GoKawiilTushar Mehta / Android Authority
OnePlus — one of the most unique and disruptive Android brands of the past decade — is in dire straits.
In January, a report claimed that OnePlus was being completely dismantled. OnePlus quickly denied it, indicating that business was as usual. Fast forward to March 23, and a new report says that OnePlus will be ceasing operations in “select global markets.” Just one day later, a OnePlus executive who previously squashed the initial shutdown rumors officially left the company.
While reports of OnePlus’s demise are still unverified, it’s clear that something big is happening within the company — something not good. As a longtime OnePlus fan who wants to see it succeed, the idea of OnePlus dying is hard to contend with.
But simultaneously, it also feels inevitable.
Do you think OnePlus will shut down or cease operations this year? 145 votes Yes 52 % No 48 %
OnePlus in its prime
When the OnePlus One was released in 2014, it felt like a phone that shouldn’t exist. To get an Android phone with flagship-grade specs, such a unique design, and the perks of peak CyanogenMod — all for just $300 — sounded too good to be true. While there were issues with the invite system and questionable marketing campaigns, the OnePlus One was as real as it got. And it was magnificent.
As someone who bought a OnePlus One in August 2014 (and spent months active on OnePlus’s forums before then), the phone was unlike anything else I had experienced in the Android world. It brought into question whether you really needed to spend hundreds of dollars more on a flagship Samsung or LG phone. It also put all other budget Android handsets of the time to shame. OnePlus had cracked a value proposition that no other company had gotten close to offering, and the entire smartphone landscape was better for it.
While OnePlus would never fully recapture the lightning in a bottle it struck with the OnePlus One, the company did a good job building on its formula of enthusiast Android phones that cost far less than they probably should.
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