On March 21, according to data released by Counterpoint Research, in 2022, global smartphone sales fell by 12% year-on-year, but sales in the global high-end mobile phone market increased by 1%, contributing more than 55% to the global mobile phone market revenue. Among OEMs, Apple's sales in the high-end market increased by 6% year-on-year, accounting for 75% of the total sales in this area.
High-end fears are hard to sit back and relax
Based on the data of various institutions, it is not difficult to see that today's mobile phone market is further differentiated, and in the case of market saturation, high-end mobile phones can still lead growth, and Apple, as a representative of high-end machines, its sales are quite stable.
Data show that two months after the release of Apple's iPhone 14 series, its sales reached 26.09 million units, which is similar to the iPhone 13 series, and the high-end Pro series sales accounted for 18.14 million units, accounting for 70%, of which Apple's iPhone 14 Pro Max and iPhone 14 Pro ranked first and second in global sales in the third quarter of last year, and the proportion of flagship mobile phone sales above $800 hit a record high.
What's more, the market's enthusiasm for Apple's new products is unabated, although the iPhone 15 has not yet been released, but the market speculation has been on the wind, it is said that Apple will bring the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max this year, will be equipped with the A17 Bionic made by 3nm process for the first time, and will also use a titanium alloy body, add memory and even equipped with a periscope zoom lens, while also having the thinnest bezel on a smartphone.
For this situation, industry observer Hong Shibin pointed out that high-end mobile phones have their internal logic in rising against the market. In emerging markets, rising incomes have boosted demand for replacements from affordable phones as a necessity to more expensive models.
According to Counterpoint Research, domestic smartphone sales fell by 14% year-on-year in 2022 and 15% in the fourth quarter, while Apple accounted for 23.7% of China's smartphone sales in the fourth quarter of 2022, ranking first among all manufacturers in the quarter and second throughout the year.
However, this does not mean that the high-end market must sit back and relax, Hong Shibin pointed out that buying more expensive mobile phones also means a longer replacement cycle, especially like 10,000-15,000 yuan range products, the user's use time will often drag on to more than five years, which also means that mobile phone manufacturers need to give consumers more surprises in new products, and some generational products with unclear characteristics may become "cannon fodder".
How to "volume" next
Looking at the market, it is not difficult to find that domestic mobile phone manufacturers, which previously focused on affordable products, have also begun to march into the high-end. Since 2021, major manufacturers including Huawei, OPPO, vivo, Xiaomi, etc. have released nearly 60 new products, and many flagship stores start at more than 4,000 yuan.
In fact, as early as 2018, domestic mobile phones have begun to avoid the "cost-effective" market, and have launched high-end flagship machines of about 4,000 yuan and above, such as Huawei Mate 20 Pro from 5399 yuan, vivo NEX from 3898 yuan, OPPO Find X from 4999 yuan, Honor Magic2 from 3799 yuan. Even Xiaomi, a staunch follower of the cost-effective strategy, also tried to open up the high-end machine market and released the Xiaomi MIX 2S with a starting price of 3299 yuan.
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Industry observer Xu Yiqiang pointed out that the main reason for mobile phone brands to explore the high-end, or to seek greater profit margins, whether high-end or parity, the single market has not been able to feed a large-scale brand, in this context, not only affordable mobile phones to create high-end products, such as Apple high-end brands also to differentiate product lines, launch a more people-friendly version, in short, mobile phone brands to look beyond the "comfort zone".
For Apple, the difference between the Pro version and the standard version in the iPhone 14 series can be regarded as an example, Apple still uses the previous generation of chips on the standard version, retaining the ancestral Liu Haiping, and its price reduction speed is also visible to the naked eye, iPhone 14 in Jingdong and other platforms The highest reduction rate reaches 900 yuan, 5099 yuan can get the 128GB version.
For the future market trend, Xu Yiqiang believes that with the maturity of the industrial chain and sufficient supply of accessories, the cost of mobile phone materials has decreased, and manufacturers may fall deeper into the price war, at the same time, the division of different lines of the same brand will be clearer, high-end mobile phones will highlight the attributes of fashion luxury goods, and affordable mobile phones will continue to improve cost performance.
Experts pointed out that in the long run, those who can establish their own ecology are the final winners, because the iOS system is exclusive to Apple, and the Android camp of many manufacturers, or need to focus on smart home appliances, smart wearable hardware, in order to create an ecological moat.
Reporter丨Tao Feng, Wang Zhuli
Editor丨Wang Naixin
Picture丨Screenshot of Baidu's official website