OnePlus went through a lot of changes last year. In a break from tradition, the company did not release a T flagship in the second half of the year. It also merged operations with Oppo, which is also owned by its parent company BBK Electronics. Although the companies continue to be separate brands, their phones will now run an operating system that will be developed by a unified team, and OnePlus has also integrated its Warp Charge with Oppo’s SuperVOOC charging standard.
Lack of resources and the Chinese New Year Holiday makes China an obvious priority
Apparently, OnePlus’ decision to launch the OnePlus 10 Pro in China first has a lot to do with its new emphasis on China. Counterpoint Research’s Neil Shah believes the company was eager to have a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1-powered handset on the shelves as soon as possible, seemingly to compete with the likes of Xiaomi. The company likely also wants to capitalize on the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday to drum up sales.
China was not an important focus market for OnePlus earlier, but after folding into OPPO, China becomes a key focus market for scaling the OnePlus brand. It will be positioned to fill the big gap between the Reno series and Find series for OPPO. Especially in the China market where Vivo has done well with the V and X series.
China is amongst the largest markets for the company’s high-end phones and given the ongoing supply crunch, a China-first release makes sense, according to IDC’s Jitesh Ubran.
I would say that the OnePlus 10 Pro is an opportunity for the company to release a phone that would normally do better in markets outside of China, which does make the OnePlus 10 Pro release in China all the more perplexing. That said, an earlier launch could also mean more mature software once it reaches North America and the European Union, which has been a problem for some OnePlus phones in the past.” – Anshel Sag, a senior analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy
