OnePlus started with the ethos – Never Settle. That spirit seems to be gone, at least with what is happening, it seems like the company is indeed settling. There’s no more camera partnership with Hasselblad. The focus from flagships seems to have shifted marginally to the Nord series, which is where the most sales for the brand could take place in the coming months and years. Then there’s a ‘s’ series now, which is basically a stripped version of flagship phones.

OnePlus has witnessed declining sales in India. I don’t want to get into that for now. I want to talk about what can be done next by OnePlus to win over the Indian market, if not the global, at least.

OnePlus Should Focus on a Niche

OnePlus India needs to carve down its attention to a niche of customers like it did in the initial years (read second part of this article to understand what I am talking about). Yes, this does not make a lot of business sense in the short term, and it is very easy for me to write this down here when there is nothing at stake for me. However, that does also put me in a position where I can think about things in a more non-traditional way, as I have zero pressure to execute.

This is what I feel makes sense – make phones for creators. The creator economy is going to be a huge thing, especially with the government also recognising it and now, taxing it in the name of protecting and safeguarding creators. OnePlus needs to come out with phones, and accessories, aimed at creators.

There’s not a single brand out there which can beat iPhones in video recording consistency. Thus, the work is already cut out for Android brands. Honestly, we don’t want 200x zoom. 10x is just enough in high resolution for 99% of consumers. We don’t want to take the moon shots. We want freaking amazing videos.

If a Nord phone can do this, OnePlus will win. If a flagship can do this, OnePlus will thrive. Creators are not only going to be purchasing these devices, but also recommending it to the people that trust them. If you want to win the trust back of consumers, give them what they want, and then let them talk about it.

This is an area, waiting to be exploited by the Android brands. Honestly, I am tired of brands coming up with new phones, more powerful processors, AI features that really don’t make a lot of difference in utility, and then cameras with zoom, which are you know, just a marketing engine now.

The OnePlus that Was

OnePlus started off with selling phones to tech enthusiasts. The company later pivoted to trying to sell to everyone after winning a small segment of the market. This is a natural curve for any brand, if it wants to scale revenues and tap into a larger market eventually.

However, when that shift happened for OnePlus, things did not go as well, at least after some time. If I can think back to things, OnePlus 5 series, OnePlus 6 series, and OnePlus 7 series were the peak from the brand. OnePlus was everywhere. If it was an Android brand competing with Samsung and Apple, that was OnePlus. It was the flagship killer brand, that never settled. Then came the OnePlus 8 series, and thus started the green line issues, which affected the users for many future generations of devices.

Personally, I have been using the OnePlus devices since OnePlus 5 series. The first phone I owned was a OnePlus 5T, back in 2018. I have purchased, and got review units from the brand of many more series later on, but I never faced the green line issue. Honestly, it was more of a PR disaster for the brand, than it was an actual problem for the customers. Note, that negative amplifies in social media. That’s what I believe happened with the brand. However, then one key event changed a lot for the OnePlus fans.

It was OnePlus’s key man, Carl Pei. Pei was the face of the brand. He left OnePlus a few years back and announced a new venture, Nothing. If you know about the tech scene today, Nothing is also in the same trajectory as where OnePlus started. This changed everything for OnePlus. It is not that OnePlus did not launch exciting or super cool and valuable products, but things just didn’t align the way they used to.

Take the OnePlus 11, OnePlus 12, and OnePlus 13 series. All three device series have been exceptional, and deliver power + camera + a great software experience to the consumers. Honestly, I have not used the OnePlus 15 series, so I can’t comment on it, but I believe, it should be great in experience too.

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