OnePlus CEO Pete Lau announced on the OnePlus forums that OnePlus would further integrate its operation with that of Oppo. This is essentially more of an internal restructure than a merger, as both companies are already owned by the BBK Electronics Corporation, and Lau has had a role in Oppo operations for the last year. BKK’s third smartphone brand, Realme, however, has not been mentioned.
With competition from the likes of Huawei, Motorola and Nokia, it makes sense for OnePlus and Oppo to work together. A shared set of resources is bound to make R&D and production cheaper and therefore make both brands more competitive.
This move is unlikely to lead to fewer models from either brand – it could lead to more –though we can expect certain features to be more readily shared between the two. The choice of camera units, screens and even processors are likely to be closely aligned, even if individual features remain unique.
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While both Oppo and OnePlus offer fast charging, Xiaomi’s HyperCharge is currently promising much quicker times (down to just 8 minutes fully charged). By working together, I’m sure the companies will look to beat this.
Oppo and OnePlus currently use different OS, which could also see some synchronization. Though whether Oppo would move to OnePlus’ OxygenOS or OnePlus would adopt Oppo’s ColorOS overlay of Android is unclear. Internationally, there must be benefits of using an Android base though.
With new premium models expected from OnePlus later this year and Oppo early in 2022, I’m excited to see what these changes mean for the future of the brands.
