The OnePlus One smartphone is immensely popular. Outside China, the China based smartphone maker has been selling the One handset on an invitation basis only. It cannot be purchased directly through a carrier or a local store. The company has now announced a new contest for giving away 10,000 invitations for those who are eagerly waiting to buy OnePlus One.

If you want to lay your hands on the One smartphone from OnePlus, you should not be missing on the new 'Summer Shots' contest that will end on Monday (August 25). Participating in the contest is quite easy. All you need to do is post a picture that you took this summer and share it on Instagram or Twitter using the hashtags #summershots and #oneplus. You can also share your summer shot on the thread available on the official OnePlus forum site.

There are several other options to participate in the contest. You can follow OnePlus on social sites like Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and OnePlus YouTube channel. The Chinese smartphone manufacturer is also giving away 100 Never Settle T-shirts to the participants. The contest ends on August 25th and the winners will be contacted on August 27th.

The new contest comes a few weeks after the flop 'Ladies First' contest from OnePlus. The contest was deleted by OnePlus as it was heavily criticized by the audience. Its original description stated that '50 most well-liked ladies' are the ones who will get an invitation for the OnePlus One smartphone along with a Never Settle t-shirt. It even went to say that it would provide another 100 invitations randomly to any woman participating in the contest. And the last line reads 'ladies, no nudity please'.

Within minutes of launching the contest, people started criticizing it on the Twitter and on the forum site of OnePlus. The contest only allowed selected winners to avail the OnePlus One smartphone at full price. The contest received very less submissions and most submitted fake photos by using photo editing software to add OnePlus logos onto the bodies of females.

OnePlus team posted an official comment that admitted that the 'contest was in bad taste' and because of which they have removed it. They have apologized for it and added that the contest was a 'misguided effort' from their staff.

Undoubtedly, OnePlus One is one of the most desired smartphones of 2014. The handset which comes with 2.5GHz Snapdragon 801 processor, 3GB RAM, Adreno 330 graphics, 5.5inch full HD display, and 3100mAh battery is unavailable for direct purchase at a local store or online. You can now get the highly popular OnePlus One smartphone through the new 'SummerShots' contest.