UPDATE: The tipster shared another tweet, claiming that this may not affect Europe in its entirety. Max Jambor says that OPPO and OnePlus may only leave parts of Europe, only the countries he initially mentioned. Those countries are Germany, the UK, France, and the Netherlands. Needless to say, these are rather important, and large markets. The tipster did promise to share more info soon.
ORIGINAL ARTICLE: A rather wild rumor appeared online, claiming that both OPPO and OnePlus are pulling out of Europe. This information comes from Max Jambor, a well-known tipster, who usually shares OnePlus-related info. He’s rarely wrong.
Both OPPO & OnePlus are pulling out of Europe, it seems
He apparently got some information from the company. He also added that the companies will first leave Germany, the UK, France, and the Netherlands. We’re not sure about the details just yet.
If you wonder what’s the reason behind this, well, the reason is… patents, apparently. Some of you will remember that OPPO and OnePlus have issues with Nokia regarding patents. Nokia even pulled the lawsuit card, which halted OnePlus and OPPO sales in Germany.
Nokia sued both companies over 5G patents. The company did add that both OPPO and OnePlus can avoid the sales ban if they opt to renew their license on specific terms. Back then, it seemed like this issue will be resolved rather fast, but that didn’t happen.
It’s odd OPPO & OnePlus couldn’t get things sorted out with Nokia
We were waiting for things to get resolved, but instead, this bombshell rumor appeared. Is it really worth ditching an entire continent over 5G patents and the royalties for them? We really don’t know what happened while Nokia, OPPO, and OnePlus were talking, but things obviously didn’t go well.
This rumor is hopefully false, though Max Jambor’s information rarely is. So it seems like it’s happening, unless something truly unexpected happens in the meantime. Both OPPO and OnePlus are expected to make some sort of announcement moving forward.
Needless to say, Europe is a huge market, and this is a very odd move by OPPO and OnePlus. There has to be a really tough obstacle in front of them to pull something like this. As a side note, both of those companies are under BBK Electronics, for those of you who are unaware.
2023-03-27 15:10:31