After the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, many Western mobile phone suppliers have sanctioned them, and Chinese mobile phones have instantly become "fragrant food".
How popular are Chinese mobile phones in Russia? Russia's "Kommers" said that even the low-end models are all sold out, and Chinese suppliers are overwhelmed, and it is expected that they will initially resume supply in April.
At present, millet mobile phones can not be bought in Russia, because at the end of last year, the millet models that adapt to the local network were all sold out, and to what extent was the millet mobile phone out of stock? According to the country's mobile operator MTS, the growth data of Xiaomi mobile phones has not been counted, because it was snapped up by the local people as soon as it was listed.
In the Russian mobile phone market, foreign manufacturers are originally more popular than local manufacturers, and the share of non-local brands of mobile phones is as high as 90%. South Korea's Samsung and the United States' Apple originally dominated the list for a long time with a share of 30% and 15% respectively, but as the two countries have proposed sanctions against Russia, Chinese brands have quickly seized the opportunity.
With its super high cost performance, Xiaomi has also beaten Samsung to win the first place before, and now the first place position can be said to be sitting firmly. The mobile phones produced are simply not enough to sell, and even some low-end inventory models have been snapped up, which is something that has never been done in Russian history.
Of course, in addition to Xiaomi's inventory in Russia, Chinese brands such as Huawei, OPPO, vvivo, and ZTE have also become tight due to the doubling of sales.
After Samsung and Apple withdrew from the Russian market, how hot are Chinese mobile phones in Russia? Huawei's sales soared 300%, and other manufacturers complained that they simply did not sell enough.
According to the data released by Russian mobile operators in the first two weeks of March, Huawei's mobile phone sales in Russia have soared continuously, the increase has reached 300%, VIVO, OPPO, the two brands, in the local increase of more than 200%, even ZTE has achieved a double surge.
Previously, the Chinese brand dominated by Russia has always been Xiaomi, Huawei, ZTE and OPPO, VIVO and other market share is not high, only ZTE barely reached 1%, but now, they have opened their own markets in Russia, pouring into thousands of households in Russia, for Chinese mobile phone manufacturers, this is an excellent opportunity.
The retail data of the Russian marketing department shows that the Russian people prefer low-end models, and only red rice accounts for 12% of the share, and now that the inventory of major manufacturers is sold out or the supply is insufficient, some miscellaneous brands of elderly machines produced in China are also quite popular with local consumers.
Considering the consumption habits of Russians on mobile phone brands, if their domestic manufacturers want to compete with China in the short term, I am afraid it is still a rather difficult thing, in the "short supply" market environment, whether Chinese mobile phone manufacturers will take the opportunity to rise a wave of prices, which is really very likely.
In fact, the data of the first two weeks of March has shown that the prices of major brands in the Russian mobile phone market have generally risen, which is not a "robbery" by Chinese suppliers, after all, it is the market law that dominates prices.
How popular are Chinese mobile phones in Russia? After the sale of out of stock, the price generally rose, or will continue for a considerable period of time, in 2021, all the brands of Chinese smartphones combined, barely occupy about 40% of Russia's share, of which millet is more than 25%. After the launch of Samsung and Apple, there was a gap of nearly 40% in the local area, which is a great test for Chinese mobile phone manufacturers.
Whether our mobile phone brand can eat up about 80% of the Russian market at once depends on how domestic suppliers plan.
However, at present, China's major manufacturers are obviously "more than enough and insufficient", Xiaomi has been out of stock for a long time, and Huawei, ZTE, VIVO and other brands are also quite under pressure, and there have been different degrees of tension in supply.
But this is just the beginning, if Chinese brands want to fill the gap left by Apple and Samsung, they need a stronger supply capacity than now. Now that the Russian mobile phone industry has entered the "seller's market", price growth is inevitable, unless their domestic manufacturers also come to seize the share, otherwise this growth will continue.
It is almost unlikely that local Russian brands will suddenly exert their strength, and their heavy industry is indeed relatively developed, but it is very backward in light industry and electronics manufacturing. It can even be said that the light industrial products needed by the Russian people are actually as dependent on foreign countries as Mongolia. The streets are full of Korean and Japanese cars, and the mobile phones held by ordinary people are mainly foreign brands such as Samsung and Apple.
The stereotype of the market for a long time has made Russia's ability to develop mobile phones close to "paralyzed", and they cannot fill the huge market gap in a short period of time. Another point is that the cost of building signal towers in sparsely populated Russia is too high, which is also a big problem for its domestic operators. As far as the current situation is concerned, the rapid influx of Chinese mobile phones into the Russian market is an irresistible trend.
However, the mainland mobile phone suppliers are a little worried, after all, our chips are still dominated by the United States, whether it can break the game there is still a considerable question mark, not long ago, Musk announced the "Starlink Plan", the largest market targeted is Russia.
Now that the world pattern has undergone earth-shaking changes, whether our country can seize the opportunity is an unknown, after all, if a large number of people and material resources are invested in Russia, if the situation changes, it will be "a bamboo basket to hit the water".
Not only our suppliers think this way, but so do mobile phone retailers in Russia. Many small and medium-sized retailers do not consider buying from Chinese manufacturers at all, relying on existing inventory for sales.
The reason is that the current ruble exchange rate is very uncertain, and it is difficult to say whether it will become a blank piece of paper at that time, and this situation has further caused the situation of "short supply" in the Russian mobile phone market, and it is quite difficult to break the situation at once.
Chinese mobile phones in Russia hot sales, behind which naturally contains huge opportunities, but also lurking no small crisis and challenges, how the mainland's mobile phone suppliers choose to deal with, it depends on their strategy and decision-making, but as far as the current situation is concerned, this wave of mobile phone hot sales will continue for a period of time, in the reality of increasingly tight inventory, the price rise is inevitable.
The fire of Chinese mobile phones in Russia is a good thing for both China and Russia, but now that it is undecided, everything can only be considered in the long run.