Apple is winning again.
In the past fourth quarter of 2021, Apple once again returned to the throne of the world's number one shipment with a market share of 22%.
iPhone sales are so eye-catching, which also has a lot to do with the collective "swing" of the Android camp.
I don't know if you have found that in recent years, Android mobile phones really do not have any shocking innovations, and even some aspects of the phenomenon of regression.
Just like mature markets such as automobiles and PCs, the Android machine circle that was once the most heavily rolled up, manufacturers seem to have been unable to roll up.
Android team up to show knife skills
As in previous years, after Qualcomm released the latest Snapdragon flagship chip, the mobile phone circle ushered in a wave of release boom before the Spring Festival.
Motorola, Xiaomi, realme, iQOO, and one plus new machines followed.
But if you study the parameters carefully, you will be surprised to find that the new wave of machines a few years ago has a "trade-off" in the stacking material, and even less than last year's model.
Draft: Know @ The End of Winter
Taking taking photos as an example, this year everyone is very "tacit", and they did not post DXOMARK scores at the press conference, which is also related to the fact that the hardware has not been upgraded much.
In terms of main camera, the sensor of the one-plus 10 Pro main camera continues to use last year's Sony IMX789.
The Main camera of the Xiaomi Mi 12 Pro was replaced by the Samsung GN2 to the smaller Sony IMX706, and the optical telephoto was cut.
Of course, the most interesting thing is the ultra-wide angle.
Whether it is OnePlus, Xiaomi or iQOO, the ultra-wide-angle lens has been replaced by Samsung's JN1 sensor.
Some netizens ridiculed Samsung in "bundled sales", buying screens to send shots.
Objectively speaking, the quality of this 50 million pixel sensor is not bad, and it also brings a 150 ° wide angle fisheye shooting effect.
But compared with some of last year's main camera-level ultra-wide angle, it is still a little less interesting.
For example, last year's OnePlus 9 Pro not only uses freeform lenses, but also supports super macro.
It is also equipped with an IMX766 sensor from Sony, which is still the only configuration of many flagship cameras.
In addition to the camera, the screen is also the stage for manufacturers to show their knife methods this year.
The screen of the OnePlus 10 Pro is still Samsung E4 material, not the latest E5.
Xiaomi Mi 12 standard version is not on the E5 even if, the resolution has also been slashed, instead of using a 1080P domestic screen, the official statement is to save power.
Not only that, but some small details are not spared.
For example, both the Xiaomi Mi 12 and OnePlus 10 series no longer support IP68 dustproof and waterproof.
Although it does not affect the use, the hardware quality of this year's flagship machine is not as good as last year, which is indeed difficult to accept.
At the end of the inner roll is lying flat
Mobile phone manufacturers have chosen to lie flat, and the upstream suppliers "rotten" has a lot to do with it.
As we all know, the three-piece set of how to train your dragon is "frequency reduction, frame locking, and resolution reduction".
Because Qualcomm has been looking for Samsung's foundry flagship chip for two consecutive years, it has turned Snapdragon into a dragon.
The latest Snapdragon 8 chip paid a price of "billions of points" of heat in order to improve GPU performance.
In order to suppress this dragon, in addition to controlling power consumption at the software level, manufacturers have also made sufficient efforts in hardware, and the area of VC heating board has become the focus of the conference.
Luxurious heat dissipation materials lead to rising costs, but also make the internal space of mobile phones more crowded.
Regardless of the cost space or physical space, product managers are not allowed to choose higher quality hardware for taking photos, screens, etc.
This has also indirectly led to the hardware of this year's flagship machine, which has shrunk to varying degrees.
Huawei falls, all things live
Not only that, but the fall of Huawei has also caused mobile phone manufacturers to lose the power of internal rolling.
In the past few years, Apple has taken away a lot of market share by virtue of its industry advantage, and it only needs to squeeze toothpaste upgrades to maintain its leading position.
In order to catch up, other manufacturers can only frantically "roll inside", and pursue a full range of cost performance in terms of photography, performance and design.
Only Huawei is an exception, with the Kirin chip and excellent imaging capabilities, gradually gaining a foothold in the high-end range.
Even shipments once surpassed Apple and Samsung to ascend to the world's first position.
However, we all know the story later.
Due to unfair suppression, Huawei's shipments fell off a cliff, directly falling out of the top five in the world, and can only be listed in the "Others".
A whale falls, everything lives, but the most profitable is the apple.
With the setback of Huawei mobile phones and Kirin chips, a number of Android manufacturers under the leadership of Qualcomm and Google began to rot, and 2022 is destined to be another year for Apple to lie and win.
Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei's consumer business, once admitted in the circle of friends:
The US sanctions on Huawei have forced Huawei's consumer business into extreme difficulties and unable to ship, Huawei's high-end products are mainly given to Apple, and the low-end in the domestic market is given to OPPO, vivo and millet.
In addition to Apple, other manufacturers did not spend much effort to easily divide the low-end market vacated by Huawei, and naturally there is no need to continue to roll up.
What's more, after the manufacturer has the advantage of revenue scale, it will begin to pay more attention to the improvement of the profit ratio.
Castration in some places where perception is not strong is also a natural thing.
Also, as Moonbird said before (choosing to power in the performance track, what does OnePlus think?) After more than a decade of fighting, smart phones have long shifted from the incremental market to the stock market.
At present, the performance and parameters of mobile phones have been spelled to the bottleneck, and consumers pay more attention to the user experience, rather than blindly pursuing parameters.
For a more balanced experience, such as periscope telephoto, mechanical lifting front lens, these showmanship greater than the actual meaning of the hardware will naturally be cut by the manufacturer.
Will folding screens be the future?
Folding can be said to be the hottest keyword in the current technology circle.
After the innovation stagnated, folding screen mobile phones attracted a large number of potential users with a new form, and also became the core strategy of many manufacturers to impact the high-end.
In addition to Apple, Samsung, Huawei, Xiaomi, OPPO, and Honor have all launched their own folding screen products.
And with the maturity of technology, the price of folding screens is becoming more and more affordable, OPPO Find N even the price to less than 8000.
CINNO Research expects global folding screen smartphone sales to exceed 57 million units in 2025.
The folding screen exploded, but there were many problems in front of it.
First of all, there is still room for improvement in key hardware such as AMOLED flexible screens, hinges, and flexible covers.
At present, the creases of most products are still relatively serious, and the durability has yet to be tested.
Secondly, there is still a long way to go in terms of software adaptation, and it is urgent for software developers and terminal manufacturers to create corresponding application scenarios.
—Finally—
"Today, Apple is reinventing the phone."
On January 9, 2007, Jobs appeared at Macworld wearing a issey Miyake's custom black crewneck cardigan, Levi's 501 blue jeans, and New Balance 992 sneakers.
After taking a sip of water, he slowly introduced the original iPhone with this sentence.
Then-Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer sneered: No one would buy such an expensive phone without a keyboard!
But no one expected that this expensive and keyboardless guy had changed the entire industry and unveiled the curtain on the mobile phone intelligence revolution.
Today, fifteen years later, mobile phone manufacturers continue to "roll inside" in a single track, and the homogenization of smart phones is serious and they have lost their former vitality.
As Honor CEO Zhao Ming said:
Folding screen phones give us the opportunity to overtake in curves, proving in entirely new areas that we can do better than Apple.
Whether the folding screen will be the future of mobile phones, no one can say for sure, only time can give us the answer.