Source: People's Daily Online Xia Xiaolun Wang Shaoshao
From communication tools to camera tools, from business office to online shopping and watching dramas... In the information age, with the popularization of mobile Internet and the promotion of 5G technology, smartphones have become a necessity in everyone's life.
Today, my country has become the world's largest consumer electronics market. Under the background of consumption upgrades, the needs of smartphone users have also changed accordingly. How to seek high-quality development under market fluctuations and changes in demand is becoming a topic of focus for the entire mobile phone industry.
From following to leading
China's mobile phone industry boosts market confidence
In recent years, domestic mobile phone brands have continued to make breakthroughs and leaps in technology and design from following to leading, breaking the pattern of overseas brands occupying the domestic high-end mobile phone market, and accelerating the pace of updating and iterating the entire smartphone industry.
According to data released by the research organization Canalys, the total global smartphone shipments in 2021 will be 1.35 billion units, of which three of the top five brands in annual shipments are from China. Although the total global smartphone shipments decreased last year, the market share of Chinese mobile phone manufacturers remained relatively stable.
The rapid rise of the domestic mobile phone industry has also driven the rapid development of the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain. Taking folding screen mobile phones as an example, it has particularly high requirements for technological process and material innovation, and requires the joint efforts of the entire industry chain to promote the comprehensive popularization and development of the entire folding screen market. For example, the increase in production capacity of industrial chain accessories is also the key to supply and cost reduction, including deep processing production capacity, flexible OLED production capacity, etc.
A report pointed out that the rapid growth of the market size of China's smart phone industry has contributed a lot to the development of China's economy, and the market size will continue to grow in the future, providing a good development environment for the development and innovation of the smart phone industry.
In this regard, Liu Zuohu, senior vice president and chief product officer of OPPO, believes that China, as the second largest consumer market in the world, has a huge market consumption capacity and a structured market consumption level, providing a strong market driving force and the best market for innovation in the technology industry. place of practice. This year's economic operation will improve as a whole, achieving effective improvement in quality and reasonable growth in quantity, which will also greatly boost market confidence.
Experts said that it is necessary to continue to expand the cluster advantages of the mobile phone industry, continue to accelerate the improvement of the layout of the industrial chain, steadily expand the industrial scale, enhance the new vitality of economic development in the process of innovation and development, drive new momentum for industrial development, and embark on a high-speed road of technological entrepreneurship and green development. A new road to quality development.
Sales increased month-on-month
China's smartphone market is off to a good start
Since last year, the combination of factors such as weakening consumer demand for phone replacements, supply-side creative capabilities entering a bottleneck period, and shortages in the spare parts market have brought considerable challenges to the mobile phone market.
According to data released by market research firm Counterpoint, at the beginning of 2023, sales of smartphones in China will rise week by week. In the first five weeks, the sales volume will remain above 6 million units in four weeks. During this period, the average weekly sales volume will be about 6.7 million units, much higher than An average of around 5.5 million units in 2022. Judging from the month-on-month data, the increase in January this year compared with December last year exceeded 40%.
Especially in March, many mobile phone manufacturers launched a series of new products one after another. Taking OPPO as an example, at its Find X6 series new product launch conference held on the 21st, Liu Zuohu told the reporter of People's Daily Online that he was optimistic about the domestic mobile phone market this year. It’s huge, and I believe that as the economy recovers, this year as a whole will be on par with last year. With a good product, you can go through the cycle.”
According to Guo Tianxiang, a senior analyst at IDC China, the shipment situation of China's smartphone market is expected to be basically the same as last year. The first half of the year is still in the recovery stage, and it is expected to start to improve in the second half of the year, and there will be a significant rebound in the fourth quarter.
"With the recovery of the economic environment and the growth of people's travel, the demand for mobile phones, which are still at the core of mobile usage scenarios, will gradually recover. At the same time, consumers' demand for video and large storage will increase to a certain extent. Therefore, this year's mobile phone market will still pay attention to the upgrade of imaging capabilities, the combination of large storage and the growth of fast charging or standby battery life." Guo Tianxiang told the reporter of People's Daily Online.
Regarding the future smartphone market, IDC predicts that from 2023 to 2027, both global and Chinese smartphone shipments will increase significantly, and global shipments will reach 1.371 billion units in 2027. The mobile phone industry is far from reaching the "ceiling", and there is still broad space in the future.
Another industry insider pointed out that it is expected that the demand for the entire consumer electronics environment will gradually pick up, but it is relatively stable now. "In this environment, it is more critical to test manufacturers' understanding of the market, users, and how to do products." The person said.
Seize opportunities in the high-end market
Chinese smartphones seek new growth points
No innovation, no high-end. As a representative of high-end mobile phones, in the context of the overall decline of the mobile phone market in 2022, folding screens have achieved growth against the trend. The data shows that in 2022, China's folding screen product shipments will reach nearly 3.3 million units, a year-on-year increase of 118%. The proportion of folding screen products in the domestic smartphone market will rise from 0.5% in 2021 to 1.2%.
In the future, the folding screen market will continue to explode. According to iResearch's "China Foldable Screen Mobile Market Insight Report", the expected shipments of folding screen mobile phones will reach 4.5 million units in 2023, with a growth rate of 69.5%. Folding screen mobile phones will continue to promote the recovery of global smartphone shipments, becoming a key opportunity to drive market recovery.
In this regard, Liu Zuohu expressed his determination to invest in folding screens in an interview: "Our investment in folding screens is twice that of other projects. In the field of folding screens, we will definitely continue to invest in technology and innovate."
At the same time, with the advent of the era of mobile imaging, users have increasingly demanding mobile phone imaging functions. It can be seen that imaging is still the main competition track for flagship mobile phones. The imaging capability is a systematic project, which involves the effective coordination of a series of important technologies such as software, hardware, algorithms, and chips. The lack of any link will weaken the overall performance of the image.
The reporter learned that the total number of OPPO imaging teams exceeds 1,000 people, and the annual R&D cost of imaging exceeds 1 billion yuan. The R&D investment in the recently released Find X6 series of imaging algorithms alone exceeds 400 million yuan.
Liu Zuohu also said that a really good product must stand the test of the market and the choice of consumers. After the industry's "big waves wash away the sand", only high-end products that truly create user value can continue to win the market. "We have always insisted on 'keeping the right and not surprising', that is, to make a good product in a down-to-earth manner, and the right is the wonder. If the 'keeping right' is the ultimate, it will naturally be 'surprising' in the end."
Guo Tianxiang suggested that mobile phone manufacturers still need to start from the product, cooperate with the supply chain for in-depth customization, and launch more and more customized and differentiated products to attract consumers' attention. In addition to the continuous improvement of product strength, we must also insist on investing in services, channels, and our own brand image. In addition, the operating system also needs to be continuously improved, and the intercommunication with other terminals is becoming more and more important. The combination of software and hardware can bring consumers a better user experience.
END
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