It doesn't make sense because OnePlus is much more known in the West than either Oppo, Vivo or Realme. OnePlus also just sounds like more of a Western brand.
It would have made much more sense to kill those other brands in the West and unify everything under the OnePlus banner.
The branding logic actually makes sense from BBK's internal perspective — OnePlus, Oppo, Vivo, and Realme were originally separate fiefdoms under the BBK umbrella, each with its own P&L and channel strategy. When BBK restructured and put OnePlus under Oppo's management, the decision was driven by domestic Chinese market dynamics, not Western brand equity. Oppo's management likely saw maintaining a separate Western-facing brand as an operational cost that didn't justify the diminishing returns, especially once OnePlus lost its 'flagship killer' positioning and became just another rebranded Oppo. Chinese conglomerates often prioritise internal restructuring efficiency over international brand preservation — it's a recurring pattern you see across sectors, not just smartphones.
it's a frustrating pattern for sure. makes it so you can't reward good companies with return business. instead, we get the amazon-seller-experience: an ever-churning alphabet soup of fly-by-night companies hocking low-quality stuff.
To my ears, OnePlus sounds like a low-quality western brand. Along the lines of "Best Value" or "Farmer's Choice"
And Apple sounds like a fruit. The point is they spent big marketing dollars to make the brand not sound low quality anymore.
Then I've never received that marketing from OnePlus.
Also I think the iPhone and MacBook brands are much stronger than Apple itself.
If you're not in the market for Android phone alternatives to Samsung then you probably were not in their marketing sphere.
I mean, in a vacuum, yes. But it made a huge splash with the OnePlus One, and they had some pretty nice phones since.
Oppo, Vivo and Realme sound like those weird dropshipping Amazon brands. Or the whitelabel brand Android phones you can buy on AliExpress. If I didn't know they are legit brands I would genuinely think you'd be trying to sell me a scam phone that fake-advertised having 12GB memory or a Snapdragon.
Oppo and Vivo sound like actual brands, not words slapped together, and also not BFBRJEXGDB
Realme is literally an ID verification system and a terrible choice for a brand.