From the waves to the backwater, this may be the "true portrayal" of the domestic high-end smartphone market in the past two years, and the analysis of the reasons behind it is largely the disappearance of Huawei as the former "spoiler".
In the first half of 2020, according to IDC statistics at that time, Huawei's domestic smartphone market share hit a record high, reaching 45.2%, far ahead of the second place only 17.1% vivo; at the same time, in terms of the share of high-end smartphones above $600, Huawei also stabilized the Apple iPhone with 44.1%, showing a very proud brand posture.
But today, two years later, under the background of Huawei's continuously limited mobile phone business, Apple not only regained the first place in the domestic mobile phone market share after seven years, accounting for 26.5%, but the rest of Android manufacturers such as Xiaomi, OPPO, and Honor are still growing slowly in single digits. Moreover, Apple's iPhone has also achieved "one super and many strong" in the high-end machine market, iPhone 13 series sales continue to be hot, and the next generation of new products actually dare to announce an increase of 10 million units before the next generation of new products, which shows how strong the market performance gives Apple confidence.
Before and after the comparison of data, we can easily conclude that the rest of the domestic mobile phone manufacturers not only failed to share the benefits from Huawei's withdrawal, but let Apple smoothly become the ultimate big winner, in the high-end market more invincible.
What makes consumers feel even more desperate is that after losing Huawei, the leading big brother, in the face of the increasingly depressed consumer enthusiasm for buying and changing machines, the collective morale of the domestic manufacturer camp has been more sluggish, and the performance in product innovation and iteration has been slack.
The domestic high-end market urgently needs "guides"
Almost all new Android flagships in the first half of this year have performed quite disappointingly, and I believe this is the consensus reached by many consumers, including me. On the one hand, these products have different degrees of "configuration castration, price increase" compared with the same period last year, on the other hand, the main "super cup" models have not been released, such as Xiaomi 12 Ultra, vivo X80 Pro+, etc. have been postponed to the second half of the year, resulting in the first half of the year can be a stunning new machine is lackluster.
The regression in mobile phone images is the most obvious. Xiaomi Mi 12 Pro, OPPO Find X5 Pro, etc. are not even willing to put on a periscope telephoto lens, and the main camera super-bottom, true telephoto lens has become more and more rare, and manufacturers are holding even less than last year's previous generation of image stacks to fool users. If consumers want to buy an image flagship, in addition to the vivo X80 series can also take a look, it is better to buy last year's real flagship at a lower price, and the photo performance is much better.
In terms of the iteration speed of model updates, domestic manufacturers directly "lie flat" in the first half of the year. Without Huawei's urging, and the competition with Apple, coupled with the external factors that Qualcomm Snapdragon TSMC's version of the chip was listed in the second half of the year, they instantly lost enthusiasm and simply dragged it out to the second half of the year and then played slowly.
To be honest, if the Huawei P series and Mate series are still there, I believe that the domestic high-end machine market in the first half of the year will certainly not be so lifeless. At the very least, Huawei's mobile image innovation will inevitably bring new things to consumers, but also cause huge pressure on other manufacturers, forcing them to compete, to catch up, and to launch Pro+, Ultra and other models.
Huawei's mobile phone production capacity announced a return, which is beneficial to users and the industry
It is based on the above status quo, so when Yu Chengdong said in the interview video on April 27 that Huawei's mobile phone production capacity supply and return, everyone was excited.
Yu Chengdong said that as long as everyone wants to buy Huawei mobile phones, they can easily buy them. This is definitely great news for consumers, especially fans of Huawei brands in the past, which means that after a long time, you can finally return to the embrace of Huawei mobile phones.
At the same time, it is a great blessing for the entire domestic market and industry. On the one hand, Huawei can at least ignite the morale and enthusiasm of domestic mobile phone manufacturers, compared with the independence and specialness of Apple's iOS camp, in the past, domestic mobile phone manufacturers basically targeted Huawei and regarded it as a direct competitor;
On the other hand, Huawei plays a leading role in innovation in the entire mobile phone industry. Huawei's mobile images, self-developed chips, Hongmeng systems, and self-developed technologies are all representatives of the great innovation of smart phones in the past for a long time. Even today, we can still see that other domestic manufacturers are still catching up with Huawei's level two years ago in terms of images, chips, and systems, and there is still a long gap from being flat.
According to Yu Chengdong, the upcoming Huawei Mate Xs 2 new foldable screen flagship has once again revolutionized the entire industry in terms of new exploration of folding technology and breakthroughs in physical materials and structural restrictions. Huawei Mate Xs 2 took the lead in achieving the weight of almost ordinary mobile phones in foldable screen mobile phones, and also achieved the flattest screen, almost no creases, and the reconstruction of the large-screen ecological experience, which are the industry's first innovations and progresses.
Without Huawei, the domestic high-end mobile phone market in the past two years is indeed relatively lonely, in addition to the rare highlight moments such as Xiaomi 11 Ultra, especially under the suppression of this year's iPhone 13 series. Overview of the current Android top flagship, in addition to the pile of materials or piles, the image is also following the path of Huawei's past, and there are fewer new things that really create the industry. Therefore, it is expected that the return of Huawei's mobile phone production capacity can re-save the high morale and innovation of the domestic high-end market.