OnePlus is exiting the United States and European markets. The Chinese smartphone maker's retreat marks the end of an eight-year effort to gain traction in regions dominated by Apple and Samsung, as declining sales, carrier pullbacks, and strategic realignment within its parent company Oppo culminate in a full market withdrawal.

OnePlus laid off staff across various regions over the past few months, with many workers departing between March and June 2026. The company eliminated its entire New York City office and terminated an anonymous employee in April 2026, according to internal sources. "This was a kind of ‘from the top’ decision with no input channels for anyone on the team," said a former OnePlus employee who was laid off. Many OnePlus employees in Europe are transitioning to roles at Oppo or Realme, sister brands under the same corporate umbrella.

For existing users, OnePlus device owners will see their phones transition to Oppo's ColorOS for future software updates. Customers who prefer the original OxygenOS interface can roll back to it, though doing so will likely mean forfeiting future updates. Oppo Europe CEO Elvis Zhou confirmed that owners will retain the option to revert to OxygenOS, albeit at the cost of ongoing support. James Paterson, Oppo Senior PR Manager in Europe, assured that "software updates and after-sale support will be guaranteed" in both the U.S. and Europe despite the market exit.

OnePlus’s decline in Western markets followed a stark reversal from its early promise. The company, founded by Pete Lau and Carl Pei in 2013, launched the OnePlus 6 in 2018 at $529, positioning it as a "flagship killer" with premium specs at a competitive price. By 2019, OnePlus shipped 1 million smartphones in the U.S., capturing 1.8% of the market by 2021. That year, the U.S. represented around 22% of OnePlus’s global shipments, while China accounted for 18% and the broader Asia Pacific region contributed 51% combined.

But its position eroded rapidly. By 2025, U.S. shipments had collapsed to just under 130,000 devices, and its market share dwindled to 0.1%. During the same period, Apple and Samsung expanded their combined U.S. market share from 73% in 2021 to 80% in 2025.

Carriers, which drive as much as 66% of U.S. smartphone volume according to 2025 data, increasingly sidelined OnePlus. T-Mobile first began carrying OnePlus devices in 2018—after nearly 200,000 customers were already using them on its network—but stopped stocking flagship models after 2022, limiting offerings to lower-end Nord devices before severing the partnership entirely in 2023. Verizon’s brief collaboration lasted only from 2020 through 2021.

Industry analysts point to pricing missteps and market concentration as key factors. Reports indicate OnePlus raised the price of its smartwatch from $330 to $500 in 2025 and hiked prices on its latest phones in India in May 2026. The OnePlus 15, launched in January 2026, arrived amid worsening conditions.

Meanwhile, Carl Pei, co-founder and former face of the brand, left in 2020 to launch the smartphone company Nothing. Although Nabila Popal, Senior Research Director of Consumer Devices at International Data Corporation, is excluded from direct quotation per sourcing rules, her analysis contextualizes the shift: OnePlus abandoned its value proposition by emulating premium competitors, losing its differentiation without gaining their scale.

Globally, the smartphone industry faced headwinds in 2026. Global shipments declined 11% year-over-year in the second quarter, with Oppo, Xiaomi, and Vivo experiencing the sharpest drops. Apple and Samsung were among the few to post growth during the same period.

Oppo itself faced a double-digit shipment decline in Q2 2026, and industry forecasts predict a more than 13% drop in total smartphone shipments for the year due to memory chip shortages. Despite these challenges, Oppo stated that OnePlus’s product roadmap in China remains unchanged. By 2025, China alone accounted for 56% of OnePlus’s volume, and the China–Asia Pacific region together represented 91% of its shipments—up from 51% in 2021—highlighting the brand’s strategic pivot toward its home market.

OnePlus’s exit underscores the extreme difficulty of competing in the U.S. and European smartphone markets, where Apple and Samsung dominate carrier channels and consumer loyalty. With carriers controlling two-thirds of U.S. sales and offering almost exclusively iPhones (75%) and Samsung devices (15%), third-party brands face near-insurmountable barriers. OnePlus’s trajectory—from disruptive "flagship killer" to marginal player—illustrates how quickly competitive advantages can evaporate without sustained differentiation or channel access.

The move also reflects broader consolidation within China’s smartphone sector. As global demand weakens and component shortages persist, brands like OnePlus are retreating to core markets where they retain logistical, marketing, and supply chain advantages. For consumers, the transition to ColorOS and uncertain long-term support raise questions about the longevity of devices purchased under the OnePlus brand in Western markets.