Wired
According to IDC data, the shipment volume of China’s smartphone market in 2022 will be about 286 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 13.2%, and it is also the first time in 10 years since 2013 that it has fallen below 300 million units.
The above data also confirms the hot topic of “why young people don’t want to change their mobile phones” last year. For mobile phone manufacturers, the pressure in 2023 will only double.
Therefore, when we look back at the first quarter of 2023, it seems that except for Apple, which only announced the new color iPhone 14 in a hurry, other mobile phone manufacturers are very busy, either releasing new products or releasing new products. On the way, from technology to products, we saw various “roll” methods.
The 2000+ price mainstream market is more intense than previous years
Although manufacturers put a lot of resources on high-end flagship models in terms of marketing or communication, the real market sales force is still mid-range mainstream models, especially the domestic mainstream market with a price of 2000+.
In previous years, the 2000-3000 yuan market was basically a battle between Redmi, Zhenwo and iQOO, and since 2021, the marketing stalk of Redmi mobile phones, “Welding Gate”, has also been talked about.
Friends who are familiar with cost performance know that Redmi is definitely an old player in this market. Regardless of the replacement of competitors and market changes, Redmi is an existence that cannot be ignored in the 2,000-3,000 yuan market. It was originally released in December last year. The Mi K60 series (only referring to K60 and K60 Pro) has already succeeded in “welding the door” at this price, but never expected that this time it was almost “broken” by OnePlus.
In terms of products, the OnePlus Ace 2 launched in February this year uses the full-blooded version of Snapdragon 8+, hyperbolic screen, rear main camera, and 100W wired fast charging. The screen resolution and battery capacity of the Redmi K60 series , 30W wireless charging (Pro version) is also not to be outdone, the two sides can be said to be evenly matched.
Just as a latecomer, OnePlus Ace 2 is more aggressive in product pricing. Under the idea of universally popularizing large memory and large storage, the product pricing of 16+256GB version at 3099 yuan and 16+512GB version at 3499 yuan is indeed priced by Redmi. The door became less secure.
And Redmi’s old rival, Realme GT Neo5 released by Realme is also aggressive. With similar configuration and price, the world’s first 240W fast charging version can charge a 5000mAh mobile phone battery in about 10 minutes, and the charging speed is direct. take off.
Just when OnePlus Ace2 and Trueme GT Neo5 were first sold, Redmi announced on February 15 that the 512GB version of the K60 series was reduced by 300 yuan, and the 12+256GB and 16+512GB versions were only 2999 yuan and 3299 yuan, in order to improve the product quality. Market competitiveness, vowing to weld the door to “death” again.
This is the first head-to-head contest between Redmi, OnePlus, and Realme in the first quarter of this year, followed by a more exciting second round of PK—OnePlus Ace 2V, Redmi Note12 Turbo, and Realme GT Neo5 SE Type of hand-to-hand dog fighting.
First, the OnePlus Ace 2V equipped with the Dimensity 9000 chip was released at 2299-2799 yuan, and then the Redmi Note12 Turbo with the second-generation Snapdragon 7+ chip at 1999-2599 yuan was released. The plastic bracket between them enhances the texture of the fuselage.
Finally, the real me GT Neo5 SE (only released on April 3) which also uses the second-generation Snapdragon 7+ chip and is also priced at 1999-2599 yuan. Under the influence of the continuous decline in storage prices, large memory and large storage have become domestically produced. The new focus of competition for mobile phone manufacturers, this new trend even puts a lot of pressure on the flagship models launched at the end of last year.
If a friend asks me to recommend a mobile phone with a price of 2000-3000 yuan, I will most likely choose and recommend it from the above-mentioned models. Of course, we will not talk about the comparison between products here, and focus more on The analysis of the industry dimension of the market is just that the models of the above three brands are too competitive at present.
Data shows that the replacement cycle of smartphones in China has increased to 34 months, which is close to 3 years. In terms of features, it better matches the long-term use needs of users.
The Redmi, OnePlus, and Realme mentioned above are stacking materials in the direction of high performance, large memory and large storage in terms of hardware configuration, coupled with long-life battery design, and system software optimization to extend the user’s mobile phone life. Use fluency.
Although everyone is rushing towards high-end, in fact, the average price of major domestic mobile phone brands such as Honor, vivo, and OPPO in the domestic market is around 2,000 yuan. The price of 2,000-3,000 yuan mentioned above is not only their basic market, but also The key to gradually increasing the average price of the brand has become a must for military strategists.
In the high-end flagship market, how long is the window for “rushing high”?
“Fighting high-end” is definitely a high-frequency word in the domestic mobile phone industry in the past two years. Everyone knows the reason. Huawei has been forced to give up a large number of mobile phone markets from the end of 2020, and the high-end market is the main one. For domestic mobile phone brands, this is another once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to hit the high-end market after Samsung in 2016.
Of course, it is one thing for Huawei to give up the high-end market, but it is another matter for who can take over.
According to data from CounterPoint, a third-party research organization, Apple’s share of the domestic smartphone market in 2021 will increase by 47% year-on-year, ranking third among all brands and the largest increase among the top five.
Among the top 10 domestic smartphones in 2022, Apple’s iPhone accounts for 3 seats, and it is the top 3. Among them, the market share of the iPhone 13, which ranks first, is “far ahead.”
Combined with the fact that the price of Apple’s iPhone is more than 5,000 yuan, it is properly positioned as a high-end flagship. This growth rate proves what Yu Chengdong said before that Huawei’s original high-end market has basically been taken over by Apple, and other domestic brands can only divide Huawei’s share in the low-end market.
At that time, Huawei was able to stand out in the domestic high-end mobile phone market. It has already shown that consumers in the high-end market need to have their own characteristics in addition to looking at the parameter configuration. To put it simply, there must be something that can tell a story. The satellite news of “piercing the sky” on the Huawei Mate50 series. And on the flagship mobile phones in the first quarter of this year, there are more or less different innovative technologies.
For example, the Qinghai Lake battery, self-developed RF enhancement chip, Eagle Eye camera on the Honor Magic5 series, the Hasselblad image on the OPPO Find X6 series, the self-developed NPU image chip on Mariana X, the XMAGE image on Huawei P60 and Mate X3, Kunlun glass, two-way sending and receiving satellite messages, including Titan glass on Meizu 20 INFINITY Unbounded Edition, two-way ending satellite messages, etc.
Through these technologies, mobile phone manufacturers are gradually establishing their own brand barriers on high-end models, so that consumers who purchase can have more product stories to tell their friends around them, and increase the “social net value” of the product.
Just like consumers who are willing and able to spend thousands of dollars to buy high-end flagship mobile phones, they may not be bothered to remember the hardware configuration of the mobile phone. It’s very good and has a German flavor!” Wouldn’t this be more face-saving?
Since 2020, domestic mobile phone manufacturers have been on the road to high-end for two or three years. Frankly speaking, although the overall performance has improved, there are not many models that dare to set high prices, but they can really impress consumers and achieve better sales. but very few.
What’s even more frightening is that Huawei has been gradually restoring its own mobile phone product line. In the past six months, it has successively released series of models such as Mate50, P60, Mate X3, and nova11. I believe that the online dilemma will eventually be resolved, and there may not be much time left for other domestic mobile phones.
(Photo source @余成东微博)
Coupled with the iteration of SoC chips and camera sensors, you can see that since the end of last year, high-end flagship phones have become more and more popular, with performance, design, imaging, experience, and innovation all indispensable. The “volume” of innovation on high-end flagship mobile phones will become the main theme of the industry this year.
Very “volume” OnePlus
From the announcement of its return to OPPO in mid-2021 to the end of last year, OnePlus has experienced a painful period for its brand and products. To grow ecologically and open up new markets, it will inevitably change itself.
On December 17, 2022, at OnePlus’ 9th anniversary celebration, OnePlus founder Liu Zuohu announced that OnePlus is positioned as a pioneer brand of OPPO’s main performance, and received OPPO’s tens of billions of subsidies for research and development.
Subsequently, OnePlus pressed the accelerator button for new product releases, releasing OnePlus 11 in January, OnePlus Ace 2 in February, OnePlus Ace 2V in March, and OnePlus 11 Jupiter Rock Limited Edition. You must know that OnePlus only released OnePlus 10 Pro, OnePlus Ace, and OnePlus Ace Pro have three models. The number of new products of OnePlus in the first quarter of this year has been the same as or even exceeded that of last year. It should be pointed out that OnePlus is the mobile phone brand that is “either releasing new products or on the way to release new products”.
In terms of products, OnePlus’ new products this year all use a full-blooded version of the SoC chip and a combination of large memory and large storage. The performance and gaming experience, coupled with very competitive pricing, OnePlus is definitely the first quarter of this year. The least low-key and most volume mobile phone brand (one of them).
OnePlus’ “volume” is not only derived from OPPO’s 10 billion subsidy, but also the determination of “in order to make a good product, the comprehensive net profit of OnePlus hardware can be 0 in the next three years.” From returning to OPPO to obtaining tens of billions of subsidies, it is impossible for OnePlus to become a small brand again. OnePlus has also set the goal of “becoming the first in the online market share of more than 2,000 yuan in the next three years.”
A determination, a goal, this is the motivation for OnePlus to step on the accelerator as much as possible, and it is also the pressure to step on the accelerator to the bottom. I don’t know if the future of OnePlus is a sea of stars, but the road ahead must be full of thorns, come on!
at last
OnePlus is not the only one that is full of thorns! Whether it is OPPO, vivo, Honor, Xiaomi, which ranks top in the market, or domestic brands such as Meizu, Huawei, and ZTE in the “others”, they all have their own market pressures, either for the survival of the brand, or for the pursuit of development.
Therefore, 2023 is destined to be a year in which the mobile phone industry will continue to “volume”.