OnePlus and OPPO have officially announced what we have been suspecting for months now. After working closely and merging some of the teams, both the companies are now merging.
Going forward, OnePlus will become a sub-brand of OPPO. It’s noteworthy that both the brands are currently owned by China-based BBK Electronics, which also owns Vivo and Realme brands.
This means that the announcement from Pete Lau, Founder and CEO of OnePLus, is more about formalizing the working relationship. But it has been announced that OnePlus will continue to operate independently. The deep integration with Oppo will allow OnePlus to build better products and roll out faster and more stable software updates to existing products.
However, the future roadmap for products after the merger of these companies has not been revealed yet. The move will give OnePlus additional resources to develop better products, according to Lau.
Last year, Pete Lau, along with being CEO of OnePlus, took additional responsibility for overseeing product strategy at OPPO as well. As we noted, the merger isn’t surprising as Pete Lau had joined OPPO and Carl Pei had suddenly exited OnePlus last year.
Even the OnePlus 9 series smartphones were launched in China running OPPO’s ColorOS instead of HydrogenOS which the company offered in all of its previously launched models in its home country.
OnePlus was founded in 2013 by Pete Lau and Carl Pei, both of whom were previously working for OPPO. Along with launching flagship smartphones, the company has now also started a budget smartphone series under the Nord lineup and has also jumped in the accessories market.
