OnePlus has been a topsy turvy ride, for the company as well as the consumers. For a major part of this year, the company managed to stay in the headlines for its unique marketing, while the latter half of the year has brought some controversy to the young Chinese OEM.
The ban in India was the most recent controversy in which OnePlus was involved. It was deemed that it was out of rights of OnePlus to sell the One in India, which runs the CyanogenMod OS. This came after Micromax filed a lawsuit against OnePlus Inc., because Micromax had since won the exclusive rights to the CyanogenMod OS for India and a few other neighbouring countries.
However, there’s finally some respite for OnePlus. Only hours back, it was learnt that the ban had been lifted, thanks to the belief that OnePlus and Micromax did not pose a threat to one another. “The consumer of one product is mid-segment [Micromax/Yu] and of the other is high-end [OnePlus] and thus prima-facie neither competes nor eats into territory of other”. The case will now be heard afresh, thereby giving OnePlus some time to make a stronger case.
Of late, Chinese brands, namely Xiaomi and OnePlus have had rather turbulent times in the Indian market. One can’t but get a feeling that Chinese brands have to step up on their game if they want to succeed overseas.