Xiaomi founder Lei Jun recently launched a "Which Xiaomi phone do you like the most?" on Weibo. " of the investigation. The results show that Xiaomi 6 released 5 years ago ranked first with an overwhelming vote rate of more than 45%, and there were many calls for Xiaomi to reproduce this classic "nail household" model in the comments of fans.
This is a phenomenon worth observing: on the one hand, everyone has criticized the mobile phone industry for its serious homogenization and lack of product innovation; on the other hand, many users hope to continue the tradition and return to the classic. Two seemingly incompatible groups are coexisting and symbiotic in the current mobile phone market in a subtle form. Under the impetus of this demand, a number of models with a strong "reproduction" flavor came into being.
The "initiator" is still Apple
In the current iPhone product system, the iPhone SE series is almost born to reproduce the classic. For example, the first generation of the iPhone SE adopted the classic design of the iPhone 5S, and upgraded the configuration of the processor and camera on its basis, so that this product won the reputation of "small steel cannon" at that time.
In the latest iPhone SE three generations, Apple has played this "fork" approach to the extreme: the new generation of iPhone SE can basically be seen as only replacing the processor, and other aspects are almost indistinguishable from the configuration and experience of the iPhone SE ii or even the iPhone 8 era.
There are actually many examples of manufacturers outside apple reproducing classics, including the Xiaomi 10S launched by Xiaomi last year, which is actually a product based on the design of the Xiaomi 10 Extreme Commemorative Edition and integrated into a large number of classic configurations and schemes of the Xiaomi 10 series.
The Redmi K40S launched this year can be seen as the "micro-update" of last year's Redmi classic "god machine" - K40. Compared with K40, its main upgrade point is to replace the design of the K50 series, and at the same time, it has made some enhancements in three aspects: heat dissipation, OIS and fast charging, and there is no difference other than that.
Since this year, the number of such replica machines is gradually increasing. In addition to the above models, the Black Shark 5 RS and Redmi 10A released some time ago, and even a large number of low-end models and Huawei preferred models released by Huawei in the past year or so, more or less can see this fork of the product idea.
Judging from the market feedback, these models have performed quite well in terms of sales. It can be basically concluded that after tasting the sweetness, there will be more manufacturers to imitate and learn from this product idea, and a large number of "fork machines" of various natures may be on the way.
The inevitability of high maturity
Why are these classic replicas?
In a sense, the emergence of these "replica models" is the inevitable result of the high maturity of the mobile phone market. Carefully combing the product characteristics and selling points of these replica models, we can see that they are basically based on mature classic models that have experienced market and consumer inspection, making the integration of basic configuration solutions, and at the same time upgrading and updating some key points according to the needs of the current market, combined with the software and hardware costs of the mobile phone itself.
This requires the prototype itself to be sufficiently balanced and stable in terms of configuration and experience. At least some of the key performance and experience planes won't go too far for a long period of time. With a relatively strong basic configuration plan as a guarantee, follow-up manufacturers do not need to push the entire program back and forth when upgrading, but only need to supplement and strengthen some of the original deficiencies according to the early feedback of the market.
Looking at the time node of 2022, it can be found that these models do have their own soil. Because in order to catch up with the "first batch of Snapdragon 8" listing cycle, the relevant upgrade strategies and configuration schemes of various models currently released are relatively conservative, and because many manufacturers are currently focusing on a large upgrade in the middle of the year or even the second half of the year, the spring new products in order to take into account the market positioning and cost, there are some continuation or even retrogressive measures in the configuration plan.
More critically, the various problems in the power consumption and performance of flagship models in the past two years have also reduced consumer enthusiasm for chasing the first flagship chip models. Didn't there be a hot search two days ago? Today's young people have to change their mobile phones only once every three or four years. At this stage, some newly listed models lack enough competitiveness, and in order to "impact the high-end", they are more and more expensive, but they are not as cost-effective as some classic models.
Since there is such a market demand, mobile phone manufacturers are even more willing to launch such models. After all, for them, the more mature classic solution market is less risky, the cost is lower, and the profit margin is higher.
However, among these classic models, the exception is Apple. As we mentioned earlier, the overall prototype of the iPhone SE is basically the iPhone 8 in 2017. Even on the latest generation, Apple has not made major changes to its configuration scheme.
There are two main reasons why Apple can do this: First, the advantages of the newly upgraded A15 processor are too obvious, and only the processor can make up for the performance difference of the iPhone SE.
Another reason is that Apple itself has a strong brand appeal. Especially in the global market (Chinese mainland iPhone SE shipments accounted for only 8%), the iPhone SE from $400 can still rely on the mid-end consumer market, and the carrier channel can obtain enough shipment share. So even if the main configuration is still stuck in the replica of a few years ago, the iPhone SE Snapdragon is quite impressive in terms of global scope.
Can't blindly pursue "classic reproduction"
In summary of these reasons, in fact, it can also be seen that although the demand for rice noodles is very high, it is unlikely that Xiaomi will take the model of Xiaomi 6. Because from the perspective of the "prototype", the basic configuration of the Xiaomi Mi 6 is really too old, and the reproduction is almost equivalent to redesigning the inside and outside of the phone. In this way, the cost advantage behind the forklift is completely lost, and the original intention of the replica model is also deviated.
On another level, Xiaomi cannot simply "change the core" of the Xiaomi 6 like Apple and then re-list it. After all, most people in today's Android mobile phone market may find it difficult to return to the era of front fingerprint recognition, 5-inch non-full screen, and dual camera. Even if there is, it is a very small minority.
This is also why most of the current Android camp 'replicas' models are based on flagship models from the previous year or so. The Xiaomi Mi 6 released 5 years ago is too old for Xiaomi. It can only be a "tribute" in design, and it is impossible to "be reborn".
Back to the question of purchase, are these classic replica phones worth buying?
My answer is: not worth it.
As summarized earlier, the biggest advantage of the forklift machine is that the experience is balanced, and at the same time has a high product cost performance. However, it should be noted that the "cost performance" of any mobile phone is actually relative and floating.
Most of the market prices of such models are the basic price of the previous generation of prototypes. But in fact, if you consider that the previous generation of models after more than a year on the market, the price in many channels has actually been greatly adjusted.
Even models such as the Redmi K40, which do not have much room for price reduction, can be sold at 1500 yuan or even lower in many channels at present. In this way, the successor K40S has a spread of more than 300 yuan. If you change to some other models, the price difference may be even greater.
Considering the profit margins of these subsequent models, it is not difficult to judge that these replica models will have a wave of price adjustments after they are listed. If you encounter some shopping seasons, the superposition of policies such as platform subsidies and concessions may be the most cost-effective time to start. In this way, the original price to buy these replica models, but it seems that there is no cost performance.
My advice is that if you're really interested in choosing this type of replica, you might as well wait a bit.
In fact, this also provides some new ideas for mobile phone manufacturers when doing these replica models - not blindly pursuing "classic reproduction", but to focus on making up for and strengthening the original organic experience according to the feedback of the market and consumers. Otherwise, on the basis of the original, some small updates that are not painful and itchy may make consumers think that "it is better to buy the old model".
In this way, the reproduction of the classic has no value in existence.