OnePlus Nord Will Not Launch in the US, Co-Founder Carl Pei Confirms

OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei has confirmed that the OnePlus Nord phone will not launch in the US. The ‘low cost OnePlus' was made official last week, and since then the company has been dropping hints about the phone. OnePlus Nord was up for a limited pre-order in the UK, and it is set to go on pre-order in India soon. However, the phone may not see a launch in the US. This could be because mid-range phones haven't seen much success in North America.

Pei spoke to Android Authority about the OnePlus Nord and confirmed that its launch will be focused to markets like India and Europe. “So if you look at our markets right now, like in India, we're already doing really well and in Europe we're growing really quickly with the channel expansion we're doing there, so it makes sense to focus on those markets where we know for sure that this product is going to be a success,” Pei said.

While Nord may not see a launch in the US, future products in the line will launch there. “In the meantime, we're planning a smaller beta program in the US. We also said before that future products in the Nord line will be coming to the US,” Pei told Android Authority. He didn't offer any details on the beta program.

The US hasn't been an attractive market option for mid-range phones in the recent past, but analysts feel that the recent COVID-19 crisis could bring an opportunity. Canalys analyst Mo Jia reportedly says that the mid-range segment – which is the $300 -$500 segment — only accounted for a 10 percent market share in 2020. Furthermore, the $200 - $600 segment actually saw a year-on-year decline in market from 23 percent in Q1 2019 to 19 percent in Q1 2020.

However, given the recent COVID-19 crisis, a Counterpoint survey has found that users are expected to cut smartphone spending by up to 20 percent. Jia feels that OnePlus Nord would be ideally positioned in this changing scenario, adding, “I don't see any reason OnePlus should avoid launching the Nord in the US market.”

OnePlus Nord is being teased on Amazon India currently, with the ‘Notify Me' live already. The phone is confirmed to be powered by the Snapdragon 765G SoC and will be priced below $500. A new teaser video suggests that the phone will have multiple cameras at the back and a dual selfie camera up front.

Is OnePlus 8 Pro the perfect premium phone for India? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.