Before the article officially began, Xiao Lei would like to ask you a question, what is the most important thing before buying a mobile phone? Is it the processor, the camera, the screen, or something else that you think is most important? Xiao Lei believes that most readers' first reaction is the processor, in fact, according to the statistics of relevant agencies, although the current users are most concerned about the processor but the camera, but also ranked in the top three, which shows its importance.
And this data has also aroused the curiosity of Xiao Lei, generally speaking, mobile phones are a penny, high-end mobile phones should be equipped with the best performance of high-end processors, and mid-range mobile phones are equipped with a sub-flagship or lower-middle processor, so that manufacturers can free up enough costs to make this phone will not be too "partial".
But I don't know if you readers have found that in the past two years, more and more mid-range machines have used flagship processors, in other words, in addition to the processor, cameras, screens, charging and other configurations are almost at a medium or low level.
Although the processor is the basic for the smooth operation of mobile phones, with the continuous change of technology, the mid-range processor has long been less unbearable than we think, and it can fully meet the needs of most users. So why are mobile phone manufacturers so keen to launch such a "partial" mobile phone, and what is the effect? Will it continue to be a trend and be emulated by other mobile phone manufacturers?
However, it is a kind of "partial student"
Take the most powerful Snapdragon 888 in the Android camp in 2021 as an example, at the time of the release at the beginning of the year, most of the Snapdragon 888 mobile phones on the market are priced at about 4,000 yuan. Whether it is Xiaomi Mi 11 or OnePlus 9, it not only has the top processor of Snapdragon 888, but also has a good camera and screen, in other words, it is more comprehensive and more suitable for the needs of most users.
However, after a large number of Snapdragon 888 processors were sold, a large number of products with "ultra-low price and high performance" as the selling point began to emerge on the market, and even lowered the price to 2,000 yuan. As mentioned earlier, the biggest and only selling point of this type of product is the processor, as for what screen, camera are "makeshift" level.
Xiao Lei had to admit that this kind of operation similar to "demolishing the east wall to make up for the west wall" of mobile phone manufacturers can indeed attract many users who only care about the performance of mobile phones, especially for those who do not have a high budget or a student party, a mobile phone that can meet their entertainment is completely enough.
However, in the end, this kind of mobile phone is also a kind of "partial" mobile phone, and the partial mobile phone has long been strange in the mobile phone market, such as the rise of game mobile phones in recent years, although the hardware configuration is full, but it sacrifices the thickness and weight of the mobile phone, so that it is greatly reduced in the experience in addition to the game. Another example is the rapid development of photographic mobile phones in recent years, after adding multiple camera modules, the ability to take pictures has been enhanced, but this is based on the premise of sacrificing the grip and aesthetics of the mobile phone.
In fact, looking back, most consumers often have "stable" demand for mobile phones, and this "stability" cannot be separated from the same outstanding aspects of taking pictures, feel, performance and endurance, which is commonly known as the "bucket machine", which is impartial. However, a closer look will find that most of the "bucket machines" are flagship models, with a price of four or five thousand, which is easy to dissuade many consumers with tight budgets. Therefore, for most mobile phone manufacturers, this kind of slightly more scientific mobile phone can attract more users to buy.
In the end it's still a word, volume
As we all know, the success of Xiaomi, Meizu and other Internet mobile phones benefited from the early days of the smart phone replacement era, the replacement tide had just begun, when the popular price-performance ratio, users " functional needs" more, to put it simply, consumers only pay attention to who is cheaper.
But mobile phones and the market are going to progress, when fast charging, high-resolution screens, "comparable" SLR camera lenses, etc. become the standard, hardware configuration homogenization is so serious that it is impossible to distinguish who is who, to meet the "functional needs" of the cost-effective solution is no longer a wealth password.
At the same time, people's "improved" needs began to be released, and the general public began to differentiate into vertical consumer groups, such as some users who are more concerned about taking pictures and some users. Therefore, the "rational consumption" that pursues cost performance is replaced by "perceptual consumption" such as taking pictures and looking beautiful. More typical is the popularity of the selfie economy, OPPO, vivo and other selfies in the success, but also attracted Apple, Samsung, Huawei and other mainstream manufacturers have followed up, upgraded their own front camera. This year, we have also seen more and more mobile phone manufacturers choose to make efforts on the front camera.
Since the mobile phone that focuses on selfies can be loved by consumers, it is not difficult to understand that mobile phone manufacturers will launch a mid-range "flagship machine" with the main performance.
But this situation is also caused by a variety of reasons, especially the epidemic in 2020, which caused many industries to experience the biggest winter in nearly a decade. According to IDC statistics, even in 2021, the global mobile phone market sales will still drop by 6.8% year-on-year. The demand for mobile phone market is suppressed, and its own production capacity has become tight, so selling goods has become the focus, and who can sell goods is the winner.
Especially in the case of tight supply of chips and other parts, who can seize more markets in this situation, and then compete for the first place, after all, the first-class market position in the supplier also means priority supply, forming a positive cycle of more shipments.
In the face of the online market, mobile phone manufacturers need products that are cost-effective and can quickly attract consumers. In addition, the epidemic has also made consumption more cautious, and the level of purchasing power has declined. Because of this, mid-range models have become the preferred product for more consumers, and in this extremely serious market, "partial science students" have become the new wealth code.
As a result, we have seen countless mid-range mobile phones with "flagship" features released in the past two years, they are either the main screen, or the main performance or camera, it looks very powerful and cost-effective, but for users, these are not new technologies, but the decentralization of the characteristics of the previous flagship machine, the actual comprehensive experience is even not as good as last year's flagship products. For the mobile phone market, this has gradually accelerated the formation of the market "price war", and further led to the deepening of product "homogenization".
Inner rolling is a good thing, but it's also a bad thing
In the decade of rapid growth of the smart phone market, there may be a market situation of "a hundred flowers blooming and a hundred schools of thought contending", but as the market enters the stage of stock decline, traffic and resources have begun to converge to the head. The fight between the giants began to ignore the cost, the control of the supply chain became stronger and stronger, the survival of small factories became extremely difficult, the shipment volume was low, the supply chain was subject to people, the profit was insufficient, and innovation became difficult.
The involution of the mobile phone market is not the pattern formed in just one or two years, but the stage that the industrial development must go through, but under the influence of the epidemic, chip shortage and other factors, the situation of the inner volume has become more serious and more obvious.
In the smartphone market where competition has intensified, there will naturally be people in place, and some people will leave the market, and the market will return to calm after a difficult period. Who can grasp this era of inner volume and speak with hard power, only then will there be the possibility of standing out.
Back to the beginning of the article, the reason why mobile phone manufacturers have insisted on launching a variety of "partial science" mobile phones in the past two years is that in the final analysis, in order to compete for more market share, they can only be eliminated. But this competition that only looks at hardware specifications without regard to consumer experience is not a good thing for the development of mobile phones.