We all remember how Nokia, once the king of the mobile phones, vanished from our pockets and thoughts. While the brand still exists as HMD’s feature phone line-up, it is almost non-existent for today’s generation which is glued to their smartphone screens.
OnePlus, which came to the scene about a decade ago and managed to get love from a majority of Android phone users, has decided to join the ‘legacy league’ of fallen smartphone titans, alongside the likes of Nokia, BlackBerry, HTC and LG Mobile.
A Bloomberg report has followed the online chatter, confirming that OnePlus will be shutting down its operations in the United States and Europe as early as this week.
The decision has been made as part of the restructuring happening at parent Oppo, or Guangdong Oppo Mobile Telecommunications Corporation Ltd, said the report.
OnePlus, which was known for aggressively priced Android smartphones with hi-tech features that matched flagships from competitors like Samsung, is reported to have decided to cease all global operations outside its home, China, by next year, including India.
While there has been no official announcement on the same yet, Oppo is reported to have decided to curtain OnePlus’s operations to only China in view of the financial challenges which the company is facing in its mobile business.
Geopolitical and security concerns surrounding Chinese tech products have also added to the company’s woes.
In fact, Oppo’s another sub-brand, Realme, will exit the China market as well and focus majorly on the Nordic region, including Finland, Denmark, Sweden and Iceland, where it has done well as a brand.
The developments have come in the wake of the surging cost of memory and phone prices that have slowed down smartphone sales.