Two or three years ago, some people asked when the 5G era would come, but no one expected it to be so fast. At present, the coverage of 5G networks has been basically completed in China. The domestic mainstream mobile phone brands have also completed the transformation of products, and their mobile phones have been converted from 4G to 5G. If there are no special circumstances, many people will definitely start 5G models when buying new models. However, an interesting phenomenon appeared in a data released by Counterpoint, and there are still a large number of consumers who have purchased 4G mobile phones in 2021. The 4G phone I'm referring to is the iPhone 11 from Apple.
As the chart below shows, the iPhone 11 ranks fifth among the 10 best-selling smartphones in the world in 2021, behind the iPhone 12 Pro. And you know, this is a model released in 2019. What's more, it doesn't support 5G. At the moment when 5G mobile phones are everywhere, it seems out of place. It is said that it is already the 5G era, why do so many people still buy this 4G model?
Personally, I think that for consumers, the current 5G only improves the speed of mobile phones, and there is not much change in other aspects, and 4G is enough to use. In addition, taking China as an example, the cost of 5G packages is not cheap, and the relatively high price hinders consumers' idea of upgrading 5G packages to a certain extent. More importantly, 5G also drags down the battery life of the phone. As we all know, 5G consumes more power than 4G. In order to extend the use of mobile phones, some users often turn off the 5G switch.
In addition, in addition to the iPhone 11 that many people started, the Samsung Galaxy A12, Redmi 9A, and Redmi 9 in the chart are also 4G mobile phones. Overall, there are not a few people who buy 4G mobile phones today.