In Summary
- Recently, there were a number of reports stating that OnePlus was closing down its operations. This was not the first time that many had claimed that the brand was in trouble.
- Although it has been around for more than a decade and has considerable brand equity and market share, OnePlus often attracts very hostile reactions, with many seemingly poised to write off the brand.
- Why does OnePlus attract so much negativity? The reasons could vary from actually Never Settling to a sense of betrayal among its early followers.
The rumors of my death are greatly exaggerated…
Legendary author Mark Twain is believed to have uttered those (or similar) words when news of his being ill or even having passed away was circulating. If it could speak, we are sure tech brand OnePlus would say, “Same feels, bro.”
“OnePlus is in trouble/ shutting down, etc.,”: a regular “news” item
It has been around for slightly more than a decade, but seldom has a brand or a company been written off or whose end has been predicted as frequently as OnePlus. Many said that it would not survive a controversial breakup with Cyanogen, which had supplied the OS for the first OnePlus. The prediction was repeated when the OnePlus 2 was released with a new, and rather buggy, OxygenOS. The next doom prediction came when OnePlus moved into the premium phone zone with the OnePlus 7 Pro (yes, the same phone that many now call “Peak OnePlus” was panned for its price and for stepping away from OnePlus’ flagship killer ethos) in 2019. One year after that, the doomsday machine was back in circulation as one of the co-founders, Carl Pei, left the brand.
Since then, the brand has been written off and said to be closing down when its devices encountered green line issues, when OxygenOS was blended with Oppo’s ColorOS, and when it developed a closer association with Oppo. Recently, news about its shuttering operations went viral, even though it had just hosted a high-profile global launch and unveiled new brand ambassadors. In fact, a few days ago, when a high-profile YouTuber posted a video on the perils of Silicon Carbon batteries, he used a OnePlus 15 with sparks coming out of it in the thumbnail, even though the device itself has never had any such issue.
It is not as if other brands do not go through their periods of strife. Even the mighty Apple has had wobbles, but when it is OnePlus, a lot of people start typing out obituaries and contacting salespersons of corporate graveyard plots.
Never Settling can be a curse
There is no clear explanation as to why this is so. Conspiracy theorists say that other brands “inspire” content creators and writers to do negative stories on the brand. Others say that it is because the brand has annoyed some leading content creators and influencers, either by not sending them review units on time or by not inviting them to key events and junkets. We are sure that the truth is not as simple as that, but whatever it is, the fact on the ground is that whenever something seems to go wrong with OnePlus, it acquires the level of an existential crisis. Whether it is an executive leaving, a product malfunction, or even new software, it is not just the knives that come out for the Never Settling brand; it is the tombstones and funeral pyres.
OnePlus’ tendency to live up to its Never Settle slogan has not helped its cause. Change is clearly a constant in the brand, and some of its moves have seemed contradictory. For instance, it started out as a flagship killer, then moved up to being a premium phone, and then, even more surprisingly, launched an affordable mid-segment range. Similarly, the brand prided itself on its clean interface, but now comes with bloatware on some devices. It entered the TV market with much fanfare but then stepped back.
And of course, its most prominent and media-friendly face, Carl Pei, not only left the brand in 2020, but also started his own brand. In the case of an established brand, these would have been seen as matters of concern, but in a brand as new as OnePlus (it is only slightly more than a decade old), they have often seen as potential corporate killers. After all, the tech company graveyard is full of brands that started very well but then faltered and finally faded.
“You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain”
That said, it does seem as if there are a number of people in the tech world who are actually hoping for – and waiting for – OnePlus to fail. As a OnePlus executive told us, “There are many brands that have changed their interfaces and included third-party apps in their UI. Even Apple shows ads in its App Store, but when we do it, it is as if it is the end of the world.” This might stem from the sense of perceived betrayal that some feel at the brand’s moving away from what they felt were its ideals. After all, OnePlus did start out as what is called an “enthusiast brand”, one which appealed to the geek crowd. As Apple itself discovered, while the geek squads are terrific early adopters and are great for spreading the word, they are also very quick to be disappointed and turn against what they perceive to be a betrayal of a cause. As Harvey Dent says in The Dark Knight, “You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain“. OnePlus would nod wearily in acceptance. After a heroic start, it now seems to be the brand many seem to love to hate.
While a sense of betrayal might be a key reason for the frequent OnePlus obituary writing, the brand’s frequent change of track and products has not helped its cause, often giving the impression of instability, and worse, unreliability. Older brands are treated more kindly when they cancel a product or feature; new brands do not have that luxury. It gets worse when it is seen by some of its early loyalists as having “betrayed” a cause, something Carl Pei’s new brand, Nothing, is also experiencing. On the subject of Pei, OnePlus has struggled to replace him as a consistent communicator about brand values or issues. This has deprived it of a familiar face at crucial times, leaving the field open to a lot of negative speculation. While the brand has been quick to address issues, the messaging now carries a very formal, corporate feel instead of the more accessible, slightly emotional appeals of the past.
This is not to say that OnePlus does not have problems. We are sure that it does, just like other brands do. But unlike many other brands, it also has to deal with the task of denying that it is dying. And until it convinces many of its critics that it has actually Settled, the Never Settling brand might have to continue to contend with stories of its demise. In the meantime, we hope it continues on its path, providing consumers with a viable alternative and existing brands with some much-needed competition. We also hope that future rumors of its death – and we are sure there will be a few more – will continue to be just exaggerations.
