OnePlus exits EU, US markets

Rumours had been circulating for a while, but now it's official: OnePlus is effectively retreating from the European and US markets.

Today, our hearts are undoubtedly heavy and mixed with emotion. As part of the proactive global strategy adjustment, OnePlus has decided to conclude new product rollouts in Europe and North America.

OnePlus statement

Once OnePlus' co-founder Carl Pei left the company (and founded Nothing), things have been feeling shaky for OnePlus, once the undisputed darling of the more technical part of the Android crowd. Their phones got more expensive, their minimalist, close-to-stock Android version got progressively worse, and they started lagging in updates, too. My OnePlus Watch 3, for instance, which was promised to get WearOS 6 at some point, but never got it - meanwhile, WearOS 7 has already been released. No, this news is not particularly surprising.

Luckily, the company claims it will honour its warranty and update support obligations for existing products in Europe and the US, which is nice, but also something they're legally obligated to do (at least in the EU). A snag here is that the only update path the company offers is to ColorOS, from its parent company Oppo, which many more traditional Android and OnePlus users certainly won't be happy about. Something is better than nothing, I suppose, and I'll reserve judgment until I see what ColorOS 17 will be like on my other OnePlus product, a OnePlus Pad 3.

It's just one more victim of western markets (illegally) consolidating on Apple and Samsung (while a few Pixels rummaging in the margins).