Author/ Author of "Finance and Economics" Weekly Wu Di
Editor/ Dong Yuqing
The biggest expectation of mobile phone users, the cheap machine iPhone SE officially ushered in the third generation, or the familiar formula: the shape of the iPhone 8, with the flagship chip of the iPhone 13. The starting price of 3499 yuan is 200 yuan more expensive than the previous generation. Se hasn't changed its taste in six years since its inception. In the matter of fried cold rice, Apple can be said to be the existence of the industry ceiling level. It is hard to imagine, if it is not Apple, for any other manufacturer, the same practice will be what will happen.
The work of fried cold rice
In the early morning of March 9, Beijing time, Apple's spring conference ended hastily. In just 20 minutes, Apple CEO Cook finished the iPad Air fifth generation of the iPhone SE third generation and the cheapest M1 chip device, which was launched by the iPhone 13 series and was very suitable for the current big A shares, as well as the third generation of the iPhone SE and the cheapest M1 chip device. Then there is the "super cup" M1 Ultra chip, so expensive that professionals can't bear to do the Mac Studio high-performance console, it looks like Apple's power work, but it is difficult to resist the protagonist's banner.
The biggest expectation of mobile phone users, the cheap machine iPhone SE officially ushered in the third generation, or the familiar formula: the shape of the iPhone 8, with the flagship chip of the iPhone 13; the starting price of 3499 yuan, 200 yuan more expensive than the previous generation, it seems that it is not as cheap as imagined.
Although the appearance has not been the core selling point of the iPhone SE series, it has not changed for several years, and only Apple can do it. SE hasn't changed its taste in six years since it was born. In the matter of fried cold rice, Apple can be said to be the existence of the industry ceiling level.
It is hard to imagine, if it is not Apple, for any other manufacturer, the same practice will be what will happen.
Apple itself has always wanted to make a breakthrough in the low-end. The first generation of SE performed mediocrely, and the second generation improved. Then to today's third generation, to be honest, it is really difficult to impress people on the product itself, whether it is the screen, battery life, or photography, it lacks enough attraction. Similar configurations can be achieved on domestic Android machines.
For fruit powder users who are still using the old iPhone model and have urgent needs to change the machine, buying a new iPhone SE for use as a transitional model is also a good choice. But for non-fruit powder users, the price of an iPhone SE can actually buy an excellent mid-range Android flagship.
In fact, for the vast majority of iPhone users, the only bright spot of the SE may be the fingerprint unlock. But fingerprint unlocking has always been standard on Android phones.
With precision, today's iPhone SE, you can say it's an entry-level iPhone, or a backup machine. But compared with the SE2 launched two years ago, the SE3 upgrade is lackluster, and the series has become more and more of a "tasteless" existence.
Exactly how the iPhone SE3 looks depends on the long-term market performance. However, an industry analyst told Caijing Weekly that he was not optimistic. "It's easy to give Apple the impression of declining innovation and brand perception."
Since its birth in 2016, the iPhone SE series has been widely questioned as a "fried cold rice work". But in fact, they have also been given different stages of the market mission.
The first generation was pure market experimentation. By the second generation, its significance had risen sharply. In 2019, among the world's top five mobile phone brands, only Apple's shipments declined. Apple pursued a light luxury route in those years, represented by the iPhone X, and the increasingly high pricing was the key reason for the decline in sales at that time. Market pressures have forced Apple to make changes. The iPhone SE2 was launched in this context, as a low-priced, small-screen boutique flagship to explore a differentiated market, to a certain extent to save Apple's sales from fire and water.
The launch of the iPhone SE3 is two years after the release of the previous generation. In the past two years, Huawei has fallen behind, and other domestic mobile phone manufacturers have hit the high-end sentiment, encountering Apple's price cuts. The expectations of domestic brands are higher, and the actual need of Apple is a "price correction".
The high-end flagship market has high profits and strong brand effects, which everyone yearns for. Domestic mobile phones hit the high-end, and Apple directly or indirectly played the role of a blocker.
Now can be said to be Apple's most comfortable time, especially in the Chinese market, high-end models are dominant. According to the data information held by the weekly magazine "Finance and Economics", in the market with a price of more than 8,000 yuan, Apple's share is more than 90%.
The timing of the release of the new iPhone SE can also be said to be coincidental. Before today's Apple conference, domestic manufacturers have finished the flagship card slot battle in the spring of 2022 in advance. Xiaomi, OPPO, vivo, glory, each brand flagship new products have broken the 5,000 yuan mark, straight to the 7,000 yuan gear.
At this time, Apple released a cheap iPhone as promised, and the market intention of continuing to exert pressure was self-evident.
But everything depends on whether the iPhone SE itself is strong enough in the market. After all, consumer preferences are changing all the time, and users don't always eat apples.
(Photo/Visual China)
Take the opportunity to seize the market of domestic brands
In recent years, there are two characteristics of the domestic mobile phone war situation, which are particularly obvious. One is the rotation of the brand, and the other is the high-end of the brand.
Brand rotation is an immediate strategy. Through the rolling of the brand to consolidate the competitive advantage, domestic mobile phone manufacturers have done a relatively successful job. Today's red rice undertakes the positioning of xiaomi in the past. Including Realme, which is independent from OPPO, and iQOO, which is incubated by vivo, they all adopt the form of branch brands, adopt short and fast machine sea tactics, and reproduce high growth against the trend.
And high-end is a long-term proposition. The competition in the high-end market is not cost-effective, but more of the consumer's mind. There are no shortcuts to this road except for the accumulation of generations. The collective rush of domestic brands has brought a very obvious "side effect" - consumers' complaints about the general increase in the price of Android flagship models have increased significantly.
The price of domestic Android flagship mobile phones released this year has risen sharply, and the price has generally increased by about 30%. For example, the HIGHEST PRICE OF OPPO'S NEW ANNUAL FLAGSHIP FIND X5 PRO VERSION RELEASED ON FEBRUARY 27 REACHED 6799 YUAN; THE HONOR MAGIC 4 PRO VERSION RELEASED AT MWC BARCELONA ON FEBRUARY 28 COSTS 1099 EUROS; AND THE MAXIMUM PRICE OF THE RED MAGIC 7 PRO ON MARCH 7 WAS 7499 YUAN.
However, if the mobile phone brand's own image cannot meet the needs of the high-end market, even if there is a market opportunity, it is difficult to seize.
This also leaves a bad impression on many consumers. "Stand up the domestic goods to take advantage of the opportunity to raise prices", a user complained to the "Finance and Economics World" weekly magazine, some companies give people the feeling of fishing in muddy waters and taking advantage of chaos to make a fortune.
Looking at the current mainstream high-end market smartphones, it can be found that they all have "unique features", such as Apple's powerful A-series processors and clean and smooth iOS system, Samsung's high-quality display panels and industry chain advantages. However, most of the domestic mobile phone brands have not yet constituted the so-called "moat".
The four major domestic manufacturers (Honor, Xiaomi, OPPO, vivo) are currently weak in self-developed components, which is the main reason for opening up the gap between them and Apple and Samsung brand recognition. At the same time, domestic Android models are at a long-term disadvantage in value preservation, and the frequent and rapid price reduction of products is very unfavorable to the establishment of a high-end brand image.
Some insiders once told the "Finance world" weekly, "At present, the focus of domestic manufacturers is focused on the imaging system, although they are doing well, but they are fiercely competitive with each other, but there is less differentiation." ”
iOS is An incomparably important differentiator for Apple. Apple's self-developed A series chips, with its high degree of adaptation to its products, strengthen the consistency of the experience. On the one hand, allowing iPhone users to switch to Android phones has natural barriers that many people will not adapt to. On the other hand, iOS has a competitive advantage over Android systems, especially in terms of privacy security and a coherent user experience.
A mobile phone industry source told the "Finance and Economics" weekly that he believes that this year's mobile phone brands should first return to the road of shaping their own brand image, domestic mobile phone brands are walking on the high-end road in a high profile, but how to establish consumer trust and brand preferences, these problems still need to be solved.
"The new iPhone SE is already in Apple's product planning." The person analyzed the "Finance and Economics" weekly, "Why at this time, after two years to launch the third generation, because it hopes to seize the window of domestic brands to rush up and further seize the market." ”
And domestic manufacturers are paying attention to the high-end, "high-end suddenly silted up."
The goal of the new iPhone SE is not only the Chinese market, but also the intention to seize the global share. An industry insider who has done overseas markets said that especially in the European market, two or three thousand yuan is also the core price segment, and Apple's new SE coincides with this price segment.
Apple is actually feeling threatened by domestic brands in Europe. Xiaomi's share in Europe after Huawei's chip crisis has taken off fiercely. Its share of the European market reached 20%, second only to Samsung and Apple, and the gap with Apple was only 3%.
The truth about cheap machines
In the consensus of the industry, the global mobile phone market is in the long-term replacement stage of stock. In simple terms, market growth is mainly dependent on the demand for replacement machines.
A manufacturer executive who left the mobile phone industry believes that the entire mobile phone industry has been in a period of weak innovation. He told Caijing Tianxia Weekly that in recent years, the industry has been at the level of micro-innovation, Apple's volume is particularly large, and its product praise is concentrated on the smooth and stable experience level. This makes it impossible to make a mistake, so even some small innovations will appear too cautious and conservative in practical application.
Apple's conservatism stems from its business considerations. Also out of the greatest commercial interests, Apple has adopted a strategic price reduction when domestic brands have collectively rushed up the price. Apple, which started with innovation, has long been replaced by market strategy in today's homogeneous competitive environment. The latter became apple's engine for growth.
Apple, which has always insisted on taking only the high-end route, now seems to have embarked on a route that tries to cover all aspects. This is the strategy pursued by Samsung, Huawei and other manufacturers, and the products continue to move towards the high-end while not forgetting to take care of low-purchasing power users.
The high-end mobile phone market is beautiful but limited in size. Looking at the entire mobile phone market, each mainstream mobile phone brand covers multiple product lines, and Apple also has a reason to break its original high-end iPhone matrix, SE came into being, and relied on Apple's brand to quickly rise.
Although the first generation of SE did not sell well in China, globally, it still accounted for about 11% of the entire iPhone sales at that time, which can not be regarded as a failure. The real success in the mid-market mining is the iPhone SE2. The iPhone SE2 continued the design of the iPhone 8, and with its people-friendly price, it was sought after the listing at that time, and the sales contribution in the early stage of the sale once reached 25%.
The users who buy the iPhone SE are more old Apple users. For fruit powder users who like small screens and no heavy use habits, iPhone SE is a good option.
The newly released iPhone SE3 is still a continuation of Apple's mid-range products, will not disrupt Apple's high-end product system, and will help to do more consumer group coverage. The above-mentioned mobile phone analyst told the "Finance World" weekly that the launch of the low-cost iPhone is conducive to Apple reaching more consumers. "The profitability of Apple hardware has become less urgent than it used to be. It transforms into an Internet service and requires more users to maintain its iOS system ecosystem. ”
Internet services have become the second biggest driver engine apple bets on. Hardware as the basis for the growth of Apple's service business, reducing the price of apple will help Apple's user base expand, and the continuous expansion of the user pool will further increase its service revenue. The new SE replaces the old iPhone model, which is actually Apple's intention to improve its service consistency.
"Apple's purpose in launching three generations of SE is to further ensure the expansion of the iOS ecosystem." said the analyst.
In fact, the SE series has been facing the question of "inventory clearance". Some mobile phone company executives once told the "Finance World" weekly that Apple's iPhone SE uses the iPhone 8 series design to kill two birds with one stone, which not only caters to a certain market demand, but also cleans up the inventory of accessories such as screens, cameras, and storage.
According to the understanding of the "Finance and Economics" weekly, there are two main ways to consume the inventory of old parts, one is to mix the components on the main model, and the other is like Apple, speculating in the design of the old flagship, and then doing price reduction treatment.
Of course, clearing inventory is only a conjecture in the industry. But it has to be said that in addition to chips, Apple lacks important innovations in appearance and other hardware. Although the A chip has strong performance, Apple has actually lost its leadership in many aspects of other hardware.
This has led to frequent references to "value for money" in information about the iPhone, but this seems to be a bias and misunderstanding. The iPhone SE is the cheapest, but also the least value-preserving Apple phone, the previous generation SE2 sold at 3299 yuan, but quickly fell into the 2000 yuan price segment. The rate of depreciation of the iPhone SE3 can also be expected.
Of course, Apple's successive tests of the low line of brand prices have reflected the lack of innovation behind it. As the world's most valuable technology company, Apple has lost its vitality in pursuit of stability. Nowadays, it is difficult for people to feel incredible about the product itself, except for the occasional incriminating pricing of Apple products.
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