OnePlus, the “flagship-killer” smartphone company that rose in 2013 to counter the likes of Samsung and Apple, is dead. Sort of.
The company, a subsidiary of Oppo—the fourth-largest global smartphone maker—has been laying off staff across various regions over the past few months, with many employees in Europe transitioning to roles at Oppo or Realme, another Oppo mobile subbrand. WIRED has verified these transitions and layoffs by speaking with former OnePlus employees and tracking dozens of LinkedIn updates over the past month; many workers left their roles between March and June of this year.
Oppo provided a blanket statement to WIRED when asked for comment: “To further consolidate resources and enhance global product strategy synergy, Realme will focus on overseas markets and no longer launch new products in China. OnePlus' product roadmap in China remains unchanged. Both Realme and OnePlus will continue to deliver premium gaming and performance experiences to users."
Despite layoffs and staffing changes in North America and Europe, Oppo did not confirm whether OnePlus is officially out of the North American and European markets. Its vague statement singling out the Chinese market seems to suggest as much, though what happens to OnePlus' India market is still unclear.
Oppo did not respond to WIRED's questions about what will happen to existing OnePlus devices with regards to software updates and servicing.
Rumors have circulated that Oppo will replace OnePlus’ OxygenOS interface with Oppo's ColorOS (both are based on Android). It's unclear if that means a software update will roll out to expunge OxygenOS from existing OnePlus devices.
OnePlus did not respond to requests for comment. When asked if OnePlus cofounder Carl Pei, who left in 2020 to start the smartphone company Nothing, would care to comment, a Nothing spokesperson declined.
A source, who asked to remain anonymous in order to avoid jeopardizing future employment opportunities, tells WIRED that OnePlus laid them off in April. Their managers were laid off earlier, and the entire New York City office was cut. “This was a kind of ‘from the top’ decision with no input channels for anyone on the team,” the source says.
Oppo did not respond to questions about why it's exiting the North American market.
Companies like Huawei and ZTE were famously banned from selling products in the US due to national security concerns and ties to the Chinese government. More recently, the US Federal Communications Commission banned new consumer internet routers manufactured outside the US. That includes devices from prominent Wi-Fi router company TP-Link, which has drawn the ire of several US agencies and even a lawsuit from Texas attorney general Ken Paxton for allegedly “allowing the Chinese Communist Party to access American consumers’ devices.”
The OnePlus 15, the company's latest flagship smartphone, launched in January 2026.
Photograph: Julian ChokkattuBut OnePlus’ exit comes at a time when smartphone shipments are showing steep declines due to the ongoing memory crisis—the lack of RAM, eaten up by data centers for the AI boom, has caused a global shortage. Research firm Counterpoint on Monday noted an 11 percent year-over-year decline in global smartphone shipments in the second quarter of 2026, the lowest level in that period in 13 years. Two companies saw growth—Apple and Samsung—whereas competitors like Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo saw the sharpest declines. (Vivo is a part of the same conglomerate, BBK Electronics, that owns Oppo, OnePlus, and Realme.)
Last year, at the onset of president Donald Trump’s tariff war, OnePlus dramatically increased the price of its then new smartwatch from $330 to $500. In May 2026, the company hiked prices on its latest phones in India. The company has been dealing with a massive loss of smartphone market share in the US for several years.
Nabila Popal, a senior research director of Consumer Devices at the International Data Corporation, says OnePlus was never a leader in the US. Still, the company's sales took a nosedive after T-Mobile dropped its partnership in 2023.
OnePlus went from 1 million smartphone shipments in the US in 2019 to just under 130,000 device shipments in 2025—roughly a 90 percent volume drop over six years. Smartphones are primarily sold through carriers in the US, which means phone makers that aren't available at carrier stores often have a hard time cracking the market. Popal says carriers drive as much as 66 percent of the volume in the US, at least based on 2025 data. T-Mobile declined to comment on the OnePlus news.
The US represented around 22 percent of OnePlus' shipments in 2021, with similar numbers from Europe, and only 18 percent from China. But Popal says by 2025, the numbers flipped with 56 percent of OnePlus's volume coming from China, which likely explains Oppo's statement that OnePlus' China product road map is not changing. If you add Asia Pacific, that number jumps to 91 percent—a huge jump from 51 percent in 2021.
“In 2018, with the OnePlus 6, they had launched what they were calling very proudly a ‘flagship killer’ at the price of $529, with flagship specs,” Popal says. “And then, rather than staying at that price point, they replicated the premium market—trying to increase prices—and that made them similar to the competition.”
Popal says it's a strategy often set by companies with razor-thin margins. The initial goal is to grab interest, then go up in price, a method to break into the market and gradually increase profitability. “But unfortunately, certain brands are not able to command a price beyond a certain point," she says. "It's really only been Apple and Samsung that have been able to operate very successfully.”
Chinese phone brands are often the first to introduce new technologies (like silicon-carbon batteries), and while there aren't many Chinese players in the US, OnePlus was the outlier. The brand’s lack of a presence will mean one less choice for consumers, and Popal says the market is moving further into consolidation. OnePlus went from having 1.8 percent of the US market in 2021 to 0.1 percent in 2025, according to Popal; Apple and Samsung went from a combined 73 percent of the market in that same period to 80 percent in 2025.
“It's a pity that US consumers do not have the choice of the number of brands that are available globally because there are some fascinating technologies and features," Popal says. "But I don't see that landscape changing.”
OnePlus now joins a growing list of companies that have either shut down operations, exited the mobile business, pivoted, or drastically scaled back their ambitions, including HTC, LG Mobile, Sony, Meizu, and HMD.
