GoKawiilAs we enter August, the North American and European markets are one Android OEM poorer. Last month, OnePlus confirmed it’s ending its operations in these two key regions, with OPPO playing a larger role in at least one of them.
Rumors abounded as early as January that OnePlus’s US operations were under scrutiny, even though the company denied it at the time. However, to see such an important Android brand up and leave two of the world’s most important markets is still a shock and will likely surprise many die-hard fans. But just how much of a surprise?
We asked our readers in a recent poll whether they’d been expecting OnePlus to call it quits or were completely taken aback by the news. The results of the +8,000 vote survey can be viewed below.
The majority of respondents appeared to believe that OnePlus’s days were indeed numbered. 27.8% were “not at all” surprised, while 37% knew not all was well, but believed the company would “hang on longer.”
In total, nearly two-thirds of voters didn’t see a future for OnePlus in Europe or the US.
Blindsided, abandoned, and betrayed
Even though many could see the writing on the wall, readers are still feeling the loss. Commenter dawnikus writes:
That’s tragic news. I’ve been with OP since the get go. I had a Motorola recently for work and hated it so much. My spouse has the latest Pixel and complains about how much his phone sucks compared to my 13R. I doubt we will see OPPO in the US, with OP leaving. Maybe Nothing Phone will come along and pick up where OP left off.
Reader patrickhenryday1970 believes blame should be targeted at the company’s top brass for squandering their unique position in the market:
The phones were pretty good, but management were the ones that screwed the whole thing up. Like T-Mobile, they stopped being the one thing that made them attractive in the first place. Both disrupted their industries, and they both stopped all the sudden.
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