OnePlus is reportedly charting a phased withdrawal from every market outside China, with an exit from the US and Europe expected to begin within days and a departure from India following by 2027, according to a Bloomberg report citing a person familiar with the matter.
US and Europe exit could begin this week
The initial phase of the wind-down is understood to be imminent, with operations in the US and Europe set to cease as early as this week. The person told Bloomberg said the move is part of a wider restructuring at OnePlus’s parent company, Guangdong Oppo Mobile Telecommunications Corporation Ltd.
Realme, another mobile brand under Oppo’s ownership, is separately preparing to withdraw from the Chinese domestic market as part of the same overhaul.
Why India is on a longer timeline
Unlike the US and Europe, OnePlus’s departure from India is not immediate. The brand is expected to keep operating in the country before winding down there at some point in 2027, giving it a longer runway in one of its more significant markets outside China.
OnePlus will continue selling phones domestically in China throughout this process, at least for now.
Financial and political pressures behind retreat
Oppo’s decision reflects a combination of commercial and geopolitical pressures rather than any single cause. On the commercial side, OnePlus’s phone business has been under financial strain, compounded by weak momentum in the US, Europe and India, markets where the brand has struggled to build meaningful scale against entrenched rivals.
Politically, Chinese smartphone brands continue to face heightened scrutiny over their presence in the US market. OnePlus is also contending with a lawsuit filed by Apple Inc. alleging misuse of trade secrets, adding a further legal complication to its position in the West.
Central Europe and Nordics become new focus
Rather than retreating from the continent entirely, Oppo intends to redirect its European strategy towards central Europe.
Realme, meanwhile, is being positioned to concentrate on the Nordic region, covering Finland, Denmark, Sweden and Iceland, where the brand has already built stronger sales relative to elsewhere on the continent.
A brand that once rivalled Apple, Samsung on value
OnePlus built its early reputation on a straightforward pitch: near-flagship performance, a clean software experience and pricing well below Apple and Samsung. That formula won it a devoted following among Android enthusiasts during its first years on the market.
That influence has faded substantially since. In the US, Apple and Samsung Electronics Co. remain dominant, while OnePlus now trails smaller players such as Lenovo Group Ltd.’s Motorola and Alphabet Inc.’s Google. In China, Oppo fares somewhat better but still sits behind Huawei Technologies Co. and Apple.
Memory chip shortage adds to the pressure
The broader smartphone industry is also contending with a squeeze on memory components, which has pushed up manufacturing costs and squeezed margins on lower-priced devices. Chinese handset shipments fell 4.3 per cent in the second quarter compared with the same period a year earlier, according to figures released by IDC.
That shortage has hit OnePlus’s budget-oriented “Nord” range particularly hard, since the line depended on cheap components to remain profitable. As those costs have climbed, sustaining a genuinely low-cost lineup has become considerably harder to justify.
A troubled send-off for OnePlus’s flagship line
The brand’s most recent flagship, the OnePlus 15, had a difficult introduction in the US. Its release there was delayed after the Trump government shutdown last year disrupted the regulatory certification process, undercutting the launch momentum of what may prove to be one of its final major devices sold in the country.
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