The popular Chinese company OnePlus, founded by Carl Pei among others—who is now behind the Nothing brand—along with other popular brands such as Oppo, Vivo, and realme, is part of the Chinese conglomerate BBK Electronics. Back in the day, this once very popular brand came with “flagship killers,” but now it seems to be struggling, which is also highlighted by this year’s biggest smartphone exhibition in the world.
OnePlus at Mobile World Congress 2022
OnePlus 10 Pro, the brand’s latest flagship smartphone, was part of the current trade fair Mobile World Congress 2022 in Barcelona, Spain. OnePlus didn’t really get a big presence there—and if you were looking for them on the show map, that would be pointless. They had a tiny booth right next to Oppo, which is also the biggest BBK brand. That’s where the OnePlus 10 Pro flagship was on display as well.
As you can see, OnePlus had truly minimal space. OnePlus 2.0, the grand announcement of the OnePlus and Oppo partnership, slowly but surely feels less like a true collaboration and more like the branding being integrated under Oppo. And Oppo, right there at its booth, showcased much more forward-looking news—like the Find X5 Pro, 150 W charging, or even a 240 W charging concept—which naturally outshone OnePlus.
Smartphones for young people?
Despite its compact size, part of the Oppo booth offered all the flagship models from OnePlus since the brand’s inception. These were models from OnePlus One (the famous model that could only be bought by invitation) up to OnePlus 9 Pro, and then it also had its own spot for the latest OnePlus 10 Pro. The so-called “flagship killer” is, however, a thing of the past today. Why is that?
OnePlus’s first devices truly shook up the tech industry—especially thanks to an excellent price-to-performance ratio compared to the flagship phones of that time. Revolutionary was the OnePlus 3T, which for the first time could be ordered directly from the OnePlus webshop, just like other later flagships such as OnePlus 5, OnePlus 7 Pro or OnePlus 9 Pro.
The Oppo brand is big in terms of being actively involved under BBK Electronics, but when it comes to popularity among fans, OnePlus still clearly leads—outside China. Even on the US market, and even on community social networks like Reddit. However, the current moves suggest that Oppo, in particular, wants to take these brands to a whole new level.
Realme as the rising star
The old saying, “numbers don’t lie,” is especially true for the sales figures of individual brands that fall under BBK Electronics. Even though only Oppo is in the top five of the worldwide ranking, you shouldn’t be fooled. Because in sixth and seventh place in this global statistics of the biggest smartphone makers, there are additional BBK Electronics brands.
Specifically, this concerns Vivo and realme, which are definitely not insignificant smartphone shipment numbers. If we add up the market shares of Oppo, Vivo and realme for 2021, we get a number higher than that of rival Chinese Xiaomi. On the other hand, OnePlus falls far lower, into the category labeled as “Other”.
LG’s position also has something to say about that. This South Korean manufacturer ended its smartphone business in mid-year 2021, and even so it still recorded 1,53%. Those figures therefore show that OnePlus achieved even less than 1,53% market share over the past year.
Among the brands belonging to BBK Electronics, realme shines the most. Somehow, it has taken over the role of affordable smartphones aimed especially at young and dynamic users. The brand launches one device after another. This incredible pace brings not only new smartphones to us, end customers, but also tablets, notebooks, and true wireless in-ear headphones.
From the very first glance, this can seem like a different strategy that more closely resembles a competitive Xiaomi product ecosystem. At its debut, OnePlus started with a simple portfolio consisting of a single device, which was later expanded with a new and cheaper series or original accessories from the manufacturer.
For comparison, OnePlus has been selling products since 2013, while young and successful realme has only been around since 2018.
A BBK Electronics brand on the sidelines
OnePlus, however, has one clever “ace up its sleeve”. Specifically, it’s about availability and sales in the United States. Even Oppo, the fifth-largest manufacturer here, doesn’t sell its smartphones in the market. OnePlus has therefore gained a huge advantage in its current smartphone portfolio under the BBK Electronics conglomerate.
Worldwide, though, it won’t cause too much of a stir. Manufacturers such as LG, Motorola, or even HTC, tried to break the extremely strong position of Apple and Samsung smartphones in that market, but neither of them succeeded. The OnePlus brand tried to establish cooperation with carriers T-Mobile and Verizon, but that didn’t lead to any change.
Verizon mentioned above doesn’t even sell OnePlus smartphones anymore. That could be one of the reasons why OnePlus is hesitating with its most well-equipped premium products and is instead focusing on the more affordable mid-range segment—one it sees as a gap, including in the American market. After all, Apple and Samsung dominance is most pronounced precisely in flagship smartphones.
A mid-range smartphone manufacturer without a premium model that could compete with smartphones like Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra or Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max didn’t even earn its own booth at the MWC 2022 trade show this year. We’re curious in the newsroom how this brand will do going forward—especially in the mid-range and higher mid-range product categories—and under Oppo’s umbrella.
How do you like the Chinese brand OnePlus? Would you like to read a similar article about the situation of other Chinese manufacturers as well? Feel free to write us your thoughts and opinions below, in the discussion under the article. Also follow our website China Planet, subscribe to news, and join us on Facebook and on our YouTube channel, where we’re preparing more interesting video reviews for you.
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