Wen | Shi Zhao
Editor| Niu Hui
The lights lit up, the music sounded, Boss Zhang did not come, it was Boss Li who came.
On April 21, OnePlus released the OnePlus Ace, a model for the mid-market market. In other words, standing on the stage is definitely the familiar but shy Liu Zuohu. But since the merger of OnePlus and OPPO last year, Li Jie has become a trader in OnePlus China.
Although Liu Zuohu is not well-known, Li Jie is also an old OPPO, standing on the counter, playing screws, playing strategy, and nibbling on products.
Before OnePlus was incorporated into OPPO, it grew alone for 8 years. With the ultimate polishing of the product, oneplus mobile phone has a very good influence in the Android flagship market at home and abroad. Its characteristics are distinctive, and to sum up: a simple system, a real TM feel, and an active user community.
Now after being incorporated into the OPPO system, OnePlus has gradually changed some of its playing methods, and it can fully use OPPO's advantages in supply chain, research and development and sales channels to move forward to a broader market with products in the mid-range price segment. Of course, some of the things that once made OnePlus proud, such as the product concept and community culture of the non-conformist, have been passed down.
01 After that, it is all a rich battle
A year ago, Yiplus put down its stubbornness and announced the merger with OPPO, and the two integrated their respective advantageous resources to live together.
Growing alone in these years, OnePlus is also a contending, because the mind is on product polishing, so in the barbaric era of everyone competing in price and hardware, OnePlus has its own label and market position.
In 2013, the first mobile phone of OnePlus was a hit, selling more than one million units, many European and American users and media gave high praise and attention, and the "Time Magazine" of the United States praised it as a "dream mobile phone".
Don't look at the shipment volume of OnePlus is not dominant compared with the head manufacturer, but there have been many similar outstanding performances in the product. From the OnePlus 1 premium texture of BabySkin, to the all-metal body of the OnePlus 3; from the elegant and powerful "suit thug" of the OnePlus 6 on the outside, to the high frame rate screen of the OnePlus 7Pro, to the Hasselblad image of the OnePlus 9Pro. OnePlus polishes one or two models every year, each of which is very attentive and distinctive.
However, the single-handed approach is no longer suitable for the mature mobile phone market. Mobile phone is a test of all-round ability of the product, its chain is very long, from the supply chain to product research and development, from the channel to the after-sales, each link requires a lot of manpower and resources.
OnePlus's shortcomings are as obvious as his longboard. It is precisely because there are one or two high-end products every year, and the pricing is starting at four or five thousand yuan, such a high price blocks a lot of purchase desire. After all, OnePlus doesn't yet have the appeal of the iPhone.
The advantages of the product do not mask the shortcomings of the channel. In recent years, OnePlus has been based on online channel sales, and in recent years, it has begun to make up for the shortcomings offline and open experience stores, but in fact, every link is repeated, which is neither economical nor cost-effective for a waist brand.
Operator-based markets like Europe and the United States are quite friendly to OnePlus, after all, these channels are ready-made, and breaking into these channels basically guarantees sales.
However, in China, the operator channel is very weak, the reputation is not good, and it is basically synonymous with cheap mobile phones. Therefore, mainstream manufacturers have built their own channels in China, and various experience stores have blossomed everywhere.
This not only tests the cost, but also tests whether the channel provider can make money. With the release rhythm of one or two products per year in the past, it is obviously impossible to widely roll out offline channels nationwide.
Therefore, merging with OPPO and allowing OPPO promoters to sell OnePlus mobile phones in a generous way, sharing sales channels and after-sales channels is the best solution for one plus mobile phones that want to open up a broader market.
Starting this year, OnePlus's products will be stationed in more than 5,000 OPPO stores, while OPPO has opened nearly 1,000 after-sales outlets to OnePlus, covering more than 90% of the prefecture-level cities in the country.
This is a win-win for both OnePlus and OPPO. Needless to say, there are thousands of more stores overnight, and they can laugh out loud when hiding in the bed. Oppo's channel providers also have one more choice, and the complementarity of the two will be more obvious. As we all know, one plus's channel advantage is online, and in recent years, the double eleven and 618 promotions, one plus mobile phones are frequent customers of the best-seller list of models above 3,000 yuan. The advantages of OPPO have always been offline, and the target users are not the same. Therefore, oppo and oneplus have their own characteristics and positioning, and the incremental users brought by the merger will be greater than the existing users.
In addition to sales channels, the help of the supply chain cannot be ignored. OPPO's global annual shipments reach 200 million units, and although one plus has tens of millions of units, it is not an order of magnitude. You say you're high-end, user stickiness is high, but the supply chain is concerned with shipments. The size of shipments directly affects the cost and assurance level of the supply chain.
Think of that year, Qualcomm President Anmeng every three to five to one plus platform, support one plus, in addition to one plus in the Android machine market high-end tone is very in line with Qualcomm taste, behind the entire huge procurement volume with the European plus system is also very critical. To put it bluntly, OnePlus is not a poor startup in front of Qualcomm, and this advantage is not available to other self-made manufacturers.
However, after straightening out the relationship now, the synergy between the two will be more close and natural. Nowadays, OnePlus has obtained many opportunities for in-depth customization or joint development with the supply chain, such as the Tianji 8100-MAX custom chip on the OnePlus Ace, which is deeply customized with MediaTek.
The blessing of research and development is also very important for OnePlus. OnePlus's R&D team is only a few hundred people, while OPPO has more than 10,000 R&D engineers. Although OnePlus releases fewer products every year, it still seems insignificant in the face of absolute advantages.
In recent years, OPPO has significantly increased its research and development efforts, 50 billion yuan in three years, and does not engage in title investment in research and development. I have to say that the effect of throwing money is still very obvious, and the number of patent applications of OPPO in recent years has increased significantly.
At present, OPPO Research Institute has 8 technical main lines, one of which specializes in serving OnePlus. For example, this 150W fast charge is also the first to be used on a plus Ace, and even the chip that OPPO spent a lot of money on, may also be used on one plus. In the words of Li Yunlong, our old Li has never fought such a rich battle in his life.
02 Inherited and compromised
After OnePlus and OPPO announced their merger, there were many "old refueling" worries that what OnePlus had previously insisted on would not be replaced by a new set.
Indeed, the newly released OnePlus Ace adopts a new design language, without the R-corner design of the digital series, using a more rigid right-angle edge, and also abandoning the three-segment side button. The OnePlus community has the most debates about the three-paragraph approach. In fact, one plus is also very entangled in doing so, because both the pursuit of performance, but also beautiful and thin, three-stage switch will squeeze more space in the fuselage, and the trade-off has to make some changes to adapt to the latest products.
But in the overall experience, this main performance, the thickness of only 8.2 mm mobile phone has not forgotten to do the boutique "ancestral training", worthy of the nickname of "suit thugs" of OnePlus, but also worthy of Liu Zuohu's famous saying - "true TM cool". For example, the back cover adopts the electric light waterfall process, and the overall performance is still very good.
Overall, OnePlus will extend from the high-end flagship to the mid-end market, and the track switching will also switch at the same time, which will inevitably not satisfy everyone, especially the old users of the year. In fact, the trade-off faced by OnePlus when moving towards a broader market has also been encountered by Xiaomi mobile phones and hammer mobile phones of that year. The early user base of Xiaomi and Hammer is very similar to that of OnePlus, mainly geeks, who have studied a lot of products, and also love to taste early, and belong to high-quality users. But this is, after all, a niche group, and the drive to sales is very limited.
Under the blessing of Lao Luo, the hammer mobile phone was labeled with feelings and idealism, and gained many die-hard fans in the early days. But later reality told us that relying on the small circle of hammer fans and Lao Luo's personal influence was not enough to make a brand successful.
Nowadays, Xiaomi has long given up the reference of "born for fever" and no longer emphasizes the label of enthusiasts, but the company's volume has increased countless times. Last year, Xiaomi's global sales reached 190 million units, and enthusiasts alone certainly can't support this sales.
Although Xiaomi no longer insists on being born for fever, the core thinking of the main cost performance is still there, not only mobile phones, Xiaomi adheres to the same methodology when making IoT products. Therefore, why Xiaomi's hardware net profit is so low is also closely related to this cost-effective business model.
In different environments and growth stages, the change in playing style is actually inevitable, in the eyes of some people this is a compromise, but a brand core thing everyone is inheriting and adhering to. The same is true of OnePlus, the core of OnePlus for so many years is to do fine products, emphasizing performance, which will not change after the merger, and when doing mid-range models.
03 OnePlus's only way
OnePlus has insisted on only doing flagship boutiques for so many years, why do you want to do the mid-range market now?
Li Jie said that at this price point, "none of the products we see now have a good balance in performance, appearance, photography, overall workmanship and quality."
One thing to say, OnePlus has been stuck in the high-end Android flagship for 8 years, although there are good sales and brand influence, but every step forward in this track is not easy. If you use the attitude of making flagship products to make products at a lower price, a little harder, the probability of making it is much greater than other brands. Moreover, OnePlus has tens of millions of shipments every year, the vast majority of which are flagship models, which is roughly equivalent to the flagship machines of mainstream manufacturers.
Logically, this approach is also valid. Now the mainstream mobile phone brands in China, without exception, are shouting to go to the high-end, but from the current situation, no one has really stood at the high end. But high-end brands will be easier to penetrate downwards, typical of which is the iPhone, another chip launched the iPhone SE, sold in the world as a best-selling model, earning a lot of money.
In addition to Apple being able to thrive in the high-end market, other mainstream mobile phone brands without exception are fully covered by high-, medium-, and low models. Even Apple has launched cheaper products such as the iPhone SE every three or five minutes to gain a larger market share and more commercial profits.
In fact, before OnePlus made the decision to enter the domestic mid-range mobile phone market, OnePlus has already tested the water overseas and has been verified. One plus Nord series optical T-Mobile has sold more than 2 million units by one operator.
After that, OnePlus will have two product lines: one is the digital flagship series with the main performance, and the other is the Ace that has both appearance and performance.
It is also a historical necessity to come to this step. The current mobile phone track is no longer the same as when OnePlus was established eight or nine years ago. The previous infinite possibilities and the dividends of the times have become the current sales stagnation and the pattern is stable.
Not long ago, Luo Yonghao, who is debt-free and light, was asked by netizens whether he had the courage to make another mobile phone, and he answered very frankly that he did not. This sentence may be laughed at from other people, but it is very emotional to say it from the mouth of Lao Luo, who has made mobile phones.
In this red sea competition of mobile phone track, has long been a sea, land and air all-round war, from supply, research and development to sales, no one can have too obvious shortcomings. This also creates an objective reality: it is difficult to bring beauty to small, and this track is only qualified to talk about beauty if it is "big" first. In order to make a breakthrough in this relatively stable market pattern, OnePlus must get rid of the fate of small and beautiful, and extending to a broader mid-range mobile phone is the only way.
When OnePlus was just born, the domestic mainstream mobile phone manufacturers have opened a sub-brand strategy, Huawei has done glory, Xiaomi has done red rice, and the latest vivo has also launched iQOO later.
But there is a common point, these brands have never really separated from the matrix, perhaps there are separate team operations inside, but the vast majority of resources are shared, unified scheduling, so that they can bury their heads forward and worry about the future. From now on, oneplus, like other sub-brands, under the all-round empowerment of OPPO, the relationship with OPPO as a parent will become closer and closer, and its role in the mobile phone industry will become more and more important.