These two days, I opened the drawer and accidentally saw the Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro I bought three years ago.
I remember that the original starting price was more than 4,000 yuan, which was Xiaomi's most high-end flagship at that time, and it was also the first Xiaomi mobile phone in my life that sold for more than 4,000 yuan.
In other words, before, I never thought to spend so much money on a Xiaomi phone, but the Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro, I use it very comfortably.
It's just that now it seems that I am still too short-sighted.
The original price of more than 4,000, can buy a top flagship, is a "cost-effective" thing, look at the current mobile phone price, 4,000 yuan price, you want to buy a flagship machine, this is simply a fool's dream.
Before you know it, the price of mobile phones is getting higher and higher.
In the past, at a price of 4,000 yuan or even 3,000 yuan, you could buy high-end machines such as Xiaomi 5s Plus, Xiaomi MIX2, and Huawei Mate 9, but now at this price, you can only buy red rice, and even red rice has also increased in price.
Like the Redmi K60 series, the starting price starts at 2499 yuan, the K60Pro starts at 3299 yuan, while the K40 series two years ago, the starting price is only 1999 yuan, and the K40 Pro price is only 2799 yuan.
Not only Xiaomi, this year's 4,000 yuan price of mobile phones, you can buy only Xiaomi 13, OnePlus 11, iQOO 11, Honor Magic 5 and other flagship phones.
If you want to buy a flagship machine, the price usually comes to the price of 6,000 yuan.
The newly released OPPO Find X6, the starting price is directly to 4499 yuan, and the Pro version starts from 5999 yuan.
The price of mobile phones has risen and seems to be irreversible.
This makes me wonder, what is the reason for the rapid rise in mobile phone prices in the past two years?
I touched my wallet, and obviously my income didn't rise much.
What makes me even more puzzled is that the rise in mobile phone prices has to sacrifice the consumer experience.
How do you say this?
Today we will talk about this topic together.
The rise in mobile phone prices has long been traced, and a very important reason is the rise in the price of supply chain components.
Take the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, digital blogger and OnePlus employee acid digital revealed that the price of a single chip of the Snapdragon 8Gen2 has reached "more than a dozen hundred yuan bills" (more than 1,000 yuan), almost equivalent to the price of an entry-level mobile phone.
The reason for the price increase is that the price of TSMC's wafer foundry has risen by 10%-20%, and the industry predicts that after Qualcomm launches TSMC's 3nm process in 2023, the price of Snapdragon's flagship chip will rise by another 30% to 50%.
It is reported that because of the rise in the price of these components, the standard version price of each flagship machine will continue to rise next year, and the price of 4,000 yuan will no longer exist.
It seems to be very reasonable, the price of core components has risen, coupled with the screen getting better and better, the image strength is getting stronger and stronger, and the price increase of mobile phones is also reasonable.
But from another perspective, isn't this also the weak core research and development capabilities of domestic mobile phones, which will be limited everywhere?
However, even if the price of components does not rise, impacting high-end domestic mobile phones, they will not be willing to be at low prices.
Take Xiaomi, for example.
According to Xiaomi, the ASP of Xiaomi mobile phones in Chinese mainland in 2022 will increase by about 9% year-on-year, especially the shipment of smartphones with a price of more than 3,000 yuan will increase by 14% year-on-year.
This is still the data before the release of Xiaomi 13, and the price of the Xiaomi 13 series has been further increased, and the sales are very good, and the average domestic selling price of Xiaomi mobile phones in the fourth quarter should be further increased.
Including OPPO, vivo, and Honor, the average selling price of mobile phones has generally increased.
Not only flagship phones, but also mobile phones that used to focus on cost-effectiveness, the price has also increased.
As mentioned above, the Redmi K60 series, as well as realme GT Neo5, OnePlus Ace2, iQOO Neo7, these mobile phones that were previously priced in the 2,000 yuan range have now come to the 3,000 yuan price.
It can be described as a "high-end" righteousness, and the whole system ascends to heaven.
As a result, there will be a strange phenomenon in the mobile phone market.
High-end mobile phones, although the price has risen, but it is also getting stronger and stronger, charging faster, IP68 dustproof and waterproof, and more powerful image strength.
But these 3,000 yuan price "cost-effective" mobile phones, although the price has risen, but still labeled "cost-effective".
Cost-effective mobile phones have disadvantages, these mobile phones are not lacking.
Plastic middle frame, screen stand, cocounting camera, no wireless charging, short-throw fingerprint, scan code level main camera.
Cost-effective mobile phones, while the price has risen, but the pressing has not improved, this cannot be said, right?
Users can also see clearly, not long ago, "Why are today's mobile phones using screen plastic brackets?" This topic has aroused widespread discussion in digital circles.
No one wants to pay more for a phone with a worse quality.
Having said all this, I am not denying that the price of mobile phones has become higher, and I am even more happy to see domestic mobile phones hitting the high-end.
Impact on the high-end is the recognition of domestic mobile phones for their own strength, and this recognition comes from research and development strength.
Among them, typical vivo X90 Pro+, OPPO Find X6 Pro, Xiaomi 13 Pro, etc., have fought back and forth with the top flagships of Samsung and Apple in terms of image strength, and a lot of effort must have been made behind this.
However, while domestic mobile phones impact the high-end, they often highlight the flagship by castrating the sub-flagship.
For example, cost-effective mobile phones, increased, but the texture has not kept up, the texture has kept up, and the flagship mobile phone has been castrated in wireless charging, IP68, imaging and even core SOC.
In the end, if you want to buy a mobile phone without obvious shortcomings, you can only spend a high price and buy the top flagship mobile phone.
Finally, what I want to say is that when the experience is done, users will naturally pay for high-end machines, and these "small actions" are still exempt!