OnePlus Is Reportedly Shutting Down In the US, Europe (9to5google.com) 65
OnePlus will reportedly announce this week that it is shutting down its brand in the U.S. and Europe, following months of signs that parent company Oppo was winding down the brand's global presence. India and China are reportedly unaffected, but it's unclear whether Oppo will replace the brand directly in those markets. The move also raises questions about future support for existing OnePlus users. 9to5Google reports: WinFuture reports that OnePlus is gearing up for an official withdrawal from the U.S. and European markets, with the announcement due in the "coming days" this week. Closed-door press conferences have apparently happened, with no details shared on the exact reason OnePlus as a brand is shutting down in these markets. India and China are, as far as this report claims, not affected. The report, citing "well-informed sources," notes that this OnePlus announcement will come amid "fundamental changes" to Oppo's strategy, but the big point here is the global death of OnePlus.
OnePlus is a Chinese smartphone manufacturer (Score:5, Informative)
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Huh.
Anyways
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Crucially a cheap manufacturer which made it easy to unlock and reflash phones. Useful for LineageOS, but unfortunately not GrapheneOS. Looking forward to the new hardware for that, really hoping they get something soon to replace Pixel.
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If, like me, you didn't know who OnePlus [wikipedia.org] was.
I would mod you up if I could. As an American, I had no idea at all who they are. I suspect most of my countrymen can say the same. Not saying this isn't news and shouldn't be reported, but I guess it will only be a big deal to what I assume are the 100 or so weirdos in the USA who bought their phones and thought they were clever for doing so.
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Re:OnePlus is a Chinese smartphone manufacturer (Score:5, Insightful)
They literally sold phones in the US for a decade or more, sometimes with better hardware than the "big boys" and not locking you out of bootloaders and 3rd party flashes but that's ok.
I still have my OnePlus 9 Pro with the pop-up selfie cam and an actual full-screen front with no stupid notch or hole. Fantastic hardware. I look forward to it continuing to be useful under LineageOS for years to come.
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My 7T Pro just bricked itself, so be careful.. I haven't taken it to anyone to check, but I suspect the data storage did the typical SSD thing. Im hoping I can still pull data off it.
So, I'm just saying, if you want your phone to last forever, you might want to swap out the storage, if that's even possible.
Re: OnePlus is a Chinese smartphone manufacturer (Score:2)
I'm on a 12. my 9 got lost in the couch and eaten by the recliner gears. It ground all the way through the screen but the heat spreader saved the MB. It's running a headless server now.
I've got a OnePlus (Score:3)
Samsung has an equivalent phone but they put a small battery in it either because they were being cheap or because they didn't like how much it made the thing weigh. Whatever the case the battery li
Re:OnePlus is a Chinese smartphone manufacturer (Score:4, Insightful)
This isn't a a judgement on you, but even in the US, Oneplus is a well known brand. The most prolific mobile phone reviewer MKBHD [wikipedia.org] from the US, with 20 million + subscribers, has talked about it it for years. [youtube.com]
You sir, are apparently living under a rock.
3% marketshare of smartphones in the USA (Score:2, Informative)
This isn't a a judgement on you, but even in the US, Oneplus is a well known brand. The most prolific mobile phone reviewer MKBHD [wikipedia.org] from the US, with 20 million + subscribers
Maybe those subscribers are mostly from China and India. OnePlus has around 3% marketshare of smartphones in the USA. Its a small niche brand. From google:
Apple 61.26%
Samsung 22.63%
Motorola 3.50%
OnePlus 3%
Others ~10%
Fundamental mismatch? (Score:3)
But why should you focus on the US? But my main reaction to that specific data is that Americans seem to have quite limited choice in the smartphone market.
I do thank the OP/FP poster for saving me the websearch. However I feel like I should have had some awareness of the OnePlus brand if only because I'm using my second Oppo smartphone now...
From that perspective it sounds to me like a fundamental mismatch. I see Oppo as a commodity brand. Low cost, low profit, satisfactory value. But OnePlus was apparentl
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But why should you focus on the US? But my main reaction to that specific data is that Americans seem to have quite limited choice in the smartphone market.
Everyone wants to sell in the USA and EU. So did OnePlus, but they had nothing of interest and got no traction in the USA and EU.
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In most of the world you choose a phone and then hop between carriers as you wish. The US market is not very representative.
For those if you who don't understand what I'm on about: in the US it's fairly normal that the carrier will provide you with the phone and the access to the network. This is called a "locked phone" arrangement.
"Locked" has to do with payment plan (Score:2)
In most of the world you choose a phone and then hop between carriers as you wish. The US market is not very representative.
For those if you who don't understand what I'm on about: in the US it's fairly normal that the carrier will provide you with the phone and the access to the network. This is called a "locked phone" arrangement.
There is usually no problem bringing your own phone to a provider in the USA. The "lock" is more about the phone being on a payment plan financed by the provider. Once your phone is paid for you can ask the provider to unlock it. Or you can just pay for a new unlocked phone and not finance it.
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Mostly the ACK, but I partly disagree as regards the Japanese market, which is another one big enough that no major international company prefers to ignore it. The phone companies have a major convenience grip on their customers private phone parts. Most concretely, they have special apps for their own accounting and billing (and ads, must not forget the ads). For example, my own company also requires the use of a special VoIP app for free (national) calls.
I don't want to name names on the theory of "There'
Re: 3% marketshare of smartphones in the USA (Score:2)
Everyone has heard of Motorola and they're 0.5% higher than OnePlus. Clearly they're pretty well known. Your sample size of 1 isn't worth much.
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Everyone has heard of Motorola and they're 0.5% higher than OnePlus.
Motorola was famous from the WW2 radios it made, the chips it made in the 1970s/80s like the 68000 CPU used in Macintosh computers, in the 2000s Motorola had 25% marketshare and its RAZR cellphone was an era defining piece of hardware. That is why people know Motorola. If you asked people the brand name of a current Motorolla phone most people would probably be unable to name one. Hence their pitiful 3.5%. OnePlus has done nothing noteworthy and is crawling back home a failure in the USA. And apparently the
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Just because Marques Brownlee has 20m subscribers and is an American doesn't mean 20m Americans have watched all his reviews, or that they would remember a product that they only saw there and nobody they know uses.
And I'll bet not even 100,000 of those 20m know that he uses "MKBHD" as a professional moniker, though many more than those 20m have heard of him and would recognize him.
You sir, are apparently living under a rock.
You sir, are an idiot.
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Don't worry, people on this website like pretending to be more informed than their peers.
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This isn't a a judgement on you, but even in the US, Oneplus is a well known brand. The most prolific mobile phone reviewer MKBHD [wikipedia.org] from the US, with 20 million + subscribers, has talked about it it for years. [youtube.com]
You sir, are apparently living under a rock.
I knew who OnePlus was, no idea who that other person is... Some kind of Social Media Infuenza no doubt that should just be ignored. Not like you can't just pay for subscribers.
The problem with OnePlus is that they were at best, offering the same thing as everyone else so nothing really stood out from the competition and when you're beige, you're going to be out-beiged by the big bois like Apple and Samsung who can afford to advertise the hell out of their beige.
When I look for a new phone, I usually
Re:OnePlus is a Chinese smartphone manufacturer (Score:4, Interesting)
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I suspect most of my countrymen can say the same.
I've heard of them, but only on slashdot, where the loudest bleaters seem to really care about them. A lot. An irrational amount.
Apparently, a lot of neckbeards thought they were some sort of libertarian super-phone, instead of just more junk from the PRC.
Re: OnePlus is a Chinese smartphone manufacturer (Score:2)
And this news sucks. The American smartphone market is the most boring in the world, specially in the mid and low priced segments. We just got Apple, Samsung, and Pixel.
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It is the same with the car market and, I suspect, most markets in the USA - just a couple of brands or even specific models and pretty much nothing else. Is it peer pressure?
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I can't agree more. Very boring, very overpriced, and you get to watch every other global market get the cool stuff while, at most, you might get more AI for a camera. The US has the absolute worst car market of the developed world, and the absolute worst phone market.
At least with some phones, you can import them.
I feel old... I miss the days of HTC phones that came with the ability to use Linux blobs separately, and the ability to reach full S/OFF, so you could cook your own ROM from scratch, even put a
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I remember getting a OnePlus 3 and I really liked it.
I then moved on to Pixel for the direct security and feature updates.
RAM costs (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm not an Android user, but the OnePlus 15 that they released last year was a good device that was well regarded. I know a lot of other posters here have had good things to say about them over the years as well. Hopefully they're able to rebound from this and can continue offering great products.
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I'm really bummed by this. i've own a 7t Pro for over 6 years and due to it hitting full end of life (bricking) I went with the 15. Its a really good phone, although I'm getting used to the weird difference in how it charges.. sometimes its slow and sometimes its not, depending on the cable and adapter being used.
Not knowing what OnePlus is? (Score:1)
I wonder if it's the memory costs that did them in.
Perhaps it was all the folks in the US and EU not knowing what OnePlus is? That could limit revenue.
Yeah, the user posts above explain it is a Chinese smartphone company. Yeah, whatever. I think we’ll mostly stick with Apple, Samsung, and Google. And if we’re broke, then there are the older Samsung designs dirt cheap at Walmart.
Re: Not knowing what OnePlus is? (Score:1)
I don't want even a new Samsung phone with its crappy nonstandard apps, let alone an old one which also has old Android.
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I doubt it was RAM prices. Oppo the parent company still makes phones and OnePlus will still be available in some of the world's biggest markets.
The brand just had virtually zero market presence.
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I wonder if it's the memory costs that did them in.
Possibly. Many will currently hope the problems pass fast enough, but they might not. So unless they have reserves and are prepared to spend them...
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They're a large Chinese electronics company, they're not a small niche company.
RAM price is the same wherever you ship the phone, and phones in China don't sell for more than in other places. So no.
Options (Score:2)
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Yeah. I stuck with the brand because of my previous experience with the high quality phones. Before I made this decision, I was looking around and several of my friends were saying they love their Pixels.. so maybe look at that?
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Yeah. I stuck with the brand because of my previous experience with the high quality phones. Before I made this decision, I was looking around and several of my friends were saying they love their Pixels.. so maybe look at that?
As a developer I’ve had several Pixels and Samsungs over the years. Both are great, if I had to pick one I’d probably go Pixel. LG manufactured some Pixels so perhaps they deserve a look too.
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I can't stand Samsung. I had three separate models over about ten years. Their poor quality led me to try something else and when T-Mobile briefly sold OnePlus phones, I did some research and took a gamble. It worked out, in my mind.
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LG hasn't made phones in years.
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Let me make one thing perfectly clear (Score:1)
No, it is not the app to open when you have been stood up on a date.
I'm not saying it could be useful. But I haven't tried other dating apps, so there is that.
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She didn't stand you up, it's just that, "Uhhhhhhhh... yeeeeeaaaaaaaaaahhh, ok. (...)" is not actually a yes.
This saddens me (Score:2)
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I just got the 15 in March and I'm hoping I get at least 6 years out of it like the 7T Pro I had.
I am also saddened.
Shame. They were mostly okay. (Score:2, Offtopic)
Shame. Apart from a few quirks and very minor annoyances, they were really good phones. I've actually got a OnePlus 13 at the moment and apart from recurring pestering about upgrading to Android 16 with a tonne of AI (which I'm not planning to do, ever), the phone is pretty incredible.
So what are our options now? (Score:3)
So what are sensible options left to us mortals now?
- iPhones are a very aquired taste.
- Samsungs are annoying bags of bloatware.
- Custom ROMs no longer pass SafetyNet reliably...
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Pixel?
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This was the conclusion I came to.
If you are going to run Android, it seems to me that the best option for keeping it up-to-date is to go direct.
Now that they are on a 7 year support cycle (maybe longer for the flagship lines), it seems like a no-brainer.
Re: So what are our options now? (Score:1)
No smartphone is boring at first, but it is amazing how fast you do not mis it. Disclaimer: when I gre
Re: So what are our options now? (Score:2)
It's your choice if you pull out your phone or not. I'm an avid hiker, and I take a lot of photos bu I'm not on social media at all. I take photos so that I remember the life I've lived when I'm 80 and my memory fails me.
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Same.
I usually take vertical snaps of fun parts of the trail and add them to my background image rotation.
Every day, when I look at my phone, I see a different trail pic. It always makes me feel good.
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I just leave mine in my pocket unless I'm making a call. Works fine.
Disclaimer: When I grew up, people brought cameras to the waterfall to snap snap snap and move on to the next viewpoint.
Re: So what are our options now? (Score:2)
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Hmmm, 36 foto's and the film roll was used up. ;-)
Not to mention the creepy guy at the pharmacy who'd judge all your photos, not that many of them where any good mind you, the average person knows feck all about photography and used to just waste film. At least now they only waste time.
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Fairphone.
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Motorola still makes quality phones if you're not an appy apper and just need a practical device.
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Motorola still makes quality phones if you're not an appy apper and just need a practical device.
Motorola is my current go-to. I've got an Edge 60 Neo that is reasonably good, bought my mum a G56 that will probably see her the rest of her life (erm... she's old and a life long smoker).
The best manufacturer changes every few years, used to be Nokia. Motorola is currently making decent phones with good hardware for reasonable prices without too much bloat or crapware (and what little there is can be disabled easily). The G56 mentioned above is a £150 phone with a gorilla glass screen. Also much
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And they'll be shipping a phone with Graphene OS soon, so we're not tethered to a Pixel device anymore.
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So what are sensible options left to us mortals now?
Literally anything other than the three you list? I mean I could name 7 other brands one of them being OPPO which is the same company as OnePlus.
Re: So what are our options now? (Score:2)
Oppo ship with an unbearable amount of bloatware.
Bummer. Still using my OnePlus 3T today (Score:2)
I heard about OnePlus from a TMobile employee and bought the 3T, which was an economical alternative to higher priced phones. I'm STILL using it today. I've replaced the battery, but that's it.
I was considering getting a newer one (still a few years old) that still had a headphone jack, decent memory, etc.
Maybe the used phones will drop in price even more. I've been fairly happy with it, while my wife complains a lot about her recent Samsung phone.
I've got one, 13 R (Score:2)
It's a pretty good phone at a reasonable price. I wouldn't say it's superb, but it's quite decent and one of the better android phone's I've had.