OnePlus + OPPO Merger Expect OnePlus software experience to go down the gutter. Makes sense why Carl Pei left https://reddit.com/r/Android/comments/o2vdak/just_received_these_talking_points_on_the_new/

OnePlus and OPPO are part of the same parent BBK from the start. Does this change much in reality?

Yes, they were under the same umbrella but they were sister companies. They are merging efforts now so I see a potentially degraded software experience coming to OnePlus devices

Well BBK has a surprising history of building long-term strong brands. Maybe we will get it the other way around, OPPO will get to a better level. Just guessing though, but I hope for better products.

I've been a OnePlus user for past 6 years now, from OnePlus 2 to 7T, and they've been on steady downward trajectory ever since, while OPPO is very popular in tier 3 cities, their software experience is shit tbh. And with OnePlus being officially sharing space with them, I feel they're going to meet same fate as what Motorola got after getting acquired by Lenovo.

That is not a fair comparison IMHO. I totally agree OnePlus might be already not going well. But they are already under the same parent. JLR and Tata Cars can surely merge, but they are already both under Tata Sons (or whatever is the parent company). They share engineering, strategy all the time. So I feel OnePlus simply wants to have more market share in non-premium segments and OPPO wants to climb the ladder. Lenovo had shitty mobile experience and we know what happened. But Lenovo is an excellent maker and has risen with the IBM*/ThinkPad brand. They simply were not ready for mobile.

The thing about comparing with Lenovo acquiring Motorola was that just like Motorola changed the game of budget Android phones back when original Moto G released, OnePlus changed the perception too with their initial line-up of Android phones, catering to audience who wouldn't go for brands like Samsung, Sony or LG. And lack of good Pixel devices in India, added to success of OnePlus as a brand that attracts enthusiasts. Same can't be said for Oppo which just tries to upsell mediocre phones in the offline market, just visit any mobile phone store locally which has one of those huge Oppo Banners and you'd know how the shop owners will try to sell you an overprice Oppo phone stating that it is better than Xiaomi counterpart. And OnePlus attracted a lot of bad rep with Android 11 redesign that they launched late last year which looked exactly same as Samsung One UI. TL;DR OnePlus was a brand recognized and loved by Android enthusiasts, and their product direction is now going mainstream (which makes sense from business perspective) and that wouldn't help them retaining loyal users. To add to it, I highly doubt that OnePlus would allow unlocking bootloaders or even release Kernel sources on time in the future.

OnePlus also went from releasing solid flagships every year routine to flooding the market with all range of devices just like Oppo

I hope this does not happen, even though I am not a OnePlus user. I just want more competition. Anyway I guess they want to milk the cow now 😢