OnePlus, the smartphone brand that launched in 2013 with the explicit goal of producing flagship-quality phones at affordable prices and built a cult following in the US and Europe doing exactly that, is done. The company has confirmed it will no longer launch new products in the United States or Europe. Parent company Oppo says existing devices will continue to receive software support and warranty service, but the commercial presence is over — and reports suggest that even India and most remaining international markets may follow within the next year, leaving only China.
Oppo senior PR manager James Paterson confirmed the withdrawal to The Verge, saying software updates and after-sale support will be guaranteed in both the US and Europe. Existing OnePlus devices will be transitioned from OxygenOS to Oppo’s ColorOS “in the coming months,” with the option to roll back to OxygenOS — at the cost of future updates — for users who prefer the original interface. In Europe, Oppo itself will continue selling phones under its own brand. In the US, the company will have no presence at all.
Oppo’s statement on the broader strategic situation was carefully worded in a way that revealed more than it confirmed: “OnePlus’ product roadmap in China remains unchanged.” Every other market was conspicuously absent from that sentence.
How OnePlus Got Here
The trajectory from cultural phenomenon to commercial withdrawal is a study in what happens when a disruptive brand loses its edge. In 2018, OnePlus launched the OnePlus 6 — proudly marketed as a “flagship killer” at $529 with specs that competed with phones costing twice as much. Rather than holding that price position, the company gradually raised prices, moved upmarket, and started competing directly with the Samsung and Apple devices it had originally undercut. It lost the one thing that made it distinctive.
“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,” said Nabila Popal, senior research director of Consumer Devices at IDC. “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.”
The US market collapse was particularly stark. OnePlus shipped approximately one million smartphones in the US in 2019. By 2025, that had fallen to roughly 130,000 — a 90% volume decline in six years. The turning point was 2023, when T-Mobile ended its carrier partnership with OnePlus. Carriers drive approximately 66% of smartphone volume in the US, according to IDC data, meaning a brand without carrier distribution essentially has no market access. OnePlus went from 1.8% US market share in 2021 to 0.1% in 2025. Apple and Samsung, by contrast, grew their combined US market share from 73% to 80% over the same period.
Globally, the company’s geographic centre of gravity shifted decisively eastward. The US represented around 22% of OnePlus shipments in 2021, with similar numbers from Europe and just 18% from China. By 2025, China accounted for 56% of volume, with Asia-Pacific as a whole at 91% — which explains Oppo’s decision to protect the China roadmap while withdrawing from everywhere else.
The Broader Context: A Shrinking Market and a Difficult Industry
The exit also reflects deteriorating conditions across the global smartphone industry. Counterpoint Research recorded an 11% year-over-year decline in global smartphone shipments in the second quarter of 2026 — the lowest second-quarter figure in 13 years. Of the major manufacturers, only Apple and Samsung grew. Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo all saw sharp declines. OnePlus, already marginal in most Western markets, had no buffer against that headwind.
Last year, as Trump administration tariffs began pushing up component and device costs, OnePlus raised the price of its smartwatch from $330 to $500. In May 2026, it hiked phone prices in India. The company had been losing market share steadily while simultaneously facing rising costs, declining carrier support, and geopolitical pressure on Chinese-owned technology brands operating in the West.
Several OnePlus employees across North America and Europe were laid off between March and June, with some offered roles within Oppo or Realme — Oppo’s other smartphone sub-brand, which is simultaneously undergoing its own restructuring and will cease launching products in China while focusing on overseas markets. An anonymous former employee confirmed to Wired that their entire New York City office was cut in April. “This was a kind of ‘from the top’ decision with no input channels for anyone on the team,” the source said.
OnePlus is still preparing the OnePlus 16 flagship, though it is now unclear whether that device will ever launch outside China. Oppo’s own Find X10 series is next in its pipeline, alongside rumoured work on a wide foldable phone to compete with formats expected from Samsung and Apple this year.
OnePlus joins a growing list of brands that have exited the smartphone business or dramatically retreated from it — HTC, LG Mobile, Sony’s mobile division, Meizu, and HMD among them. The US consumer smartphone market is becoming a two-brand market, and there is little in the current competitive or regulatory landscape to suggest that changes soon.
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