Two leading Chinese smartphone brands Oppo and OnePlus have merged their R&D departments and the OnePlus employees will now get offer letters from Oppo for their new positions, a report that came out of China yesterday stated.
According to internal sources, who wanted to remain anonymous, the merger took place in December last year and both the companies are now a part of “Oga group”. It was also mentioned that while the R&D teams merge, it will not have any impact on the unique features and software these companies offer.
In an official statement to Android Authority, OnePlus has confirmed the merger and has stated, “To better maximize resources and further position OnePlus for growth, we are in the process of further integrating some R&D capabilities within OPLUS, our long-term investor. OnePlus will continue operating independently and working to deliver the best possible user experience for existing and future OnePlus users.”
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Close-knit family?
While Oppo, Vivo, OnePlus and Realme fall under BBK group, Oplus is another entity responsible for higher synergies between these brands. This mysterious entity known as Oplus has investments in all the three brands – Oppo, OnePlus and Realme and apart from the fact that OnePlus’s co-founder Pete Lau had recently joined Oplus as a VP, you won’t find much about this company in the public forum.
That said, OnePlus has borrowed Oppo’s technical prowess since its inception. Most of its phones were rebranded Oppo devices with some minute customization on the exterior and different skin, Oxygen OS. OnePlus even rebrands Oppo’s fast charging tech known as VOOC and Super VOOC charges and calls it as Warp charge.
While the OnePlus executives had initially declined any connection with Oppo, however, the young startup had Oppo written all over it. In case you’re not aware, both OnePlus and Realme, that are offshoots of Oppo, have their devices assembled in India in Oppo’s facility.
Even the introduction of the budget line, the Nord series and the idea of introducing phones across the price gamut, is also widely considered as OnePlus donning the inevitable Oppo coat.
Incidentally, OnePlus has always tried to remain away from being linked with Oppo all along and while it maintained its status of being “independent brand,” this official confirmation of the merger of R&D teams seems to be a mere formality and there would hardly make any difference at the consumer’s end.
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