Editor's note: After the release of the new TV standard, what is the impact on the TV market? After the new national standard for air conditioning, will the price of air conditioners rise? Known by the industry as a new driving force for the growth of kitchen appliances, what is the market potential of dishwashers today? Rednet 3C Home Appliance Channel launched the "Dayang Talk about Home Appliances" column, talking about the latest policies, hottest events, and latest products for mobile home appliances...
>>> related reading:
The topic | Dayang talk about home appliances
Red Net Moment, April 19 (Reporter Yang Shuhua) In the competition has long been white-hot in the smart phone market, game phones have become a hot market segment. On the evening of April 13, iQOO released a new Neo6, starting at 2799 yuan, which officially said was iQOO's sincere work to bring top e-sports experience and comprehensive flagship performance. Prior to this, many manufacturers, including Xiaomi, Lenovo, Nubia, etc., have taken the lead in the corresponding game or e-sports mobile phone new product releases, including Redmi K50, Red Devil 7 and Lenovo Savior Y90. The new war of games or e-sports mobile phones has been raised.
E-sports mobile phones and gaming mobile phones are not a new category. Incomplete statistics, from the beginning of the black shark branding of game mobile phones in 2018, in the past 5 years, black sharks, red devils, Lenovo saviors and large factory sub-brands IQOO, red rice, one plus and other mobile phone brands have been born... At present, in addition to Huawei, almost all mobile phone manufacturers have launched mobile phone products that focus on the game experience. The industry predicts that the size of China's e-sports market is expected to exceed 180 billion this year, and e-sports is no longer niche in China, and will even become a new focus of competition for mobile phone manufacturers.
Esports mobile phone "card slot battle" is turned on
As early as 2018, under the trend of a sharp slowdown in the growth rate of the mainland smartphone market, domestic mobile phone manufacturers began to lay out the e-sports market to seek incremental fields. At that time, the Black Shark game mobile phone invested by Xiaomi turned out to be born, followed by the Nubian Red Devil Game Mobile Phone, asus ROG Game Mobile Phone, Lenovo Savior Game Mobile Phone and Redmi successively joined the battle.
More and more mobile phones that focus on the esports experience are entering the market, and they also emphasize that they are not doing vertical game phones. In March this year, realme released the realme GT Neo3 mobile phone positioned as the flagship of chaoyue esports, and won the chief cooperation of the Glory of Kings National Competition. However, realme does not intend to make professional e-sports mobile phones like the Black Sharks or Red Devils, but to be the main machine that emphasizes the e-sports experience. "This year we're putting esports at a very important level because there's a growing demand from younger users for esports. Therefore, the true self GT Neo series is also running to the development of national e-sports, rather than pure e-sports mobile phones. Xu Qi, vice president of realme and president of China, said that e-sports is no longer niche in China, and will even become a new focus of competition for mobile phone manufacturers.
Xiaomi's 2022 new year's masterpiece is not Xiaomi's digital series, nor Redmi's note series, but a game phone named Redmi K50 e-sports version. On February 18, the Redmi K50 esports edition was released, and the official war report showed that it achieved 280 million sales across all channels in just one minute. At the price of 3299 yuan per machine, within 1 minute, the K50 e-sports version sold nearly 85,000 units. Li Jie, president of OnePlus Mobile China, has also revealed the planning of e-sports products to the outside world. "In addition to the original high-end flagship series, OnePlus will consider adding a mid-range product line for consumers with different consumption capabilities, performance and game experience, and is currently planning." Li Jie said. Incomplete statistics, from the beginning of the black shark of the game mobile phone brand in 2018, in the past 5 years, there have been black sharks, red devils, Lenovo saviors and a number of mobile phone brands such as IQOO, red rice, and one plus.
The price is generally over 3,000 yuan
According to CINNO Research research data, in 2021, the sales of smartphones in the Chinese market will be about 314 million units, the market shares of Xiaomi and iQOO will be 15.2% and 4% respectively, and the Red Devils, Saviors, ROGs, and Black Sharks are not in the top 10. "At present, the mobile phone industry itself is relatively saturated, and entering the market segment is an inevitable choice." For the past two years, mobile phone manufacturers have begun to "card slot" game mobile phone track phenomenon, mobile phone industry observer Li Bin believes that for now, the e-sports mobile phone track is not narrow, mobile games in China there are about 600 million users, there are 200 to 300 million users play more than an hour and a half a day, the medium and heavy user groups are not small.
Although high-end flagship mobile phones will still face stuttering, lack of endurance, fever, etc. when playing games, they are not necessarily suitable for playing games, and the performance, control, audio, display and other aspects of e-sports mobile phones are more suitable for games. But for now, esports phones are still a niche market. The price of mobile phones with the keyword "esports" as the keyword is not cheap. QOO9, OnePlus 10 Pro, and Redmi K50 e-sports editions start at 3999 yuan, 4699 yuan and 3299 yuan respectively. In terms of professional e-sports mobile phones, the Rescuer 2 Pro, the Black Shark 4S series, and the Red Devil 6 series are sold from 4499 yuan, 2699 yuan and 3799 yuan respectively. Price seems to have become a major factor restricting game phones to the mass market, and it has always been difficult to find game phones in offline sales channels such as mobile phone stores and cyber cities.
Mr. Huang, a dealer owner who has been engaged in mobile phone sales in Changsha for more than 10 years, said that he generally does not do game mobile phone channels, he has done market research, the current price range where the game mobile phone is located is very fierce competition, is the mainstream flagship mobile phone of major mobile phone manufacturers the price range, for consumers, there are many models that can be selected in this price range, and it is not necessary to choose a game phone with obvious shortcomings in weight, image and so on. "There are too few people to buy game phones, and the price is not cheap, which can easily lead to the hoarding of goods, and it is really impossible to do it." This statement was also endorsed by Deng Wen, who called himself a "game addict", "I buy a mobile phone, I will not just use it to play games." "Deng Wen likes to play mobile games such as "Glory of kings" and "PUBG", but he has never thought of buying e-sports mobile phones, and he is not interested in mobile phones under the banner of e-sports, he believes that the cost of e-sports mobile phones is too high, and these funds are used to buy PS4, switch can also play games that mobile phones can't play." Is the same money used to top up? ”。
Dayang Reviews:
The production of e-sports mobile phones is the product of mobile phone manufacturers facing increasingly fierce market competition and combining through the e-sports market, the fundamental reason is not to find an incremental market, but the characteristics emphasized by "e-sports experience" are strongly related to daily use habits, and the popularity of "e-sports" itself is also rising. In the context of the continued lack of significant growth in the Chinese mobile phone market, mobile phone manufacturers are also further exploring more accurate market segments. Esports tracks are a core direction to be targeted. Perhaps this market does not have much impact on the overall sales of merchants, but the most important thing is to play out the mobile phone brand, before the Meitu mobile phone took this road, unfortunately did not go through, but the future mobile phone can combine more and more application directions to create more and more differentiated products.