OnePlus isn't hoping to make a living on the hardware. Instead, it's counting on accessories – "lifestyle products or specialized accessories" will be the big earners at first, claims the co-founder. And when OnePlus gets a multi-million user base it will build out software and services to add to the revenue stream.

Of course, making plans and having them succeed are two very different plans as OnePlus found out with the first accessory it tried to put out – the Bamboo StyleSwap was cancelled, but leaks suggest the company isn't giving up on exchangeable back covers.

Source | Via