Response to OPPO Netherlands about rumor that OnePlus will become an OPPO sub-brand
There are rumors that OnePlus will become a sub-brand of OPPO. Indeed, on the first day of Inno Day, an event where OPPO gives us a glimpse into smartphone innovation, among other things, OPPO has announced that it has decided to further integrate OnePlus with OPPO.
Increasingly far-reaching collaboration
OPPO and OnePlus both fall under the Chinese brand BBK Electronics, as do Vivo and Realme. All these brands initially operated separately, although they did share designs and techniques with each other. That designs were exchanged between the companies could be seen, for example, with the OnePlus 6T and the OPPO RX17 Pro. Apart from a slightly flashier back of the OPPO, these smartphones were quite similar.
At the beginning of 2021, OnePlus announced that it would start working more closely with OPPO. For example, it would share its R&D department with OPPO. In June of this year, this collaboration went a step further, when OnePlus announced that the company’s organization would be integrated with that of OPPO. OnePlus did mention that it would continue to operate independently. The latter changed to a large extent when the news came that Oxygen OS from OnePlus and Color OS from OPPO would become one.
What is going to happen now?
On the first day of INNO Day, OPPO’s director took the stage. He indicated that OnePlus would become a sub-brand from OPPO. He did not disclose exactly what the consequences would be. We have therefore submitted the question to OPPO Netherlands and we received the following answer:
“After successfully integrating R&D, customer support and e-commerce activities in the past year, OnePlus and OPPO management decided to further integrate OnePlus together with OPPO to better maximize resources, improve efficiency and improve better position the entire organization for growth. OPPO and OnePlus maintain their own distinctive features at the brand and product level, with different audiences and product strategies tailored to the needs of their unique users.”
This is in line with the explanation that Pete Lau, the CEO of OnePlus, gave in June about the differences between the two brands: “Each series within OnePlus and OPPO has its own target group and each device has a different aspect to focus on.” According to the OnePlus, the brand’s phones also retain some features and personalization options that are specific to the brand. It also remains possible for users to unlock the bootloader and test custom ROMs.
That OnePlus would become a sub-brand of OPPO is therefore not confirmed by OPPO Netherlands, but also not denied. As soon as there is more news about this, we will update this article.
