The year 2022 has just passed, and it has been a hard time for the smartphone industry to look back on. Especially for domestic manufacturers, in the base camp of the domestic market, Apple has become the biggest winner. IDC report shows that in the third quarter of 2022, Apple's ranking of China's top five smartphone manufacturers rose from fifth to fourth, with a month-on-month increase in market share, reaching 15.1%, and the only TOP manufacturer to maintain year-on-year growth. In 2022, domestic mobile phone manufacturers not only did not wait to bottom out, but allowed Apple to gain more opportunities in the domestic market.
It is gratifying that domestic manufacturers have not rotted on this, but have a strong trend. An obvious phenomenon is that we will push the product rhythm forward in 2023 as a whole. The new generation of new machines began to be released in November last year, making this year's Spring Festival purchase options super numerous.
Such an overall advance may also disrupt many people's original purchase plans, and those who originally planned to buy on Double 11 and Double 12 decided to "wait". But also pay attention to the fact that this wait, I am afraid that the same money will not be able to buy back the original thing.
Different from the previous new machine rhythm
According to the latest domestic mobile phone market analysis report released by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, in November 2022, 26 new 5G mobile phones were listed in China, a year-on-year increase of 73.3%. Not only is it a reflection of the data, but it is also the first time that people who have been mobile editors for many years have encountered such a busy November.
It wasn't until the release of OnePlus 11 in early January this year that this wave of new machine blowouts was temporarily stopped. This was relatively rare in previous years. We mentioned before that from November to January last year, the new machine release tide, covering a variety of products with different positioning, among which there are many new machines of Snapdragon 8+ alone, covering the price of 2499 yuan ~ 8999 yuan.
Vivo, iQOO, Xiaomi, Redmi, Nubia, Red Devil, OnePlus and other mainstream brands have also released a new flagship series equipped with the second-generation Snapdragon 8 before the Lunar New Year, making the flagship market competition in 2023 two months ahead of schedule.
In addition, due to the demand for business gifts during the Spring Festival, it is also the peak sales season for folding screen mobile phones. At the end of the year, the launch of folding screen mobile phones has gradually become a tradition.
At the end of 2021, Huawei expanded its folding screen product line, launched vertical folding solutions such as the P50 Pocket, and launched the lower-threshold Pocket S in November last year. The Honor Magic V series and the OPPO Find N series have also entered a similar iteration rhythm, and have expanded their product lines at the end of the year. Xiaomi and vivo responded by launching new colors and New Year's gift box editions.
In addition to the folding screen, the traditional volume models of offline channels are also "hot", and the honor 80 series, OPPO Reno 9 series, and vivo S12 series are updated almost at the same time, and they are hard and rigid at the end of the year.
It is not difficult to see that in the face of the market decline in 2022, domestic manufacturers did not choose to rot, but rushed to strengthen the layout of product lines. In the case of market recovery is still uncertain, more new products will play a role in stimulating consumption, and in this process, each company is also adjusting product strategy and positioning, in the face of Apple's sole dominance, "rushing higher" is still the main theme in 2023.
The positioning has generally been upgraded, and the price has continued to rise
The "rushing high" mentioned here is not only the competition for high-end market share in the traditional sense, but also from the perspective of this wave of new machine releases, high-end products are also collectively explored. The upgrade of the positioning level has brought about a direct result of the increase in selling prices.
A typical example is the Redmi K60 series, three models K60E, K60 and K60 Pro, equipped with processors are Dimensity 8200, Snapdragon 8+ and the second generation Snapdragon 8, corresponding to the previous generation of K50, K50 Extreme Edition and K50 Pro. It can be seen from this correspondence that this year's K60 series has made a full series of cups.
The starting price of Redmi K60 Pro after the cup is raised to 3299 yuan, the price of the 12+512GB version has increased by 300 yuan, and the top version has reached an unprecedented 4599 yuan. When Redmi sells more than 4,000 yuan, does it make the price increase of the Xiaomi 13 series seem more reasonable?
Continue to adhere to the dual-size flagship Xiaomi 13 series, compared with the previous generation of Xiaomi 12S series, the standard version of the Mi 13 starting price increased by 300 yuan, Xiaomi 13 Pro is even more expensive 600 yuan. Vivo is more thorough, at the end of the year, iQOO, X series, S series all renewed, vivo in the high-end product line of the comprehensive layout, to help the return of the super large cup vivo X90 Pro+ starting price directly exceeded 6000 yuan, to 6499 yuan, in the past only dared to do so.
If you still plan to use last year's budget to change a new phone this year, it may have to lower expectations, the same price may be able to buy mid-to-high-end in the past, but this year can only look at the mid-range model. For example, last year's target was the Redmi K50 Pro, and this year it will become the Redmi K60.
Impacting the high-end is not the same as increasing the selling price, and the price increase does not mean that it can increase sales, and mobile phone manufacturers certainly understand this truth. The core of positioning upgrades and full series of cups is to cover more prices and more user needs, so as to achieve no decline in sales.
The mid-to-high-end market expects Jedi to fight back
Such a strategy actually started and paid off last year. According to the data of China's smartphone market in the third quarter released by IDC, vivo returned to the first place in domestic market shipments, with a market share of 20.0%. The market share of the sub-brand iQOO continued to increase, reaching 4.6% of the domestic market in the third quarter. The vivo X series continued the excellent performance of the previous quarter, maintaining its lead in the $400-600 market.
By the fourth quarter, mobile phone manufacturers are strengthening the integration of superior resources and expanding product line coverage. While the positioning of the Redmi K60 series has moved up, Redmi K60E, as a replacement model of Redmi K50, although only the chip has been updated to the Dimensity 8200 slight changes, but the first price is 200 yuan lower than the original. With the upgrade of K60 and K60 Pro, it has helped fill the gap left by Xiaomi's digital series after further exploration.
In terms of honor, while the digital series and Magic series focus on the offline market, it has successively launched the GT series with the main cost performance, aiming to expand its online share. OPPO also changed its layout, officially "merged" OnePlus at the end of the year, focusing on the online market brand, similar to vivo's iQOO brand. The latest OnePlus 11 is clear from price to positioning goals, targeting online users who focus on the ultimate game performance experience, and it is clear that OnePlus will also make this strategy long-term.
This means that this new wave of machines before the Spring Festival is just the beginning, and we will see a more intensive press conference next. More new machines coupled with more comprehensive positioning coverage and price layout will further stimulate the market, which may be expected to rewrite the decline of domestic mobile phones that have lasted for more than two years.
Looking forward to the mobile phone market in 2023, the impact of domestic manufacturers' collective impact on high-end will continue to ferment, but it is also necessary to recognize that mid-to-high-end fundamentals are equally important, continue to explore the potential demand of consumers, consolidate product strength and enhance competitiveness, in order to seek more high-end market share while achieving the Jedi counterattack of domestic mobile phones.