Text | Xiaoyi Comment Technology
At the "Lei Jun Annual Speech" held by Xiaomi a few days ago, Xiaomi Chairman Lei Jun had a very high evaluation of the Xiaomi 12S Ultra mobile phone.
Xiaomi 12S Ultra This phone completely reverses the unfavorable situation in the two generations of models of Xiaomi 11 and Mi 12, and also lays a good foundation for the Xiaomi 13 series.
This is indeed a "legendary" product.
From the perspective of the entire digital industry, Xiaomi 12S Ultra can also be named the "second milestone product" on Xiaomi's high-end exploration road.
(The first milestone is the Xiaomi 10 series, which laid the beginning of the high-end of the Xiaomi digital series)
If there is no Xiaomi 12S Ultra, perhaps the current Xiaomi will continue to sink into the mire of the failure of the Xiaomi 11 and 12 series, and Xiaomi's high-end road will be impossible to talk about.
So standing at this moment and looking back at the past, we will not only have a question - "Why did the Xiaomi Mi 12S Ultra succeed?" What did he do right?"
01
The cooperation with Leica has greatly benefited Xiaomi and increased the premium price of the brand.
Let's think about it, high-end mobile phones or all luxury brands launched products, what factors are the most important?
Is it stacking? Is it design? Is it an experience? Neither, the most important thing is the brand.
It's important to have a sense of identity that consumers can recognize as a premium/luxury brand.
And the brand has always been Xiaomi's biggest weakness, even on the Xiaomi 10 series, which is known as a milestone on the high-end road, the label of "cost performance" is also like a shadow.
And the synonym of cost performance is "cheap", this word and high-end happen to be the antonym, have you ever seen both high-end and cheap products?
Therefore, if Xiaomi wants to enter the high-end market, rebranding is the only way.
Xiaomi has also made many attempts and explorations, such as separating Redmi and Xiaomi, defining the MIX series as a high-end product line, etc., but in the end, they have failed.
As for self-reliant new high-end brands, this is a business taboo.
And at this time, Xiaomi thought of Leica, who had just broken up with Huawei.
At that time, Huawei used the cooperation with Leica to quickly reshape its product tonality. The cooperation between Xiaomi and Leica this time is more in-depth than Huawei.
As the first product cooperated between Xiaomi and Leica, Xiaomi 12S Ultra is more flavorful in terms of product design, both in terms of publicity and publicity.
The addition of Leica has indeed brought a very positive improvement to Xiaomi's brand building.
Because Leica's status and brand building in the photography industry are recognized, coupled with Huawei's successful cases, under the blessing of these factors, the cooperation between Xiaomi and Leica has burst out better than expected.
From photography and other small circles to gradually break the circle, this is also the rise of Huawei.
02
Maintaining price stability is a necessary element for high-end products, and Xiaomi finally understands.
Xiaomi Mi 12SUltra is the first high-end product in the history of Xiaomi mobile phones that has not been officially dropped during the sales life cycle.
For high-end brands, since you want to set a high price, you must also have the ability to maintain a high price.
You can observe Huawei and Apple, especially in the early years, the price of the products sold in its own stores will hardly make any adjustments, and the release price is what it is.
The advantage of this is that it can play a role in price anchoring for consumers, and frequent price reductions will obviously affect the high-end shaping of the brand brand.
At the same time, Xiaomi also understands a truth, the high-end product line is not taken to take the volume, it is more to bear the attributes of a mascot, rather than to sell.
For example, take the Huawei Mate series and P series, each generation of the Pro version is the highlight and will condense a lot of core selling points.
However, according to the data, the best sold every year is precisely the standard version that is not very prominent in configuration, which is the reality.
Why did the Xiaomi Mi 11Ultra fail?
It is because Xiaomi mistakenly regarded the high-end product such as Xiaomi 11Ultra as a model with volume, and blindly confident in market feedback, resulting in inventory backlog and having to avalanche price reduction promotion.
This is tantamount to a "self-explosion".
So I can also say with certainty that the current Xiaomi's high-end product line, including Xiaomi 13Ultra, Xiaomi MIX Fold3, etc., will not be officially reduced.
03
ID Design is finally online
Xiaomi phones have always been ugly, that's to be recognized.
On the Xiaomi digital series, except for the Mi 6 and Xiaomi MIX that are eye-catching, the ID design of most other products is very average.
Including the Xiaomi 11Ultra, which was given high hopes by Xiaomi, it is also full of a strong "too hard" smell, and the recognition is full, but it is really not very good-looking.
In the generation of Xiaomi 12S Ultra, the design pattern of Tianyuan place is adopted, and there has indeed been a great breakthrough in ID design.
And it has also become very proficient in some details and other aspects.
If you have used the Xiaomi 12SUltra, you will know that the overall workmanship and texture of this product is very good, even stronger than the Xiaomi 13Ultra.
04
The IMX 989 became Xiaomi's label
The Xiaomi Mi 12S Ultra was released on July 4, 2022, and is the world's first IMX989 one-inch Sensor.
The second product equipped with IMX989 is VIVO X90Pro+, released in November 2022, with a gap of 4 months, which makes Xiaomi 12S Ultra the exclusive IMX989 model for up to 4 months.
And the unique selling point is product power.
In short, the success of the Xiaomi Mi 12S Ultra is both accidental and inevitable, and he is a vital product for Xiaomi, and to some extent, even more important than the Xiaomi Mi 10.
Next, it depends on Xiaomi's ability to continue to grasp this hard-won achievement.
END hopes to help you