The most ridiculous mis-feature of the One is that you need to be invited to buy one. Of course, along the way, OnePlus has helped pushed things along, by giving out 20K invites, and then another 30K invites, in two October online events, as they prepared to move into a pre-order phase. With pre-order, anyone can get in line to buy the One. A virtual line. It was a one hour event to get in the line.
Alas, there were some technical problems with the first pre-order. So there was a follow-up pre-order event. Subsequently, pre-orders were opened on Black Friday. Then last week, there was another pre-order for promised delivery by Christmas.
The bottom line is that buying the One is still not easy. The invites is the best guaranteed way to receive the One is a reasonably short time. The challenge, of course, is getting those invites.
While unofficially not allowed by OnePlus, some people do sell their invites. Or trade it for something.
Now, I just learnt, there is indeed an official way to buy an invite. Surprise, surprise, it’s from OnePlus. It turns out you can buy one of their t-shirts, and that will come with an invite to buy the One phone. Just buy the Got Invites? tee. They reportedly will send the invite the next working day after purchase, and the invite will last for 24 hours.
Of course, it’s not meant to be a t-shirt plus invite bundle. You buy the t-shirt, and the invite is free.