Pete Lau
| Pete Lau | |
|---|---|
| Native name | 刘作虎 |
| Born |
5 May 1975 Hanchuan, Hubei, China |
| Residence | Shenzhen, Guangdong, China |
| Nationality | Chinese |
| Alma mater | Zhejiang University |
| Occupation | Founder and CEO of OnePlus |
Pete Lau or Liu Zuohu (simplified Chinese: 刘作虎; traditional Chinese: 劉作虎; pinyin: Liú Zuòhǔ; Jyutping: Lau4 Zok3 Fu2) is a Chinese entrepreneur and business executive. He is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Chinese smartphone maker OnePlus.
Lau started working in Oppo Electronics as a hardware engineer. He later became the director of Oppo's Blu-ray division. Lau's attention for detail became famous in tech circles during that time when he smashed a Blu-ray player's logic board to express his disappointment about the circuitry design. He then became head of marketing before finally getting assigned as the Vice President. As the Vice President he was instrumental in bringing CyanogenMod, an Android-based operating system to Oppo N1 smartphone. He resigned from Oppo in November 2013 after working in the company for over a decade.
In December 2013 Lau launched his own company named "OnePlus" with the aim of creating "a more beautiful and higher quality product." At the time of start, OnePlus had only 6 employees. Cutting cost was a priority of the company early on, so Lau chose to go with online sales for his company's first product taking inspiration from market models of the Nexus line and Oppo. He chose Cyanogenmod as the operating system of the device, extending his ties with Steve Kondik of Cyanogen Inc., who he got acquainted with during his time in Oppo.
Since OnePlus didn't have a manufacturing facility, Lau got the device manufactured in the facilities of his former company Oppo. The device named OnePlus One was announced officially in April 2014 and became available for online order in June 2014. The One received positive reviews from the tech community, praising the phone's specifications, performance, design and aggressive costing. The device's attention to detail, an aspect that can be attributed to Lau, was praised by several tech experts. Due to limited availability, the phone could initially only be purchased through an invite system.
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