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After more than ten years of development, the operating systems developed by local smartphone manufacturers in China have achieved remarkable results in personalized customization. For example, Xiaomi's self-developed surging OS, Huawei's HarmonyOS and vivo's original OriginOS have won unanimous praise and recognition from the majority of users.
In contrast, OPPO's newly released ColorOS14 has been strongly criticized and criticized by many users.
According to the ColorOS14 sub-score released by the authoritative technology media Ku'an, its score is only 2.8 stars, while the system scores of several other well-known smartphone brands are generally higher than 8 stars. In particular, OriginOS has received a high rating of far more than 9 stars, and has been hailed as one of the most acclaimed smartphone systems in China.
It is worth pondering that although vivo and OPPO are both brother companies in South China, there are significant differences between the two companies in terms of operating system development.
The gap between vivo and OPPO
vivo's Funtouch OS operating system
Given its long-standing pursuit of a system design style that achieves the most minimalist aesthetics, it is not difficult to find that the vivo series products are a high-quality choice. Whether it's basic shape patterns such as squares and circles, or freely customizable icons, they all show impeccable creativity and individuality.
In addition to this, it has to be mentioned that there are two excellent advantages of the system. One of them is the unique Jovi Smart Scene function, which provides users with a more intelligent life experience. Another striking technology is MT, which significantly improves the efficiency of mobile phones and the responsiveness of applications, so the smoothness and optimization provided by it is undoubtedly at a high level.
Let's talk about the Color OS operating system from oppo
As the trump card system created by OPPO, Color OS strives to minimize the possible interference of visual elements on top of a simple tone, making it a good visual stress reliever.
At the same time, it clearly and effectively emphasizes the core competitiveness of the interface, so that the priority of information content is clear, and the hierarchy is clear, so that the lightweight design can continue to develop and grow.
In addition, through the precise use of color proportions, the icons are extremely simplified to highlight the main visual elements, so as to ensure the three-dimensional sense at the same time, the overall presentation of a delicate and high-quality excellent state.
Constant metamorphosis in a few years
In the initial stage, we saw that domestic Android mobile phones mainly used an operating system similar to the "Android native" version, but this approach is not fully suitable for the aesthetic concepts and operating habits of Chinese users, which undoubtedly creates a broad space for innovation and forward momentum for China's local mobile phone manufacturers. With the passage of time, after entering 2015, based on the modification of the AOSP+ UI mode, manufacturers began to optimize the details of the mobile phone operation interface, UI interaction mode and other details, thus giving birth to the most innovative and competitive mobile application ecosystem in the world today.
Recently, we found that after the implementation of the "scalpel" transformation of the core part of the Android system and the system operation mechanism, we have overcome the lag problem encountered by the majority of users in the process of using the Android system for a long time, and successfully solved the severe challenge of "continuous operation of the application". On the other hand, domestic terminal manufacturers are generally carrying out secondary innovation in the underlying technology of the system, especially focusing on the free flow of cross-terminal data and intelligent service performance, so as to open the door to the prosperity and development of system potential, service quality and new ecology in the new era.
In the process of this interpretation, smartphones equipped with ColorOS have dominated the complete trajectory of domestic smartphone system optimization and transformation almost throughout the entire process, especially playing a decisive "leading role" in the evolution of the industry at multiple key nodes:
ColorOS 1 released in September 2013, starting from the goal of "a new look for smart life", greatly improves the user's sense of speed and fluency in the use of the system, and creates a UI visual effect and interactive experience that focuses on the intersection of Zhimei and humanities, which plays a vital role in improving the user experience in China for the first time in the Android field, and has also become the cornerstone of ColorOS's distinctive positioning and unique brand genes.
In the ColorOS 5 period, a new concept of "intelligent aesthetics is complete" was proposed, and a series of unique system features were innovatively developed, such as intelligent assistants and smart screens, and a full range of situational services drove the entire smartphone industry to move forward in a more certain direction.
Immediately after the debut of ColorOS 6, adhering to the principle of "ultimate integration of intelligent aesthetics", focusing on strengthening the compatibility design of full-screen devices, a new UI and interaction design concept, and a more intelligent user interaction experience, the concept of "unbounded" gradually emerged, becoming one of the iconic features that cannot be ignored in the continuous evolution of ColorOS.
ColorOS 7 advocates "infinite extension of ease and pleasure", further consolidating the advantages of ColorOS in the two key elements of "aesthetic style setting" and "long-lasting and pleasant experience", and has launched a number of innovative features that have been highly praised by users and industry experts, such as the industry-leading "return button" new design.
As for ColorOS 12, its main purpose is to optimize and consolidate the "long-lasting and lightweight" system operation characteristics through the development of an AI flexible engine, and also provides a variety of personalized function options (such as face pinching technology "OMoji"), more convenient and easy-to-use interaction modes (such as "free floating window"), and a wider range of scene intelligent service fields.
ColorOS 13, which came out in August this year, has the theme of "The Source of Life Nourishes All Things in the World", adheres to the aesthetic orientation of "cultivating life with clear water", and focuses on strengthening the "comprehensive and smooth" performance of the internal quality of the system, the penetration of intelligent life scenarios, and its security and privacy protection performance, these factors are the ideals that the current user group advocates and chases, and it is also the main direction of the future development of the industry.
In general, since it surfaced nine years ago, the continuous evolution of ColorOS has actually become a detailed microcosm of the system optimization and innovation process of China's local mobile phone manufacturers.
In this wonderful process, ColorOS has guided the industry to pay attention to and think about the actual needs and development trends of users in each iteration of the update, created a "more and more practical, more and more intelligent" user praise reputation, and has always led the entire industry from "simple style first" to a new chapter of "cross-platform integration".
OPPO continues to add a lot of useful features to ColorOS
Over the years, OPPO has injected many useful and innovative features into its ColorOS system, such as fluid cloud technology that makes it easy to display all kinds of information, and a transfer station that can be shared across applications. In the face of many consumer feedback, Blackshark did not pay enough attention to it, no matter what form of communication or complaint, they seemed to have no intention of listening. They may even be immersed in self-satisfaction, which gives them a sense of nobility and arrogance.
It is worth comparing that Realme UI, which is the same as ColorOS, has gradually added features such as app recording, screen unlock and full app dual opening, which are highly anticipated by users, so that ColorOS users have a lot of grievances.
As the old saying goes, "The depth of love is the responsibility of the heart". Therefore, netizens who scored low scores for ColorOS 14 on the Ku'an forum are undoubtedly full of disappointment and dissatisfaction. Since then, however, this has changed. The reason is that OPPO is starting to really realize what the problem is and starting to listen to the suggestions and opinions of others
ColorOS 14升级计划
According to the advanced integration plan officially released by ColorOS 14, the first round of system upgrades has been successfully launched in January this year.
This version of the update brings a number of new features, including but not limited to the humanized prompt that can be shaken to realize the interception of ad jumps, the upgrade of the screen recording function, the introduction of two novel display modes: floating window and fluid cloud form, and also for the status bar font display, the sound effect and animation effect when the lock screen is charging, the layout and design of the lock screen password interface, and the dynamic effect of the rebound when entering the desktop, the speed of the intelligent assistant Xiaobu (DOUBLE) to recognize text, The motor vibration effect and other details have been comprehensively repaired and optimized;
In addition, the system adds the option to personalize the screen refresh rate setting for a single application.
首批次的适配机型预计会在2024年2月29日内全面覆盖,涵盖了OPPO Find N3、OPPO Find N3 Fliph、OPPO Find X7全系、OPPO Find X6全系、OPPO Reno11全系、一加12、一加11、一加Ace 3、一加Ace 2 Pro以及一加 Ace 2在内的多款热门机型。
The system optimization and improvement for the second part is expected to be pushed to users in batches within February. Highlights of this update include: the new fingerprint unlock method in the case of a black screen, the addition of a shortcut switch for automatic brightness adjustment in the control center, the refined management of device sensor permissions, which eliminates the phenomenon of false touch of shake ads, support for QQ music to be displayed in the form of a pop-up interface in the screen-off environment, visual optimization of the interface of the weather forecast function for the next 15 days, the addition of the voice assistant DOUBLE function to take photos and save the number of days in the calendar monthly view, etc.
These new features will make a new user experience. The list of the first batch of compatible models remains unchanged from the lineup of the first upgrade, and it is expected to be fully covered by March 10, 2023. All models that will be upgraded to ColorOS 14 are expected to complete the system update by April 30, 2023.
ColorOS 14全新水生设计
On this basis, ColorOS 14 further realizes more intelligent and efficient convenient function upgrades, greatly simplifying many complex processes that originally required multiple steps and multiple application tools to work together, achieving the best results in the shortest path, and saving users a lot of heavy trouble.
The user-loved and highly praised intelligent voice assistant Xiaobu has also been retained, and a new control center module called "Device Space" has been added on this basis.
Although ColorOS 14 adheres to the aquatic design concept of its predecessor, ColorOS 13, it has been more meticulously crafted in terms of color, sound, dynamic effects, etc., presenting a logical visual style and a natural and comfortable user experience.
In addition, the aquatic design is also divided into three levels, the top level of notifications and screen reminders are designed with "gaseous water", which is light and natural, without disturbance, the application in the middle is designed with "solid water", and the card-like structure makes the information distribution hierarchical and easy to distinguish, and the basic user experience of the system at the bottom is designed as "liquid water", and the intuitive interaction mode makes each operation achieve a smooth and unimpeded feeling.
The aquatic color will also be adjusted according to the time of day in the user's environment, so as to achieve more accurate time perception.
For example, the alarm clock reminders at different times of the day have their own characteristics, from the dark orange glow of the earth at dawn in the morning, the pale yellow of the blue sky and the pupils of the sky at noon, and the dark blue and warm yellow of the bright lights and the vast starry sky at night.
In terms of features, ColorOS 14 has carried out a series of detailed innovations that closely fit the needs of users, such as a new eye-catching "Search" function on the main interface, users only need to swipe the screen to view the switch page prompt, and when the screen is in a static state, it will change to a "search" state, and only need one click to quickly access the global search interface.
Whether users want to explore applications or various information resources, this search method can provide a more efficient and convenient service.
Domestic mobile phones have involution
After an in-depth analysis of the involution of the domestic mobile phone market, we might as well explore the current situation of major domestic mobile phone manufacturers. Here, we will discuss the well-known "VO Rongmi" series as an example.
According to data released by market research agency Counterpoint, in 2022, the top brand in the shipment proportion of domestic mobile phone manufacturers is vivo, accounting for 19.2% of the total market share, followed by Apple mobile phones and oppo, the former with a market share of 18.0%, and the latter ranking third with a share of 17.5%.
The others are Honor and Xiaomi, which account for 16.7% and 13.9% of the market share, respectively. It can be calculated that the share of the four major brands of "VO Rongmi" in the entire domestic mobile phone market has reached 67.3%, close to seventy percent.
Judging from the above data, "VO Rongmi" has undoubtedly established its dominant position in the current domestic mobile phone market. However, does the dominance of numbers mean that it is strong? Keep in mind that there is also a brand with a higher market share in this ranking table - the second place with 18% of the market share.
Now that we've discussed market share, let's move on to price comparisons. Also according to the data provided by Counterpoint, in the list of the world's top 10 best-selling mobile phones in 2022 released by Counterpoint Research last month, none of the domestic brand mobile phones made the list.
According to data released by the same agency, although the sales volume of the global mobile phone market in 2022 has shown a negative growth of 12% compared with the same period last year, Apple's share in the high-end market segment (priced at more than $600 or about 4,130 yuan) has climbed by 10%, accounting for 75% of the market size and 85% of the overall market's revenue.
Through the intuitive analysis of the relevant data of Apple's mobile phone, we can see that in the "high-end" market field, there is still a huge gap between China's local mobile phone manufacturers and Apple. How to break Apple's monopoly position in the "high-end" market and enter this round of market competition as soon as possible is still a difficult problem for domestic mobile phone manufacturers to overcome.
Admittedly, I do not intend to deny the progress made by local mobile phone manufacturers in the high-end market in recent years. However, if we focus on a broader market environment, domestic mobile phone manufacturers still need to strive to improve their comprehensive strength.
For example, in the domestic market, in the second quarter of 2022, vivo jumped to the second largest mobile phone manufacturer after Apple with a market share of 13%, which is more than double the market share in the same period in 2021.
In addition to the "high-end" market issues have not been effectively solved, "VO Rongmi" and other manufacturers are also facing a series of other difficulties, the first of which is the problem of overcapacity. A few years ago, when market demand was strong, some manufacturers have expanded their production scale, and now in the context of the subsidence of the market dividend period and the continued sluggish overall market conditions, this problem has brought significant pressure to mobile phone manufacturers.
It is important to know that production capacity not only represents the investment in fixed assets, but also includes many factors such as human resource allocation, parts and components inventory preparation, etc. In addition, the performance and cost of electronic digital products often show a cyclical objective downward trend, and if manufacturers cannot properly grasp their capacity control strategies, it may lead to a sharp increase in production costs.
In fact, with the rapid development of the smartphone industry, the flagship models launched by various manufacturers have gradually become homogeneous in terms of hardware configuration, and only the shooting function and charging rate are more differentiated.
As the saying goes, "hardware is responsible for attracting consumers to a new device, and software systems are responsible for maintaining user loyalty". For example, the iOS operating system takes full advantage of this concept.
In recent years, more and more Apple users have begun to envy the performance of Android phones in terms of photo quality and charging speed. However, because iOS has always maintained its advantage in terms of smoothness and stability, many consumers still choose to stick to the iOS camp in the end.
Assuming that OPPO can successfully build the ColorOS system into a better one, it is expected to increase the loyalty of OPPO mobile phone users, and the key lies in whether it can seize the precious opportunity to achieve a word-of-mouth counterattack.