According to various reports, OnePlus and Oppo have united in their agenda to provide better design and features to their users, and will now boast a single research department. Rumors of the companies merging their R&D have been circulating since December. However, today, OnePlus has officially announced the merger.
Oppo insiders have informed in an exclusive report to DoNews (which was the first to report on this matter) that the R&D of both the companies had already merged as early as December last year. However, they sealed the deal only recently.
DoNews relates the assimilation of R&D of OnePlus and Oppo to the relationship between Xiaomi and Redmi, which share the same R&D system.
“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.” Said OnePlus in an official statement to Android Authority.
With the merger of both of the R&D departments, OnePlus employees will now get offer letters from Oppo for their new positions.
The four smartphone giants from China including Oppo, Vivo, OnePlus and Realme are known to belong to the BBK group. But an additional connection between Oppo, OnePlus and Realme also exists, as they share a common investor called OPLUS. Not much about this company in the public forum, other than the fact that OnePlus’s co-founder Pete Lau had recently joined Oplus as a VP.
While R&D of both the companies have merged, the companies’ software will not be a part of the deal, at least for now. This means that both companies will work together only on developing hardware and some features. OnePlus phones features OxygenOS, while Oppo phones is sold with the ColorOS. Thus, both OnePlus and Oppo will continue to work on their software independently, which will also help them maintain their identities as separate brands.
