OnePlus could be in trouble.
A bombshell new report from AndroidHeadlines suggests the smartphone brand could be culled by its parent company, Oppo. Rumours indicate that Oppo has already started to cancel OnePlus products slated for later this year, including the highly anticipated OnePlus Open 2 foldable phone.
Sources also claim the company plans to withdraw from North America and Europe later this year, with several Asian markets potentially following suit. All of this comes just months after OnePlus released its latest flagship device, the OnePlus 15 — raising questions about how suddenly the brand’s future plans might've shifted.
However, a spokesperson for OnePlus has responded to these reports and confirmed that it's business as usual.
Despite reports that OnePlus could be shutting its doors, the company says that its operating business as usual
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"Existing business operations for OnePlus Europe continue to proceed as normal," a spokesperson for OnePlus told T3 magazine. "All users' after-sales support, software updates, and rights commitments are fully guaranteed."
Similar statements came from OnePlus North America and OnePlus India, which promise that existing OnePlus phone owners will continue to receive udpates with new features, security patches, and technical support. Warranties will continue to be honoured in these countries, it added.
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While the company has reassured us that the existing devices will run as normal, there has been no confirmation about the fate of future phones.
It's one part of the original reporting that OnePlus spokespeople haven't refuted.
OnePlus was launched back in late 2013, founded by Pete Lau and Carl Pei. The Android brand quickly gained a passionate fanbase, thanks to a combination of its stylish hardware design, total lack of bloatware included with the software, and engagement with its community — crowd-sourcing future product ideas and software tweaks. Originally invite-only due to demand, OnePlus soon expanded into a mainstream brand to rival the likes of Samsung, Google Pixel, Motorola. It also launched wireless earbuds, tablets, and smartwatches.
So, what's happened to this brand that seemed to only be going from strength to strength?
According to the research from the team at AndroidHeadlines, India, one of OnePlus's largest markets, has lost a whopping 32.6% of its market share in 2024 compared to the previous year. That leaves OnePlus with just 2.4% of the Indian smartphone market, which is quite a drop from what they had previously.
China isn't looking much better, with OnePlus reportedly sitting at around 1.6% market share.
This is especially important because these two countries account for 74% of all OnePlus shipments.
OnePlus just released its brand-new flagship phone OnePlus 15, in November last year
| ONEPLUS PRESS OFFICEJob cuts have begun, too. OnePlus used to have a headquarters in Dallas, Texas, but that shut down in March 2024. Now there's just a small team working from an office in Palo Alto, California.
Europe got hit even earlier. Back in 2020, OnePlus slashed staff across France, Germany, and the UK, going from around 60 employees down to fewer than 10.
Whispers suggest that more cuts are coming, and that OnePlus plans to let go of entire marketing, sales, and communications teams across India, North America, and other regions in the second half of this year.
OnePlus is a Chinese smartphone brand founded in 2013, originally known for offering high-performance Android phones to compete with Samsung and British startup Nothing.
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