OnePlus delays Oxygen OS, but teases a drone (unless it’s an April’s Fool joke)

In a Reddit AMA thread, OnePlus representatives explicitly said the company would begin selling a drone from next month.

According to OnePlus’ Carl Pei and David S. the “game changing” product that the company has been teasing for the last couple of weeks is actually a drone dubbed DR-1 (DR-one, get it?). No details about the device have been shared, but Pei offered as “proof” a screen shot showing a stylized drone icon, suggesting the DR-1 will resemble Parrot’s AR.Drone 2.0.

Now, it wouldn’t require a huge leap of faith to believe that OnePlus could make a drone. After all, remote controlled drones are increasingly popular among techies and OnePlus may be trying to come up with a fun new product to stay in the spotlight until the OnePlus 2 arrives in Q3.

However, OnePlus never openly revealed new products like this before. The startup has been adept at keeping a tight lid over its plans and generating buzz with carefully designed teasers that don’t really reveal anything substantial about the teased product. So to see OnePlus reps cheerfully blow the surprise about this DR-1 is pretty suspicious.

And there’s the timing of this ask-me-anything thread. Besides DR-1, the OnePlus reps haven’t shared anything that is truly new. It’s almost like OnePlus went through the trouble of doing this AMA to “leak” the DR-1 ahead of April’s Fool Day next week. So, yeah, this could be part of an elaborate prank that OnePlus is trying to pull on us.

OnePlus may also be trying to deflect attention from some bad news: the release of OxygenOS, scheduled for today, has been delayed, and it looks like the March 30 deadline for the Cyanogen 12S OTA will be missed as well. Getting fans and tech blogs to talk about a mystery drone isn’t a bad way to keep this new delay under the radar.

We should see what OnePlus’s cooking from next month. Do you think they are really making a drone?