The links between OPPO and OnePlus have always been there, though played down initially, but overnight, OnePlus have announced they’re inregrating their services in a move that looks very much like a merger.
In a blog post on the OnePlus forum overnight, CEO Pete Lau has outlined the move which began back in February when Lau took over the product strategy role for both companies. Since then further integration of teams has led to this point where Lau said ‘we’ve decided to further integrate our organization with OPPO’.
Both OPPO and OnePlus are owned by BBK Electronics, who also own the Vivo and Realme brands. The merger will allow them to ‘better streamline our operations and capitalize on additional shared resources’ says Lau. The streamlined pipeline will allow them to be ‘more efficient, for example, bringing faster and more stable software updates for OnePlus users.’
The company will continue to operate independently, launching phones under the OnePlus brand, which Lau says will remain ‘focused on providing you with the best possible products and experience’.
OnePlus released the OnePlus 5 in Australia in 2017 as part of a soft launch to gauge the market reception – unfortunately they never returned officially, however Kogan has been offering them as grey imports – and Scott did quite like their OnePlus 9 Pro. OPPO though has enjoyed great success here after launching in 2014, nabbing awards from Canstar Blue on customer satisfaction and expanding availability into carrier partnerships with local telcos.
At this stage it’s unclear if OnePlus will utilise the infrastructure that OPPO has built in Australia to distribute their phones here. We’ve reached out to OPPO locally for comment.
