From the darling of the early Android era to a shell on the brink of utter irrelevance, what went wrong for OnePlus?
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Enthusiastic beginnings end in tears
Needless to say at the time, a brand like OnePlus really felt like a breath of fresh air. A brand that offers the best hardware, clean software, and the community that underpins it all.
The innovative invitation system created hype; added intrigue. This created a wonderful club where only the most “in the know” people were a part. You – the buyer – are chosen, and it’s unlike anything we’ve seen from a smartphone maker before. The most vociferous die-hard fans helped build the brand from the ground up – although that image has been smartly cultivated given that OnePlus has been backed by Chinese conglomerate BBK since its inception.
I think it’s created a bit of an odd situation because while it’s great to follow this basic style, it doesn’t always translate into major changes in market share. Instead, with such a small, vocal fan base, you can face challenges of scale without alienating your existing customer base.
In order not to diminish the place of enthusiasts, it is very small compared to the undoubted wealth of the “average buyer”, and perhaps OnePlus made mistakes in the early stages, which effectively prepared an inevitable fall. A market disruptor must continue to disrupt or risk someone else stealing the thunder.
This is not to say that buyers are wrong. No, it was about building a brand behind people who care most about the true intricacies of the devices they buy.
In recent years, the hobbyist market as we once knew it has shrunk dramatically. Fewer phones that offer the best of everything are no match for a shrinking market sector. This problem got worse as in the early days of Android, there weren’t that many people using smartphones. Now they are everywhere.
Struggles to disrupt the established order
One of the biggest challenges OnePlus has faced from the get-go is getting into a set set of buyer options. The initial invite system created hype but turned people away from buying on a whim. It was an intentional purchase encouraged by initial curiosity, research, or perhaps word of mouth recommendations.
Global reach has been something the brand has struggled with. Carrier partnerships have been short-lived or non-existent for long periods of time.
If you want to enter the US market as a complete unknown, you still need to work directly with the major telecom operators. T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T still account for more than 90% of all sales through postpaid contracts and finance plans.
Yes, OnePlus held a brief position thanks to its partnership with T-Mobile, but without an endless marketing battle and slow growth, it withered and stagnated. The US market is, for all intents and purposes, a three-device market. Apple and Samsung make it stand out for the premium segment, while Motorola and Google try to pick up the rest of the scraps.
Despite being somewhat of an Android darling and getting more column inches than similar OEMs with larger user bases, OnePlus has never even cracked 1% market share across the planet.
First mover advantage is lost
OnePlus struck lightning in a bottle at the beginning of the smartphone era. Offering low-cost, high-powered phones that stand out from the competition has proven to be masterful.
However, the first mover advantage was lost in just a few years. The idea of a “flagship killer” has become almost redundant as other brands have simply adopted a similar strategy.
Sales have certainly faltered and slowed as the burgeoning smartphone space fills with more competitors in the same price bracket. Brands like Xiaomi and even inter-brand competition from Vivo, Realme and parent company Oppo have drowned out the impressive bundles offered by OnePlus.
This is great for our buyer but not for OnePlus. A company that is still just a blip in the mobile space in terms of market share.
Settlement period
The legendary “Never Settle” mantra was originally built on a strategy of razor-thin profit margins: offering the absolute fastest silicon, great displays, super-fast charging technology and more at half the price of an iPhone or Samsung Galaxy S-series phone.
Maintaining this price breach required aggressive cost-cutting in other key areas, such as using cheaper camera sensors, ditching wireless charging, and passing expensive IP waterproof certifications.
As OnePlus matures and tries to capture mainstream buyers — while still satisfying longtime fans — the company has been forced to address these feature gaps, resulting in high-profile upgrades. such as the multi-million dollar Hasselblad imaging partnership.
The inclusion of these top-tier components and the introduction of expensive brand partnerships inevitably forced retail prices up from the historic $400-600 into the premium bracket of $800 to $1,000. With its price advantage gone, OnePlus was forced to compete toe-to-toe with the dominant giants without the premium brand equity required to justify those extra costs.
Always striving to offer the best features for the price, it is costly, as any deviation from this will be considered inferior. Sometimes this would mean neglecting some elements like the camera hardware.
It hasn’t always been about the hardware. The big problem is the lack of optimization for new submissions. Cameras have long been the subject of controversy. Things like this definitely beat out impressive packages.
It’s a two-pronged problem: you have the ability, but execution will get in the way.
Basic result
While we can point to many things, one important point stands out above all others.
In the eyes of fans, Carl Pein’s departure in 2020 could be seen as the catalyst for OnePlus’ downfall. Carl Pei left shortly after the launch of the OnePlus Nord in October 2020. This comes months after Pete Lau took on a new role to oversee “brand synergy” between Oppo, OnePlus and Realme.
Oppo and OnePlus by 2021 was fully integratedand Lau later took on the role of Oppo’s Chief Product Officerwhile Pei founded another hobbyist phone company, Nothing.
It was a critical period for the company.
But From the OnePlus 8 seriesthe writing was on the wall as OxygenOS 12 became a fork of ColorOS, which led to better software update support, but we lost the “clean” aesthetic that the company launched and became known for. It was a key anchor that kept tech-savvy buyers loyal to the brand, serving as a clean, user-focused alternative to the heavy-skinned, slower software options offered by competitors.
ColorOS has continued to be a solid choice ever since. This transition has disrupted OnePlus devices. Yes, it simplified BBK’s internal engineering pipeline and improved long-term update schedules, but it fundamentally stripped away the OxygenOS experience that defined OnePlus. It didn’t help that it wasn’t a perfect transition either, as bugs and issues were rampant right out of the gate.
Excessive form factors
Whether it’s driven by Oppo or something else entirely, OnePlus has taken pains to offer too many options and too many form factors to capture more of the market.
We used to get one or two carefully crafted OnePlus phones a year, a mid-cycle “T” refresh, and that was enough.
The lineup has evolved into a mixed bag of premium flagships, “Pro” models, “T” variations, and regional “R” variants, along with a broad budget ecosystem including Nord, Nord CE and Nord N series tablets and foldables.
Putting a cheap $200-$300 plastic phone with a low-quality display next to an $800 flagship completely devalued the OnePlus brand, confusing everyday consumers and alienating loyal fans. With more options to choose from, loyal fans do almost all of them the same way – many without compromise.
Go silent on a global scale
Ultimately, whether it was intentional or not, OnePlus forgot about its audience. Each iteration saw a price hike that alienated the original audience, but kept toe-to-toe with premium brands that didn’t compromise on any key areas – remember the Pixel series. For many, this may be a reason not to look at a OnePlus phone.
The community is being ignored and every sign points to OnePlus has stopped operations outside of China in recent months. Despite behind-the-scenes evidence that all is not rosy, the company has not confirmed anything publicly.
Sure, the company can opt for radio silence, but that’s listening. It doesn’t just hurt customers who have been up until recently get an impressive OnePlus 15but it can also potentially harm the parent company. If someone can’t even be honest about what’s going on with their favorite brand, how can they trust Oppo to do right by customers? The answer is probably not.
OnePlus seems to have run out of time, and while there have been internal factors since the beginning, in some ways the company has only itself to blame.
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