On April 11, 2022, Vivo held a new product launch conference and launched new products such as the folding screen flagship X Fold, the large-screen flagship X Note and the vivo Pad.
Since X Fold is vivo's first folding screen flagship, presumably many people's attention is attracted by this product. However, if we look at vivo's conference on April 11 as a whole, we can find that although this conference released very different products, it has a main line, that is, "big screen".
vivo X Note
Needless to say, the vivo Pad has reached an 11-inch screen size, and the X Fold's inner screen and X Note's screen size have also reached 8 inches and 7 inches, respectively.
X Note is the most representative of these, because by early 2022, the smartphone industry rarely sees a "giant screen" flagship phone larger than 6.7 inches. From the perspective of the industry, the "giant screen" mobile phones currently on sale are only a few products represented by the Honor X30 Max, and these products are only positioned in the middle range. So why does vivo still bring the X Note with a screen size of 7 inches to the market at the moment of releasing folding screens and tablets?
Large-screen mobile phones are the basic driving force for the evolution of the mobile phone industry
In a sense, the pioneer of the smartphone era is a "super large screen" product. On January 9, 2007, on Macworld, Jobs released the first generation of the iPhone. The product has a 3.5-inch screen with HVGA level (480×320 pixels) resolution. Once it was listed, it triggered a rush to buy, and some media even called it "God's mobile phone".
Image source: Apple
This is largely due to the fact that the first iPhones had a huge screen and could present more shocking content. According to media statistics, in 2007, the average size of mobile phone screens was 2.3 inches. Take nokia N95, the flagship of the popular product of that year, as an example, its screen size is only 2.8 inches, which is about 20% smaller than the first generation of iPhones.
However, due to Jobs's personality, the screen size of the iPhone did not improve much in the following years. It wasn't until Samsung suddenly released the Note series that it once again broadened the upper limit of smartphone screens.
The original Galaxy Note (Source: Samsung)
At the IFA in October 2011, Samsung launched the 5.3-inch Galaxy Note series, known as the "phablet phone". At that time, many people were not optimistic about this phone, but after only 9 months on the market, this phone sold 10 million units.
Subsequently, Apple could not help but join the "race" of screen expansion. In 2014, Apple released the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 and the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus. According to the data disclosed by foreign media, the total sales of the iPhone 6 series reached 340 million units, accounting for 17% of the total sales of the iPhone, which is one of the most successful series in the history of the iPhone.
However, due to the need to take into account the need to take into account the need for portability, the mainstream screen size of smartphones has "stagnated" at about 6 inches in the following years.
But this obviously cannot suppress consumer demand for large-screen mobile phones.
Folding screen into the focus of the mobile phone industry
Previously, on top of the 6-inch screen, smartphone manufacturers also explored a "giant screen mobile phone" of about 7 inches. Take the Honor X10 Max as an example, which was released in July 2020, the screen size is 7.09 inches, and the 6+64GB version is priced at 1899 yuan. Once the mobile phone was listed, it instantly attracted attention in the market and became the champion of single-day sales of online all-platform 5G mobile phones.
However, it is worth noting that the promotional slogan of honor X10 Max is "the only big screen in the 5G era", which actually implies that the entire super screen market is no longer what it used to be.
First of all, in the 5G smartphone market, in addition to a few manufacturers such as Honor launching large-screen products, most mobile phone brands have not been involved in this field. Secondly, the configuration of large screen products is generally low, such as the Honor X10 Max is only equipped with MediaTek Tianji 800 processor, and the performance is at the downstream level of the smartphone industry.
OPPO Find N
This is mainly because smartphone manufacturers have seen another ideal carrier for large screens - folding screens. For example, the folding screen mobile phone OPPO Find N released in December 2021 has a 5.49-inch external screen and a 7.1-inch folding screen comparable to a tablet on the basis of only 132.6mm, 73mm and 15.9mm in three circumferences.
The consumer market also gives positive feedback to folding screen mobile phones. According to data released by market research agency Omdia, in 2021, the shipment of folding screen smartphones will be 9 million units, an increase of 309% year-on-year. According to a survey report released by IDC, the folding screen smartphone market is expected to grow to 27.6 million units in 2025.
The Honor Magic V is still out of stock
What's more, due to the use of completely new technology, the price of folding screen mobile phones is generally higher. Taking the Honor Magic V as an example, its 12GB +256GB version is priced at as high as 9999 yuan, even exceeding the flagship iPhone 13 Pro Max recognized by the mobile phone industry.
On the one hand, the folding screen takes into account both the large screen and portable, on the other hand, the related products can explore the high-end market, so compared with the conventional super large screen products, smart phone manufacturers are of course more inclined to choose the folding screen mobile phone.
Why did vivo regain its super large screen products?
However, we cannot ignore that not all consumers can afford the high price of folding screen mobile phones, not to mention, the current limited production capacity of folding screen mobile phones is also difficult to meet the needs of all consumers with large screens.
It is also in this context that Vivo launched its first ultra-large-screen flagship mobile phone - X Note.
In terms of parameters, vivo X Note is equipped with a 7-inch 2K super sensor screen, and the product slogan is "big, set big". Unlike the advanced super large screen products that only focus on screen size, vivo X Note not only has a larger screen, but also performs extraordinary in configuration.
For example, the vivo X Note is equipped with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor, a 3D large-area ultrasonic fingerprint, a 5000mAh large-capacity battery, and supplemented by an 80W dual-cell flash charge. It is also equipped with VIVO's exclusive ZEISS imaging system, which organically combines optics, imaging chips and software algorithms.
It can be said that even without the gimmick of the super screen, vivo X Note has a pivotal position in today's flagship smartphone market.
The reason why vivo still brings us the flagship X Note product on the basis of the launch of folding screen products and Pad products is likely to be because it sees that the folding screen cannot meet the needs of consumers for large-screen mobile phones in a wide range, and the Pad products cannot be covered in a wide range due to excessive size, and there is a certain gap in the flagship super-large screen market.
Although it is difficult to predict the specific sales of vivo X Note because it is not yet listed, it is likely to become a dark horse in the smartphone industry in 2022 based on product and market demand.
This is mainly because, at this point in time in early 2022, the traditional smartphone follow-up is weak, and the data disclosed by market research agency CINNO Research shows that in February 2022, the total sales volume of China's smartphone industry was about 23.48 million units, down 20.5% year-on-year and 24.0% month-on-month.
Based on this, on the one hand, it takes into account the super large screen, on the other hand, it has strong performance, which can meet the scenes of office, entertainment, learning and so on at the same time, and is not restricted by the upstream industry chain. In the context of the peak of traditional smartphone shipments, vivo X Note may bring new development ideas to the smartphone industry.