In recent years, the global smartphone market has performed weakly.
According to GFK data, global mobile phone sales will be 310 million units in 2021, and mobile phone sales are expected to be around 300 million units in 2022.
Shipments have struggled to recover to more than 400 million units before 2018. On the one hand, such a decline is related to the outbreak of the epidemic in 2020, and the shipment of smart phones has been affected; on the other hand, it is related to changes such as the increasing refinement of consumer demand and the extension of the cycle of replacing mobile phones.
High-end breakout
Under the trend, global and domestic smartphone manufacturers are facing greater pressure and are looking for new growth points. Among them, in the context of the impact of the smart phone market, Vivo handed over an eye-catching report card. From the perspective of the entire domestic market, Counterpoint's latest statistics show that vivo has successfully reached the top of China's mobile phone market share in 2021 with a market share of 22%, and shipments have increased by 21% year-on-year.
How does vivo do it?
Looking back at the domestic smartphone market, due to the fierce competition of homogenization, manufacturers are facing greater pressure and have made efforts to the high-end mobile phone market. Among them, vivo, as a representative domestic brand with more than ten years of development, has laid out in the high-end market in advance. Its release of a new generation of flagship models X70 series has been generally recognized, allowing vivo to achieve a leading position in the price range of 500-599 US dollars (3184-3814 yuan), and its market share has also continued to increase, from 10% in September 2020 to 20% in September 2021, once becoming a breakthrough in the high-end market monopolized by Apple.
The success of the series is the result of a combination of factors.
This series of flagship products not only helps users achieve an all-round experience of image mobile phones at any time and any place, but also a specific landing of vivo chip strategy. As early as two years before the release, Vivo began to plan, through in-depth cooperation with mobile phone SoC manufacturers, invested more than 300 people in the research and development team, and led the development of this professional imaging chip that serves high-speed computing imaging.
It is not difficult to see that vivo can maintain stable growth when the industry is retrograde, which is essentially due to continuous innovation in products, technologies and other aspects.
Vivo X80 released worldwide
Taking vivo X series products as an example, after ten years of development, it has continuously sought breakthroughs in the field of scientific and technological research and development, and handed over one answer sheet after another for consumers and the market to recognize.
If the vivo X70 has shown its innovation in imaging technology, the newly launched X80 has somewhat reshaped the standard of flagships in the 4K+ price segment.
On April 25, the vivo X80 series was officially released to the world. The vivo X80 series released this time includes three models: X80, X80 Pro, X80 Pro Tianji 9000 Edition. As Huang Tao, vice president of vivo products, said at the X80 series launch: "Vivo X80 series is vivo's redefinition of flagship. Comprehensive flagship performance configuration, full-link image capabilities, and all aspects of the experience are beyond what you see. ”
In terms of performance and imaging, the X80 series is equipped with a self-developed chip V1+ that leads the second-generation dual-core flagship standard, taking into account the two major functions of imaging and performance. The X80 Pro uses ultra-low anti-hard AR coating and ultra-low dispersion high-lens lenses, and is equipped with the industry's first ZEISS portrait micro-gimbal.
At the same time, combined with the excellent computing power of the self-developed chip V1+, the night scene preview effect of the vivo X80 series main camera is comparable to that of the low-light night vision instrument, and the ultra-wide angle lens and the front lens realize the real-time black light night vision function, and the night vision-like preview effect is achieved in an extremely dark environment, so that the night shot is no longer blind and touching the elephant, breaking through the bottleneck and limitation of night scene creation.
In addition to the improvement of imaging capabilities, the blessing of the self-developed chip V1+ allows the hardware performance of vivo products to be fully released, and the full energy of the flagship SoC is exerted. After the joint development of vivo and MediaTek, vivo industry debuted GPU Fusion technology, and then realized the industry's first game super score function. Under the support of GPU Fusion, through the synergy of APU and self-developed chip V1+, we jointly assume the responsibility of GPU, under the premise of ensuring the ultimate picture quality, so that the game experience is still smooth and smooth, so that high performance and low power consumption.
In addition, vivo X80 Pro has become the first Android model to support XDR Photo technology, and has also launched exclusive functions such as focus-chasing mirrors, studio-level textured portraits, textured portrait photos, 360-degree horizon stabilization, horizon correction, etc., supporting high-definition portraits and motion bokeh effects in sports states, multi-person photo enhancement, wide-angle picture stabilization and perspective distortion correction functions.
With the support of multiple innovations such as multi-core collaboration, hardware-level computational photography, performance experience that breaks through bottlenecks, and flagship device specifications, vivo X80 series has set a new innovation standard for high-end flagships in the industry, and also brought users a better innovative technology experience and a fast mobile lifestyle.
At the moment when the high-end mobile phone market is facing a test, vivo is already the first in China's mobile phone market share in 2021. The release of the vivo X80 series has achieved another upgrade and breakthrough in color, image and chip technology. This product, by creating a full-scene image algorithm matrix, meets the user's full-scene, all-time shooting needs, and has become a bold attempt at high-end market innovation products.
In order to better establish the industry ecology, the vivo X80 series and the two flagship SoC platforms have formed a deep joint investigation, which has allowed the industry to see the great potential of independent research and development of domestic mobile phone chips and industrial collaboration, that is, the future growth of domestic mobile phones should be based on the dual basis of continuous upgrading of products and partners to build a good ecology.
It can be said that vivo X80 is another masterpiece of the domestic high-end market, which is behind vivo's continuous innovation, pursuit of the ultimate, and the core of the enterprise of building an ecosystem. At the recent vivo media technology communication meeting, Hu Baishan, executive vice president and chief operating officer of vivo, said when talking about the product layout: "The Pro version of our X series is a large image, ensuring that the image effect in the extreme environment, such as the environment where ten fingers are out of sight, the photo can be seen very clearly, I believe that there are always some high-end users who care about these extreme scenes." In the face of users and the market, the only solution is to make these technological innovations truly attract high-end users through product innovation, so that they want to try, and at the same time, the user's experience cannot be reduced. ”
It can be seen that in the process of scientific and technological innovation, vivo has always stood in the user's perspective, and it is precisely because it has seen the changing user needs that it can continuously develop products that are more suitable for user needs. This is also an important password for vivo to move forward in the opposite trend, only by maintaining innovation and always adhering to the user orientation, can we maintain our advantage and grow in the competition.
Scientific and technological innovation is written into the corporate dna
Since 2011, Vivo officially entered the field of smartphones, and now the company has entered its second decade.
In the current sluggish smartphone market, vivo can continue to bring surprises, which has a lot to do with the values that the company has been adhering to for many years. Just as on April 21, Hu Baishan, executive vice president of Vivo, threw out the "vivo methodology" at the Boao Forum where the global political and business elite gathered, that is, user-oriented, scientific and technological innovation as the cornerstone, and the pursuit of the ultimate product. Behind this, it shows that vivo's corporate goal is to enhance the competitiveness of enterprises through scientific and technological innovation, from "what should be" to "what should be strong". Only by continuously realizing scientific and technological innovation can we truly achieve great products and great enterprises, which is also written into the corporate genes of vivo.
In addition, vivo insists on enhancing the competitiveness of enterprises through the innovation system, and has established a complete set of innovation systems to ensure a complete chain from the judgment of technology trends to the landing of products. In 2021, Vivo wrote "design-driven" into its values, turned the value of rejecting mediocrity into the intrinsic motivation and strong desire of all R&D personnel in Vivo, and brought new meaning to users in a "simple, perfect, and elegant" way.
Vivo also focused on the four major tracks to point out the direction for scientific and technological innovation, through the iron triangle (product planning, technical planning, technical pre-research), to achieve product planning for the next 1 to 3 years, so as to achieve the perfect match between brand strategy and product strategy. In a larger time span, it has established the Academia Sinica, which is committed to technical planning for more than 36 months through the technology beacon, focusing on the tracking and research of new product forms, the technical layout of cutting-edge technology scanning, imaging, chips and other fields at home and abroad, so that it can walk in the forefront of technology.
The establishment and strict implementation of this innovation system give vivo the ability to respond to changes and continue to move forward in the midst of change.
The cornerstone of innovation and great genes have allowed vivo to iterate rapidly in the past decade, handing over surprises to consumers. As Hu Baishan, executive vice president of vivo, said: "Every scientific and technological revolution has stimulated a big outbreak of market demand and achieved the desire of human beings for a better life." Therefore, at a time when the world economy is affected by various uncertainties, we must still remain optimistic, bold and innovative, and strive to do so." In the next decade, perhaps the domestic smart phones represented by vivo will bring us more surprises.