OnePlus is officially merging with Oppo. Founder and CEO Pete Lau said in a blog post on Wednesday that deep integration with Oppo will allow OnePlus to build better products and roll out faster and more stable software updates to existing products. The two brands, owned at large by BBK Electronics, have been working together on some level for the last one year after Lau took on additional responsibilities to oversee product strategy for both OnePlus and Oppo. Those changes have had a “positive impact,” Lau said though he did not mention the nature of the association so far. Nor did he talk at length about future roadmap.
What he did say was that OnePlus will “continue to operate independently” launching “OnePlus products, holding events and engaging directly with you (the OnePlus community) for feedback through the same OnePlus channels as before.” Reading in between the lines, it’s also pretty clear that OnePlus will surely – and swiftly – broaden its portfolio giving its enthusiast community more choices than ever before. And in that process, OnePlus will also probably be looking at onboarding new customers.
“We’re at a turning point for the future of OnePlus. As we’ve begun growing our product portfolio, we’re able to give you more choices than ever before,” Lau said, adding “we want to continue giving you the highest-quality OnePlus experience possible. And to do that, we must adapt as a team and as a brand.”
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The merger is not very surprising. Carl Pei’s surprise exit had raised many eyebrows and then when Lau joined forces with Oppo, things started to get a lot clearer. OnePlus went on to launch the OnePlus 9 series with Oppo’s ColorOS software in China. Prior to this, all OnePlus phones sold in mainland China were based on HydrogenOS.
OnePlus at one point of time had different teams and resources working on HydrogenOS and OxygenOS, something which was also difficult to maintain from a pure operational point of view when OnePlus was just getting started. This was something that OnePlus has been very vocal about. Over the course of time, as OnePlus launched more phones and ventured into new markets, those conversations were eventually laid to rest.
A sigh of relief for the greater part of the world, including India was that OnePlus continued to launch phones with OxygenOS in markets outside of China and still continues to do that. Today’s announcement is thin on technical details including how OnePlus and Oppo will exactly work on future products and how the two will ensure faster software updates for OnePlus products.
“I’m confident that this change will be positive for our community and our users. With this deeper integration with Oppo, we will have more resources at hand to create even better products for you. It will also allow us to be more efficient,” Lau said in the blog.
Further details are awaited.
