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OnePlus is now in a post-launch phase as the company is in the process of fulfilling pre-orders for its latest smartphone duo: OnePlus 8 and 8 Pro. As reported by Engadget Citing various sources “close to the matter,” OnePlus has slashed its workforce in the UK, France, and Germany by as much as 90 percent, leaving behind key employees (as few as three) to maintain operations in respective markets.
A OnePlus spokesperson issued a statement to the store, explaining that the layoffs are due to a “normal restructuring” phase across Europe to focus on its strongest markets. It is unclear exactly how many employees were laid off, nor how many OnePlus employees are planning to hire at this time.
Europe is a very important market for us and it has been since the beginning of OnePlus[ ] We are doing a strategic restructuring in Europe, and in fact we are even hiring in the region. – OnePlus spokesperson
According EngadgetThe sources, other teams within Europe, including Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands and Belgium, are not affected. Some employees were also asked to move to the new EU OnePlus speculative headquarters from London, UK to Helsinki, Finland.
Ben Wood Analyst CSS Insight explains the possible reasoning for OnePlus restructuring in Europe. Wood attributes the decline in UK sales and the availability of the OnePlus 8 with a single operator – three from the UK. Both EE and O2 no longer sold OnePlus phones after selling OnePlus 7 Pro 5G and OnePlus 6T, respectively.
OnePlus 8 Pro
Wood explained that OnePlus is having trouble maintaining long-term relationships with operators across Europe. “This has seen OnePlus jump from one provider to another with different generations of products. There also seems to be a growing sense that OnePlus has fallen into the trap of being too promising and unpromising, which is, quite ironically, the complete opposite of how it behaved in the early days. “
We can safely assume that OnePlus has also seen very fierce competition in Europe, rising from strong Chinese competitors like Realme, Xiaomi, Redmi, Asus, Oppo, and more recently alive. As OnePlus drifted away from its original message of offering surprisingly high-end hardware in a surprisingly cheap package, it has been struggling to maintain its original fan base while failing to captivate new customers.
It is too early to say how successful the OnePlus 8 and 8 Pro will be, particularly with the economic disruption of COVID-19, which has seen global smartphone sales decline across all phone manufacturers. With the OnePlus 8 Pro now in the $ 900-1000 price range, you need to convince consumers why OnePlus should be considered over big gamers like Apple, Samsung, Oppo, and Xiaomi.
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