Although Japan is a small country, but the technology is still relatively advanced, even Japanese mobile phones have been for a time, Motorola V60 can only be used to call and text, and can already be used for music, movies and mobile payments. Nowadays, Japanese mobile phones have long become a necessity for Japanese people, and almost every home is equipped with a smart phone. In Japan, almost every young person has a smartphone of their own, and many people still use it to play games and shop. At that time, who could buy Japanese mobile phones, which were more enviable than today's Mercedes-Benz BMW, so why were Japanese mobile phones relegated to life in China?
Before 2010, the development of mobile phones in Japan was actually very good, but in the period from 2010 to 2020-10, Japan's mobile phones not only did not make progress, but in the eyes of peers, there was a regression. During this period, the Japanese mobile phone industry has experienced an unprecedented downturn, and many companies have begun to close down or go bankrupt. Among them, sony and Samsung are particularly prominent. What is the situation with these two companies? The original major mobile phone brands have fallen, in addition to Sony and Sharp, almost no brand can be called "Japanese mobile phone", these two mobile phone brands can only be said to be "alive", at any time may be completely eliminated by the market.
If no one believes it, you may wish to look at the 2020 domestic mobile phone rankings, Sony ranked second with a share of 9.72%, and Sharp ranked sixth with a share of 2.71%. These two are the first mobile phone manufacturers in China. However, Sony and Sharp are not doing well in the market. Their market share has declined since last year. By the first half of this year, it had dropped to about 3% respectively. If you're wondering, what happened to the remaining nearly 90% market share?
The answer is simple: Apple, Huawei, Samsung, these three brands alone account for more than 75% of the local mobile phone market in Japan. Moreover, this number will continue to grow. Japan is one of the world's largest smartphone production bases, but in China it is only a "small" factory. Why are Japanese mobile phones so successful in China? There are many reasons for this! Japanese mobile phones are almost impossible to survive at home, but what about In China?
Specific to Japanese mobile phones, there are four reasons why Japanese mobile phones are not competitive in the Chinese market.
First of all, it cannot meet the needs of the Chinese market.
If a product cannot meet the market demand, even the best product is blind. What the Chinese market needs now is a bucket machine, which means there are no shortcuts, and Apple, Huawei and other companies are doing a good job of this, but not Japanese phones. Now Japanese mobile phones have entered a "blowout" development stage, while the Chinese mobile phone market is still in its infancy. If China's mobile phone manufacturers want to make great progress in the future, they must start from these shortcomings. 1. Technical issues. Taking Sony as an example, almost every generation of mobile phones has a fatal flaw, either the battery life is short, the phone is easy to heat up, or the photo pixels are blurred, you can't buy the phone back and treat it as a main model, just a photo.
Also, what do consumers like today? It is these ultra-high pixels, curved screens, waterdrop screens, punching screens, bangs completely replaced, etc., that can occupy the Chinese mobile phone market, basically can be said to be "I give you what you want". As one of the world's largest smartphone manufacturers, Sony has always been known for its high quality. But the Japanese mobile phone brand is different, anything sony launched, such as infrared address book, infrared exchange mailbox, solar panels, fortune telling software, etc., are chicken ribs, no taste of food, unfortunately abandoned, according to the needs of Chinese consumers, naturally will be eliminated by the Chinese market.
Secondly, it is expensive and value for money.
How expensive are mobile phones in Japan? Have you ever wondered if you have a Sony phone, it might make it your favorite to buy. But do you really understand it? What are the characteristics of Sony's mobile phones? Let's take a look! Let's take the Sony mobile phone Chinese version of mark rabbit as an example, which was postponed for most of the year, but eventually went public for 7300 yuan, and if there is no discount, you can imagine how much it will cost. Looking back at the beginning of the Apple 12's listing, the 256G was only priced at $7600, and in terms of performance, the latter has completely overwhelmed the iPhone 12, and Sony's Mark Rabbit is priced at $7300, which is basically not cost-effective.
What's more, Sony is no exception, and it is the norm for Japanese mobile phones. The price of Japanese mobile phones is generally 1-2 thousand yuan more expensive than Chinese mobile phones, and Apple may be the only company that can be compared with Japanese mobile phones, but what can Be compared with Apple in terms of appearance and performance of Japanese mobile phones? Apple is one of the world's largest mobile phone makers, but Apple's sales in China are not as good as Huawei and Samsung. This is related to apple's monopoly position in the Japanese market, but the more important reason is the lack of strength of Chinese mobile phone manufacturers. At least Apple has a loyal following in the country, and even in the case of shrinking market share, let alone mobile phones in Japan, it also has the guarantee of sales.
Third, ugly and backward.
In the era of smart phones moving to full screens, people buy mobile phones that are either full-screen mobile phones or waterdrop screens, which has become a trend, but Japanese mobile phone manufacturers insist on retaining "long chins" and "big foreheads" for mobile phones. They believe that only in this way can they attract the attention of consumers. However, with the advancement of mobile phone technology and the reduction of prices, this idea is becoming more and more difficult to achieve. And now Japanese mobile phone brands are facing the same problem: fewer and fewer users! This has led to worse sales of Japanese phones in China, where no one wants their phones to give the impression of being "ugly" or "old".
It is worth noting that the reason why Japanese mobile phone manufacturers are so stubborn is because the sale of mobile phones itself has nothing to do with them. Affected by Japan's special national conditions, basically no one buys mobile phones directly now, and most mobile phones are sent for a fee, so the sale of mobile phones is not a matter for manufacturers, but for operators. But in the process, operators have gained huge profit margins, making mobile phone production a very lucrative industry. This is also the root cause of the stagnation of the development of mobile phones in Japan, compared with 10 years ago, the development of mobile phones in Japan has not changed much.
Fourth, after the publicity, the manufacturer transformed.
As the saying goes, "the wine is not afraid of the deep alley", Publicity is an important part of the sales of products in the market, Apple, Samsung, Huawei are good examples.
However, this is very difficult for Japanese mobile phone manufacturers, because they themselves can not directly release bare metal, can only jointly sell contracted machines with operators, so Japanese mobile phone manufacturers have low profits, there is no publicity fee, so naturally they can rarely think of buying Japanese mobile phones. In this case, Japanese mobile phone manufacturers began to promote their products through other channels, such as through agents in other countries or directly to agents in Japan. Doing so will not only save some promotion costs but also increase sales. Over the years, Japanese mobile phone manufacturers have basically given up, and they make money not by selling mobile phones, but by holding Sony's cameras and other mobile phone spare parts business, which are sold all over the world for profit.
Generally speaking, Japanese mobile phones will be eliminated from the Chinese market, and even the world market, which is the result of Japan's special national conditions, which is not surprising, you can not see the future of the Japanese mobile phone market, which is due to a variety of factors, it is not surprising.