Per reporter: Chen Pengli Per intern reporter: Li Minghui
It has been more than 4 months since it was listed, and the iPhone 13 still seems to be very "fragrant". The latest data released by market research agency CINNO Research shows that by December 2021, the iPhone 13 series has driven Apple's smartphone sales to maintain its no.1 position in the domestic market for the third consecutive month.
After Huawei's absence from the high-end market due to "lack of core", Apple "ate enough". A few days ago, the "High-end Mobile Phone Consumer Survey Report" released by Huichen, a joint research agency of the Daily Economic News, showed that in the past year, nearly 40% of new fruit powder users flowed from huawei brands to Apple. The dilemma encountered by Huawei chips may be the main reason why some Huawei users have turned to the Apple camp.
The data shows that in 2020, in the domestic high-end smartphone market of more than 5,000 yuan, Apple's sales market share is 48%, and Huawei's is 32%. In the high-end mobile phone market, Huawei is a strong competitor to Apple, gradually eroding the latter's market share. In the world's high-end mobile phones, Huawei has also joined the first-line camp, and has been able to compete with apple and Samsung.
But after Huawei, who is the next company to challenge Apple? Who can take back the Huawei high-end machine market that was snatched away by Apple? In fact, after Huawei's "lack of core", domestic mobile phone manufacturers are also aiming at the high-end market, catching up, and they all want to compete for the market vacated by Huawei. Recently, Xiaomi and Glory have shouted out the slogan of "benchmarking Apple"; realme has clearly wanted to impact the high-end market; OPPO and vivo have also been silently borrowing self-developed chips to exert power...
When will the "counterattack" of domestic manufacturers pry the market pattern of high-end mobile phones?
Apple's sales have continuously topped the sales list
Around the Spring Festival in the Year of the Tiger is the peak season for mobile phone sales. On January 22, a reporter from the Daily Economic News came to the Apple Experience Store in Xidan Joy City, Beijing, and many consumers lined up outside the store to wait. The staff of the Apple store told reporters that it takes some time for the iPhone 13 series to be booked on Apple's official website, but the store has stock, and it is necessary to queue up to enter if you want to experience or buy.
On the evening of January 22, many consumers lined up outside the Apple Experience Store in Xidan Joy City, Beijing
Image source: Photo by li Minghui, a trainee journalist
After the Spring Festival, on the morning of February 7, the reporter came to Apple's Guangzhou Tianhuan Plaza store, although this is the first day of rework after the holiday, and it is during working hours, many consumers have gathered in the Apple store. The "Daily Economic News" reporter learned on the spot that most of these consumers have clear goals, and many people directly took away iPhone 13, MacBook Air, iPad and other products on the spot. The shopping guide in the store told reporters that they did not take a holiday during the Spring Festival, "every day many people come." ”
In addition, some consumers came to consult about the "old for new" activity on the same day. Although there is no long queue at the entrance of the Apple store, consumers who have not made a reservation will still need to wait in line in the store if they want to order and take the product directly in the store.
According to CINNO Research statistics, from October to December 2021, iPhone 13 ranked first in domestic stand-alone sales with sales of about 2.67 million units, 2.72 million units and 2.04 million units, respectively. From October to December, Apple led the Chinese market with total monthly sales of 6.5 million units, 6.7 million units and 5.2 million units, respectively. In the fourth quarter of 2021, Apple became the only brand in the Chinese market with positive sales growth, with a 96.5% increase in the previous quarter and a year-on-year increase of 35.7%.
On January 28, Apple released the latest data showing that total revenue for the first fiscal quarter of fiscal 2022 was $123.9 billion, an increase of 11% year-on-year; net profit was $34.63 billion, up 20% year-on-year. It is understood that this fiscal quarter is the full fiscal quarter for the listing and sale of the iPhone 13. On January 3 this year, Apple's stock price soared, rising to an all-time high of $182.88 per share in trading, becoming the only company in the world with a market capitalization of more than $3 trillion.
According to the latest data from counterpoint, a third-party market research firm, apple became The largest smartphone supplier in China with a market share of 23%, which is the first time that Apple has topped the Chinese mobile phone market since 2015.
Why did consumers choose Apple?
A few days ago, Huichen, a joint research agency of the Daily Economic News, conducted a survey of users who have purchased Apple mobile phones in the past year. A total of 13,873 questionnaires were released in this survey, 12,821 questionnaires were recovered, and 1,000 valid questionnaires were recovered.
The survey report shows that although the iPhone 13 battery life has not improved much and the signal stability, this has not hindered the hot sale of the model, and Apple's market share in high-end smartphones has continued to expand. Last year, nearly 60% of the new "fruit powder" came from Huawei and Xiaomi users.
Image source: Screenshot of the High-end Mobile Phone Consumer Survey Report
The survey results also show that the core advantages of the iPhone in the operating system and brand power are an important reason why domestic high-end brands are difficult to match, and it coincides with Huawei's difficulties due to market reasons, and many high-end mobile phone users have invested in Apple.
Apple's closed iOS operating system is the first driving force and the primary reason for new users to buy or try out iPhones: 42.4% of respondents believe that the iPhone is smooth; 23.4% of the respondents believe that the iOS system is simple to operate.
In this way, after Huawei's "absence", Apple has gained a lot. But will there be no brave men after Huawei? Next, who can carry the banner of the domestic high-end mobile phone market?
With what does Huawei squeeze into the high-end camp?
The reporter learned that among domestic manufacturers, only Huawei has been among the first-line camp of high-end mobile phones in the world, competing with apple and Samsung.
What enlightenment can the development process of Huawei mobile phones bring to domestic mobile phones?
On December 3, 2010, Ren Zhengfei organized a symposium for key terminal employees. At this symposium, Ren Zhengfei said that Huawei's terminal is actually forced to get on the horse, and if it is not a terminal, Huawei's 3G system cannot be sold. "How to go about Huawei's terminal business next" became the core of the whole symposium.
Before 2010, Huawei's mobile phones were still concentrated in the low-end market, and with the help of joint customization with operators, Huawei's mobile phone business was done. However, low-end customization does not make money, and Ren Zhengfei wants to reverse this situation, "We are now going to start making brands." After making it clear that he wanted to make a boutique mobile phone, Ren Zhengfei transferred Yu Chengdong back from Europe, and Bruce Lee was also recalled to Shanghai. That year, the long table was filled with more than a dozen competing flagship models, and the scene of Yu Chengdong and the team's hot discussion was staged in the Huawei conference room every day.
In April 2012, the Huawei P1 was finally born. Yu Chengdong said passionately at the P1 press conference: "Today is a very important moment, it is the first time in the history of Huawei terminals to do high-end mobile phones. "However, the market soon poured a plate of cold water. P1 gave a high price of 2999 yuan, but consumers' cognition of Huawei mobile phones is still in the stage of "doing broadband mobile phones". In the following year, Huawei's many high-end machines have hit a wall one after another.
Image source: Photo by reporter Zhu Wanping
The P series was frustrated, and the Mate series began to be conceived. In 2013, the positioning of the first generation of Mate within Huawei was still "a product that can support the family", and the P series did not really achieve a sales breakthrough until P6 (released in 2013). At that time, Huawei P6 achieved the world's thinnest fuselage, front 5 million pixel beauty selfie, rear 8 million pixel 4 cm macro shooting. Years later, Wang Yonggang, product manager of Huawei's P-series flagship machine, said when recalling the P6: "No one dares to do, no one dares to challenge things, Huawei has done it all." In the end, the P6 became a landmark product, allowing the P Series to "live".
The development of Huawei's Mate series is not smooth sailing. Although Mate1 plays a selling point of "super endurance and large screen", the product just can't sell. The Mate series went all the way to the Mate7 before it ushered in a sales explosion.
After several generations of product changes, Huawei has formed a product line where the P series and the Mate series go hand in hand, of which the P series focuses on fashion and high-end, and the Mate series focuses on business high-end. The technical iteration of the P series focuses on appearance ID and photography, and the genes of the Mate series are large screens and strong endurance. The "Daily Economic News" reporter learned that the P20 series released by Huawei in 2018 made Huawei stable in the high-end smartphone market. In the same year, the Mate20 series further consolidated Huawei's high-end brand image.
In 2018, Huawei successfully achieved the second largest sales volume in the world, surpassing Apple's mobile phones. Counterpoint data shows that in the first quarter of 2019, in the price range of $600 to $800 (about 4100 yuan to 5500 yuan), Huawei's market share reached 48%, surpassing Apple to become the first in the market for the first time in this price range. According to IDC statistics, in the first half of 2020, in the domestic price segment of more than 600 US dollars in the mobile phone market share ranking, Huawei and Apple two brands occupy nearly 90% of the market, Huawei with a 0.1% advantage ahead of Apple, ranking first.
From the price point of view, in 2012, Huawei P1 price is 2999 yuan, by 2021, the starting price of the P50 series is 4488 yuan; in 2013, the starting price of the Mate7 is 2999 yuan, and by 2020, the price of the Mate40 series is already 4999 yuan. In the same period in 2012, the iPhone 5 was priced at 5288 yuan, and in 2020, the starting price of the iPhone 13 was 5999 yuan.
Image source: Visual China
Huawei's SoC chip capability is its core weapon to impact the high end. From 2014 to 2020, Kirin updated 8 flagship series SoCs. The Kirin 920 chip that truly makes the HiSilicon mobile phone processor mature, and the research and development expenditure alone is as high as 200 million US dollars. But unfortunately, Huawei's flagship SoC drew a "rest" after the Kirin 9000.
Talent is also a key factor in the high-end transformation of Huawei mobile phones. In 2012, Huawei's mobile phones recruited 5,000 R&D personnel. From 2010 to 2020, Huawei's cumulative R&D investment reached about 726.6 billion yuan.
Wu Yiwen, a terminal analyst at Strategy Analytics, said in an interview with the Daily Economic News reporter that Huawei can stabilize the high-end camp and has three strong supports. The first is the self-developed chip, which creates uniqueness and cost advantages for the product; second, the industry-leading imaging function, which is a major foundation of Huawei's differentiated competition; in addition, it is long-term brand investment and accumulation to help strengthen user recognition and stickiness. Liu Yushi, senior analyst at CINNO Research, said that the reason why Huawei mobile phones can complete high-end transformation is to rely on its advantages in communication technology and HiSilicon's strong chip design capabilities, and it can also use the Hongmeng ecosystem to maintain business survival after encountering setbacks.
At present, there is a lack of alternative domestic high-end machines
According to media reports, due to the hot sales of Apple's iPhone 13, the largest assembly plant, Hon Hai Group, was full of orders and released a large recruitment plan before the end of the New Year holiday. According to the public account of Zhengzhou Foxconn iDPBG Business Group, the factory has launched the spring recruitment since February 4, and increased the recommended bonus, from the original 6,000 yuan to 8,000 yuan from February 6, an increase of more than 33%, hoping to attract more production line personnel to join through the high bonus, rush shipments, to cope with the strong market demand.
Apple Guangzhou Tianhuan Plaza store Image source: Per the reporter Chen Pengli photo
From this point of view, Apple is now difficult to meet in the high-end mobile phone market. According to CINNO Research data, affected by the sanctions incident, Huawei's share of the high-end smart phone market of more than 5,000 yuan fell from 32% to 18% in 2021.
Huawei's "absence" has also led to the reshaping of the domestic smartphone market pattern. In the low-end market of 1,000 yuan to 3,000 yuan, OPPO/vivo seized the share of the original Huawei. But in the high-end market of more than 5,000 yuan, Apple's share has increased significantly from 48% in 2020 to 75%. The implication is that in addition to Apple, domestic manufacturers are currently unable to catch the high-end flagship market vacated by Huawei.
Liu Yushi told the "Daily Economic News" reporter that part of the low-end market that Huawei withdrew from was re-obtained by the glory after independence, and the other part was divided by OPPO, vivo and xiaomi.
According to the research report launched by the Daily Economic News and Huichen, Huawei can only attract 20% of Apple's new users to choose Huawei in the future under the current market conditions, and after the ban is lifted, it may grow to 50%, but 40% of the original Huawei users still said that they will choose Apple in the future after experiencing the iPhone. This means that although Huawei can be on an equal footing with Apple in terms of users' future purchase intentions, it may not be able to win back all old users.
According to the questionnaire results, 30.6% of the respondents believe that there is a gap between Huawei's performance and Apple's, and 29.5% of the respondents believe that compared with Apple, some functions of Huawei's mobile phones cannot meet the needs of users. In addition, the original Huawei users are more sensitive to the operating system, brand effect, and cost performance, and many respondents believe that there is a certain gap between these aspects and Apple. It is worth noting that in the eyes of these users, the chip reason is only one of the many reasons why Huawei has lost users.
Samsung folding screen mobile phone Image source: Daily Economic News Infographic
However, looking ahead to 2022, the high-end market may change. Liu Yushi told the "Daily Economic News" reporter, "In the high-end market, the folding screen products of domestic brands and the high-profile return of Samsung will also compete for market share, and it will be difficult for Apple to maintain the trend of sales first for a long time." ”
When will domestic mobile phones be able to leverage the high-end market pattern?
In early 2016, Li Yuan (pseudonym) and several college classmates took a green-skinned train to Jilin to attend a wedding. From south to north, trains need to pass through countless tunnels. "When we crossed the tunnel, all of our mobile phones had no signal and no network, but Wang Peng's mobile phone had a signal, and the signal was very good."
At the end of November 2015, Huawei released the annual flagship model Mate8, and as soon as the new machine was launched, Wang Peng bought one. "The strong signal and the fingerprint recognition on the back of the lock looked quite fresh at the time." Li Yuan said. Shortly after returning from Jilin, Li Yuan did not hesitate to choose the Huawei Mate8 when changing mobile phones. "Anyway, someone has eaten crab, and he thinks the crab tastes ok."
However, in 2018, Li Yuan turned from the Android mobile phone camp to Apple. "One of the things I don't like about Android phones the most is that after using them for a long time, the phone will be very stuck, and the memory will be full and it will not be cleaned up."
The "High-end Mobile Phone Consumer Survey Report" released by the Daily Economic News and Huichen also shows that in the minds of users, smoothness/non-caton and a sense of technology are the most important image factors that high-end mobile phone brands should have. Among the functional factors, 52.8% of the respondents believe that "operating system friendly (easy to use)" is what high-end mobile phones should achieve.
The report shows that the biggest expectation of users for domestic high-end is "smooth / not stuck", in addition, system stability, privacy and security, reduced advertising, fashion are also the core demands of the surveyed users. A new Apple user in Shanghai said that his expectation for domestic high-end machines is that "high-end mobile phones are more optimized in terms of configuration and operating system, smooth and non-stuttering, and strong battery life." Another Beijing fruit fan admitted that he hopes that domestic mobile phones pay attention to details and improve the fluency of the system." Reduce bugs (defects, vulnerabilities), do not just pile up materials, high-end machines lack is not cost-effective. ”
"At present, there is no brand in the Chinese market that can become a direct competitor of Apple." In January this year, Xu Qi, vice president of realme and president of China, told the Daily Economic News reporter.
In the past two years, domestic manufacturers have attacked the high-end in unison under the "inner volume" of the mobile phone industry. Entering 2021, many manufacturers are shouting the slogan of "benchmarking Apple" and ambitiously want to seize Huawei's vacated high-end market share.
On December 28, 2021, Lei Jun announced at the Xiaomi Mi 12 conference that he would "officially benchmark Apple and learn from Apple"; in January this year, Honor released the first folding screen Honor Magic V. Glory related people clearly told the "Daily Economic News" reporter, "It is a product that breaks through the ceiling of Glory's conquest of the high-end market, and the Glory Magic series positioned as a high-end flagship is to take Apple as a competitor"; "From our innovative technical capabilities in folding screen products, it is proved that we have the strength to compete with the strongest players in the global market." ”
At the beginning of January, realme also announced that it would sprint to the high-end smartphone market, and use its determination to re-start a business and invest 70% of the company's research and development expenses in the future for high-end technology research and development.
OPPO and vivo are launching an impact on the high-end market through self-developed chips. OPPO previously released Mariana MariSiliconX, which is positioned as an independent NPU (neural network processor), and Vivo also released its first self-developed image chip V1.
According to CINNO Research data, in November 2021, Apple accounted for 85.6% of the sales of models with more than 5,000 yuan in the Chinese mainland market, Huawei accounted for 7.9%, and other brands accounted for 6.5% in total. In the same period of 2020, this data is 60.6% for Apple, 31.1% for Huawei, and 8.3% for the others. From this point of view, other manufacturers still have more room for improvement in the high-end flagship market.
Liu Yushi said frankly that in recent years, domestic manufacturers have chosen self-developed image processing chips to increase the upper limit of products, which is a good start. Domestic brands have done a good job in imaging, but in addition to imaging, there are still many bottlenecks restricting them from exploring the high-end market. In addition to Apple, Samsung and Huawei, other mobile phone manufacturers are subject to the parameter restrictions of individual large suppliers in terms of the most critical SoCs and operating systems, making it difficult to catch up with the giants. "Huawei's experience also shows that it is not safe to only master chip design capabilities and not chip manufacturing capabilities."
She also mentioned that although domestic manufacturers can do some articles from brand marketing in the short term, to really stand at the high end, they still need excellent product strength, which depends on independent hardware to achieve independent software, so as to create an independent experience. "The advantage of domestic brands is mainly to be closer to consumers, to be able to perceive the new needs of the terminal market in a timely manner, and fast charging is a better case."
Wu Yiwen believes that domestic manufacturers are actually learning from Huawei's high-end road, "We see their determination on self-developed chips, their strength in imaging systems, and their investment in brand marketing." The current dilemma is mainly that self-developed chips and brand building need the accumulation of time, and everyone's competition in the imaging system has reduced the effect of differentiated competition. ”
Glory related people in an interview with the "Daily Economic News" reporter analyzed that under China's Internet ecology, Glory has the opportunity to create an experience beyond Apple, bringing revolutionary breakthroughs in imagery, performance, system, privacy and security. "In 2022, Honor will accelerate its international journey, overseas markets will usher in rapid development, and we will also release Honor's high-end flagship mobile phones around the world."
The above-mentioned person revealed that "the high-end market of smart phones is the smelting furnace of scientific and technological innovation, only by continuous innovation can we reach the top of the high-end, and only by speaking with product power can we truly break through." The biggest boost to the high end is always the recognition of consumers. ”
He said that the competition between scientific and technological innovation and industrial brands must be a long-term scientific and technological research, and Glory does not pay attention to short-term market share and pattern, but to be the last person to laugh. Apple is currently the number one brand on mobile phones. Everyone's recognition of Apple's technology and experience is what glory the entire company should pay attention to. In the future, Honor will continue to play Honor's technical advantages in software systems, AI, imaging, etc., and bring consumers the excellent experience that high-end machines should have.
In August 2021, Hu Baishan, executive vice president of Vivo, said in an interview with the media that in the future, the most critical thing for mobile phone brands to stand out in the competition is user research and user insight, and secondly, the entire innovative research and development system based on user insight and user research is also the key. "These two links have the ability to rise, and I believe that (vivo) can compete with any opponent in the high-end market in the future, but it may take a little time."
Wu Yiwen told reporters that in the domestic high-end market and Apple competition, the pressure on domestic manufacturers is relatively large. First of all, the iPhone 13 product itself is competitively priced. In the context of rising component costs and domestic manufacturers constantly impacting higher price segments, the price of new iPhones has decreased compared with last year. The price-performance ratio has been effectively improved. Secondly, for a long time, Apple's brand accumulation in the high-end market is deep and has appeal. "But what cannot be ignored is that there are users in the market who have significant preferences for the Android operating system and greater requirements for the configuration and innovation of hardware." For this part of the user, the high-end models of domestic Android manufacturers have advantages. ”
Reporter's note| domestic machine and Apple positive "just" to persuade consumers that it takes time and patience
2021 is an extraordinary year, especially for the Chinese mobile phone market.
Huawei's "absence" and Apple's "fullness", although some jokes, are not false at all. In the past year, the "black technology" of major domestic mobile phone manufacturers has frequently appeared, but the performance of the high-end market is not satisfactory.
In the final analysis, domestic high-end machines cannot fully convince consumers at present. For consumers, in addition to having a certain sense of technology, high-end machines must run smoothly and do not cater. At this point, Apple, which has an independent operating system, is not easy to "use more and more cards", and is more favored by consumers.
But that doesn't mean iOS is a comprehensive leader for Android. For example, in terms of fast charging, signal, etc., the performance of Android mobile phones is significantly better than apple. In addition, the layout of the Android platform division of labor and cooperation also means that products and technologies have more room for development, and there are more variables in the future, which is also the advantage of domestic mobile phones impacting high-end.
In recent years, major domestic manufacturers have paid more and more attention to technological upgrading, and they have "thrown money" in research and development. In 2019, vivo said that R & D investment increased to 10 billion yuan, OPPO said that in the next three years will take out 50 billion yuan as a research and development budget; in 2021, the former chairman of Glory said that he would invest 1 billion US dollars in research and development that year, and then Lei Jun said that the next five years of R & D investment will exceed 100 billion yuan.
As consumers, we hope to see national brands can support the high-end arena, but we should also be soberly aware that the cultivation of any high-end brand takes time. On the road to shouldering the backbone of the nation, as for whether it is "big fire stir-frying" or "small fire slow stew", in fact, it does not matter, it can be done with one heart.
Reporter: Chen Pengli Intern reporter: Li Minghui
Editor: Wei Guanhong
Video: Zhu Yu
Vision: Handsome Lingxi
Typography: Wei Guanhong Ma Yuan
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