New Delhi: OnePlus, a smartphone brand under Chinese tech conglomerate BBK Electronics, on Monday joined sister brands Oppo, Vivo, and Realme in raising phone prices for the fifth time in nine months. The price increases come even as the company loses market share amid a shrinking physical retail network in the country.<\/p>\n
On 17 August, OnePlus notified its retail distribution partners across India about this fifth tranche of smartphone price hikes since December last year. Taking Monday\u2019s hike into account, its portfolio is now up to 26% more expensive. Case in point: the mid-tier Nord CE6 Lite, one of its top sellers, saw prices increase by up to \u20b94,000 on Monday. That takes its price to \u20b928,999 as of today, up from \u20b922,999 in the first week of June.<\/p>\n
Since 19 December 2025, OnePlus has raised prices on eight models in its lineup, with increases ranging between 5% and 26%. Mint independently verified the latest hike through a communication sent by OnePlus\u2019s distribution partners to retailers on Monday. Responding to Mint's queries on the frequent price adjustments, a OnePlus India spokesperson said, \u201cWe periodically review our product portfolio and pricing, based on various market and business considerations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since late 2025, at least nine smartphone brands have raised prices across their device lineups by 5% to 90% as memory chip costs have nearly quadrupled in under a year. Additional key drivers include surging raw material costs stemming from the war in Iran, alongside a domino effect that has escalated prices for storage and other crucial components.<\/p>\n
At the same time, the company is scaling back its physical retail network across northern and eastern India. At least three retailers confirmed that OnePlus stopped supplying devices to standalone electronics stores in these regions on 1 April, opting instead to restrict its brick-and-mortar shipments to select large multi-outlet retail chains in southern India.<\/p>\n
The retailer upheaval has prompted the All India Mobile Retailers Association (Aimra), an industry body, to write to Praveen Khandelwal, member of parliament and secretary general of fellow industry body the Confederation of All India Traders (Cait), seeking \u201curgent intervention regarding unfair trade practices by OnePlus and non-compliance with Indian FDI norms.\u201d Mint has also seen a copy of this email.<\/p>\n
Kailash Lakhyani, founding chairman of Aimra, told Mint that OnePlus \u201cabruptly halted its general-trade retail operations across India as of April 2026\u201d. He added, \u201cThe brand has shifted its business exclusively to e-commerce platforms, large-format retailers (LFRs) and modern retail chains primarily located in the southern and western regions of the country. As a result, over 50,000 retailers, who had been sourcing OnePlus products through regional distributors until March 2026, were cut off overnight. Consequently, distributors have been removed and exclusive retail stores have been forced to close down.\u201d<\/p>\n
The retailer body claimed that its correspondence with Rahul Arora, director and business head at OnePlus India, has been dissatisfactory. \u201cWe plan to meet with union minister Piyush Goyal to request immediate intervention, ensuring OnePlus engages with general trade in accordance with government policies," Lakhyani said.<\/p>\n
Addressing concerns over its distribution strategy and retail network, the OnePlus India spokesperson clarified, \u201cWe continue to maintain a pan-India offline presence through key strategic retail partners, including Reliance Digital, Croma, Vijay Sales, Bajaj Electronics and Electronics Mart, among other large and small-format retailers, while adopting a more focused D2C-led model, as announced earlier this year. Our approach has remained consistent throughout 2026, with no interim change.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reports in March suggested the retail overhaul stems from OnePlus prioritizing its online sales strategy, a shift industry analysts view as the company "going back to its roots\u201d.<\/p>\n
Tarun Pathak, director of research at Counterpoint India, said OnePlus is restructuring its product placement strategy after its push beyond the premium segment backfired. \u201cWhen OnePlus began, they had only one or two devices, and they clearly catered to the premium segment and to technology enthusiasts. The idea of expanding the product portfolio to include budget devices somewhat backfired, and left the company with falling market share in their core area of strength\u2014premium smartphones. The company may be retaining its physical retailer network in specific areas of southern India because it has an enthusiast crowd to cater to, but in other markets it may look to go back to the online-first sales strategy that it began with,\u201d Pathak added.<\/p>\n
The company\u2019s market share has dwindled over the past five years. Data sourced from Counterpoint showed OnePlus accounted for 16% of all smartphones above \u20b930,000 sold in India in 2023, and 7% of the 152 million phones sold that year. As of the first six months of 2026, OnePlus\u2019s market share has fallen to 5% of devices priced above \u20b930,000, and 2% of the overall market.<\/p>\n
To be sure, India is projected to register sales of about 134 million smartphones this year\u2014the lowest in a decade. This suggests that OnePlus\u2019s annual sales could plummet from 10.6 million units in 2023 to just 2.7 million this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe trajectory of sales clearly shows that OnePlus diluted its own brand prestige by going after cheaper price segments, and was actually doing better with a more restricted portfolio. Other brands, such as Oppo, Vivo and Realme, were already established players in the budget segment, which OnePlus couldn't quite capture given that their core user base were all enthusiasts, gamers and the likes,\u201d Pathak said.<\/p>\n
Counterpoint data showed that Vivo, Oppo, and Realme held India volume market shares of 17.8%, 13.6%, and 10%, respectively, as of June 2026. When factoring in OnePlus and iQoo, brands under the BBK Electronics umbrella comprised 55% of total smartphone sales in India for the first half of 2026.<\/p>\n