Remember back when the OnePlus One was being hyped up and the stories about OnePlus being owned by OPPO were denied, again and again and again? Well, 9 flagships later, it seems that OnePlus and OPPO are going to ‘further integrate’ their efforts which will basically enable economy of scale.
According to OnePlus CEO Pete Lau’s post on the company’s community forums, since the brand has expanded its product portfolio it needs further resources to continue giving users the “highest-quality OnePlus experience possible”. Having recently taken on a role that oversaw the product strategy of both OnePlus and OPPO, and the successful integration of a number of teams, it has been decided to further integrate the two organizations.
“As for the OnePlus brand – we will continue to operate independently, focused on providing you with the best possible products and experience as we have always done. We will continue launching OnePlus products, holding events (hopefully in person soon) and engaging directly with you for feedback through the same OnePlus channels as before. OnePlus’ commitment to you remains the same.”
Despite the statement making it clear that OnePlus and OPPO will be working together officially now, Pete Lau still insists that the two companies are independent of each other, even though they are going to integrate further.
With OxygenOS 11 having moved away from the stock Android feel and look that it was once known for, it’s likely that that OPPO’s ColorOS will be the nuts and bolts of the software that is installed on OnePlus phones with addition of a few tweaks and features by OnePlus to make it ‘theirs’. We’ve also seen OnePlus reuse a couple of OPPO designs so there’s a certain synergy taking place between the two brands who are both trying to earn market share in the same regions.
Are we surprised by the announcement? No, not really. It’s just come 9 years after we thought it would. Perhaps we’ll see a statement published in 2030 saying that OnePlus is becoming a sub-brand of OPPO, who knows.
