Text: Qingli
In the 21st century, mobile phones have become inseparable for everyone, and smart phones have opened up an epoch-making life experience for everyone. According to relevant information, around 2010, the smart phone industry entered a dividend period, a time of various brands surfaced, according to incomplete statistics, the number of well-known brands in the Chinese market alone reached more than 300. With the standardization of the entire industry and the saturation of the market, more and more brands have begun to fall behind. Especially since entering 2021, due to chip shortages, epidemics and other factors, the global mobile phone market has repeatedly ushered in a reshuffle. So now, what new changes have emerged in the global smartphone market pattern that has been formed in recent years, with Apple, Samsung, Huawei, OPPO, Xiaomi and other brands as the first echelon?
Recently, the report card of the global mobile phone market in 2021 was released, and among the top ten brands, mainland brands occupied 7, and the overall strength is still extraordinary. Specifically, Xiaomi has taken the lead among many domestic mobile phone brands on the list, ranking second in the world with a market share of 17%, maintaining the top three positions for Chinese mobile phone brands, and can be said to be a "dark horse" of domestic mobile phone brands. In addition, OPPO, vivo, Realme,
Transsion and Glory have also successfully entered the list as representatives of domestic mobile phone brands. The first place is still Samsung, with a market share of up to 19%.
The biggest change, and the most surprising, is undoubtedly Huawei. Since the HiSilicon Kirin chip used by Huawei cannot be mass-produced, the inventory is close to the limit, which seriously affects the new product iteration and product sales of Huawei mobile phones. Under this adverse influence, Huawei's ranking has fallen out of the top five and is currently only eighth. In fact, Huawei's decline in this ranking seems to be expected. Since the beginning of this year, Huawei's mobile phone sales have shown a "cliff-like" decline in domestic and foreign markets, and this time is obviously not the first time that Huawei has fallen into the "other" ranks in the sales ranking of the global smartphone market.
So with the decline in Huawei's ranking, who can get more of the cake?
The first of course is Apple. In fact, it is precisely because of Huawei's defeat that Apple has almost no competitors in the domestic high-end market. Coupled with its chip iPhone 13 "increase the amount without price increase" marketing measures, Apple successfully won the sales champion of the Chinese mobile phone market, and rose from the fifth position in the world to the third place in the world, with a market share of 14%.
In addition, Samsung, which ranks first in this ranking, seems to have the tendency to "return" to China. Speaking of Samsung mobile phones, young people may not be familiar with them, and even some post-00s have not used them. Whether it is in the market or the circle of friends around, it is difficult to see Samsung mobile phones. Therefore, in the impression of many people, Samsung mobile phones have withdrawn from the Chinese market.
But in fact, Samsung also achieved the first place in the Chinese mobile phone market in the early years, in 2012 Samsung beat Nokia to become the world's largest mobile phone company, in the Chinese market also jumped to the first place, and then to Q1 2014, it once achieved nearly 20% of the market share in the Chinese mobile phone market.
But the good times are not long, in 2014 Q3 Xiaomi beat Samsung in the Chinese mobile phone market, in 2015 Huawei took over the baton to beat Samsung, resulting in a rapid decline in the Chinese mobile phone market, followed by the Galaxy Note7 battery incident and a series of wrong behaviors in South Korea at that time, which led to Samsung's plummeting in the Chinese mobile phone market. As of the second quarter of 2021, Samsung's market share in China is only 0.6%. It can be seen that Samsung's market share in the mainland has been very small, almost equivalent to withdrawing from the Chinese market. The most critical thing is that Samsung closed all the mobile phone factories in China and moved to Vietnam.
So why did Samsung, which does not seem to be popular in China, choose to "return" to China at this time?
The first is Samsung's latest folding phone, which brings it new hope. As we all know, the Z flip3 and Z fold3 launched by Samsung in August 2021 are widely welcomed by Chinese consumers, entering the top 10 high-end mobile phones in e-commerce, and the monthly sales of the two mobile phones reached 35,000 units, showing that Chinese consumers have re-accepted it. In addition, Samsung also has the world's most mature folding OLED panel, and it is also the only company in the world with a foldable glass cover, relying on these two technologies, Samsung has been able to gain 93% of the market share in the global folding mobile phone market; and the two folding mobile phones it launched in 2021 have also broken the new low price record of folding mobile phones, prompting more Chinese consumers to accept these two products. It can be seen that with the price advantage and related technology monopoly, Samsung has incomparable advantages such as millet, OPPO, and vivo in the high-end market.
On the other hand, Samsung also saw that Apple ushered in explosive growth in the high-end market after the setback of Huawei's mobile phones. To be honest, Huawei has too many supporters in China, as long as it is there, even Apple will not live easily. Today, Huawei has fallen, Apple has eaten enough, Samsung is hungry, and with Huawei's defeat, Samsung has a greater chance to return to the Chinese market.
In addition, with the passage of 5 years, Chinese people, especially young consumers, have not had so many negative impressions of Samsung. With the rise of a new generation of consumers, they themselves have less negative perception of Samsung, so Samsung is better to cut in. According to the latest news, Samsung has set up a new China team, led by the CEO himself, dedicated to Chinese marketing, and it seems that Samsung is still full of confidence in "returning" to China.
Do you think Samsung will still have a chance to "return" to China? Will you choose to buy a Samsung phone?