OnePlus arrived on the scene in 2014 with brash marketing and a compelling pitch: What if your phone was cheaper and faster? More than a decade later, the market is much different, and so is OnePlus. Confirming months of rumors and speculation, OnePlus has confirmed it's ending phone releases in North America and Europe.

This development has been expected for a while. After a brief period of expansion in the US through deals with T-Mobile and Verizon, OnePlus began visibly shifting its focus to India after the pandemic. OnePlus has also increasingly come under the control of its parent company, Oppo, aligning its device releases and software experience with the larger brand. Still, OnePlus has continued to launch flagship devices in the US and Europe, with the OnePlus 15 going on sale in late 2025. That will be the last OnePlus phone many people see, though.

OnePlus denied rumors of a shutdown earlier this year, but its language was vague and never promised future phone releases. The new statement is also worded gingerly, but the outcome is clear. "As part of the proactive global strategy adjustment, OnePlus has decided to conclude new product rollouts in Europe and North America," the official post reads.

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Apple is gunning for OpenAI, demanding steep penalties after stumbling on a “rare” bug that temporarily allowed a poached employee that joined OpenAI to maintain access to confidential information on Apple servers for weeks after his termination.

In a lawsuit filed Friday, Apple sought several injunctions blocking OpenAI from using confidential information allegedly stolen by former employees. According to Apple’s complaint, OpenAI conspired with former Apple employees as part of a grand scheme to “take an unlawful shortcut” and launch a line of AI-powered devices as marketable as Apple’s iPhone.

Apple explained that it found a bug while investigating internal messages between a then-current employee, Yu-Ting “Alyssa” Peng, and an engineer who spent eight years “working on some of Apple’s most sensitive product development programs,” Chang Liu.

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Smartphone shipments started to plateau a few years back, ending the days of guaranteed double-digit growth for any company that wanted to make phones. Fewer smartphone manufacturers exist today, and they're facing new pressure in the age of AI. A new report claims that smartphone shipments cratered 11 percent in the last quarter. Some are weathering the storm better than others, though.

According to Counterpoint, this substantial drop brings smartphone shipments to their lowest second-quarter level since 2013. Analysts place the blame for this drop squarely on the increasing price of DRAM and NAND chips. Manufacturers have largely shifted to supporting the AI computing boom, which leaves fewer components for consumer devices like smartphones and PCs. As prices climb higher, fewer people are interested in buying new phones.

This problem has been particularly vexing for people who are happy to purchase budget devices. A recent report from market research firm Omdia noted that higher memory costs are particularly bad for phones priced at $500 or less. In these segments, memory can now easily account for half of the total manufacturing cost. These devices have seen quicker and larger price increases compared to flagship devices, for which memory is now more than a quarter of the cost. That's a significant increase in the past year, but there's still more profit to be had at the high end.

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Google has announced its next Made By Google event, taking place on August 12 in New York City. Google's invite doesn't name names, but the imagery clearly shows a new Pixel phone that looks a whole lot like last year's phone. Some new rumors, however, suggest the updated phones will come with inflated price tags courtesy of the AI-driven component shortage.

The sleek lines of the phone in the teaser image are a dead ringer for Google's last few Pixel phones, and that matches some early rumors. Google's new phones will have similar shapes, with the Pro and Pro Fold models perhaps shaving off a little thickness. The most notable design change will probably be the rumored "Pixel Glow" lights, a rear-facing notification and status light.

Recent reports claim that Google is finally doing away with the base 128GB storage option for the smaller phones. In 2025, both the Pixel 10 and Pixel 10 Pro started at 128GB of storage, a bit lacking for a modern flagship device at a time when people don't upgrade as often. Google will reportedly move to 256GB as the base storage for both phones.

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