Rumor: smartphone maker OnePlus is a subsidiary of Oppo

The maker of the Nexus 5 competitor OnePlus One, presented last week, is said to be a subsidiary of Oppo, the maker of, among other things, the Find line of Android smartphones. This is reported by a Chinese site based on information from the Chinese Chamber of Commerce.

According to the Techweb site, the document states that OnePlus’ parent company is wholly owned by Opal Guangdong, a trade name of Oppo, the Chinese manufacturer behind last year’s Find 5 smartphone. OnePlus has not confirmed the rumor.

In any case, the companies have a lot in common: many of the people who work at OnePlus were with Oppo until December, while the design of the One Plus One smartphone is very reminiscent of that of Oppo smartphones such as the recently presented Find 7a.

In addition, OnePlus has only had four months to contact suppliers and make a design for its smartphone; normally that is short, especially because OnePlus claims that, among other things, it has the pcbs for its smartphones adapted to the device. Established manufacturers often take one to two years to develop a smartphone, because suppliers have to produce stock for multiple smartphone makers and manufacturers want to build up stock before release.