5G mobile phones drive new growth in the market

　　Our reporter Huang Xin

　　In the past few days, domestic brands such as Xiaomi and Honor have intensively released new high-end mobile phones, competing for "luxury" in chip, camera, battery, screen and other configurations, and the price is also very "high-end", ranging from 3799 yuan to 7,999 yuan .

　　According to data released by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, from January to July this year, the total number of mobile phone shipments in the domestic market reached 203 million units, a year-on-year increase of 15.6%.

Experts believe that, on the whole, the domestic smartphone market is already saturated, but as 5G infrastructure continues to improve and 5G technology matures, 5G mobile phones will also drive smartphones to usher in new growth.

　　5G mobile phones become mainstream in the market

　　5G mobile phones have become the mainstream of the current mobile phone market.

According to data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, from January to July this year, my country’s 5G mobile phone shipments were 151 million units, a year-on-year increase of 94.3%, accounting for 74.3% of the mobile phone shipments in the same period.

As of the end of July, the cumulative 5G mobile phone shipments in the domestic market reached 327 million units.

　　In June of this year, Qualcomm released the Snapdragon 888 Plus chip, which is known as the most powerful 5G mobile phone chip at present. Compared with the previous generation of Qualcomm Snapdragon 888, the performance has increased by 20%.

The high-end mobile phones recently released intensively all use this chip without exception.

　　On August 10, Xiaomi MIX4 was unveiled, the world's first Snapdragon 888 Plus chip.

On August 12, Honor Magic 3 was released, and the highest configuration version also applied the Snapdragon 888 Plus chip. Qualcomm President and CEO An Meng also praised Honor’s chip optimization capabilities.

On August 17, the iQOO 8 Pro mobile phone application launched by the vivo sub-brand iQOO also used this chip.

　　5G mobile phones have long been the focus of domestic mobile phones.

According to the relevant person in charge of vivo, since the release of the first 5G mobile phone, vivo's multi-series product line and sub-brand iQOO have successively launched 5G mobile phones in different price ranges, allowing 5G technology to further sink from high-end flagship phones.

The person in charge of OnePlus said that in June 2017, the R&D team from Qualcomm formally participated in OnePlus' 5G project, and the two parties conducted joint research on the front-end devices and architecture of 5G equipment.

At present, all phones of OnePlus are 5G phones.

　　"With the Dongfeng of the 5G era, domestic manufacturers are competing to make efforts in the latest research and market promotion of 5G mobile phones, especially in communication transmission, application products suitable for 5G mobile phones, etc." said Wang Liping, senior consultant at Zhongcheng Think Tank.

　　Li Zhen, consulting manager of IDC's China Enterprise Research Department, believes that in the 5G era, domestic mobile phones should shift from a single product design and production to building the entire ecological chain, and deploy a series of products such as mobile phones, smart wearable devices, and smart city devices to form a more complete set of products. The product ecological network redefines the functions of mobile phones, making it one of the important products in the digital economy era.

　　"5G networks are further rolled out. 3G and 4G are relegating to the'second-tier'. 5G networks will become more popular and will also lead a new wave of phone replacement." Li Zhen said.

　　The overseas market occupies half of the country

　　A series of data shows that domestic mobile phones have occupied "half of the country" in overseas markets, and are among the top or even the first in sales of mobile phones in many countries.

　　The latest report released by the international research company Strategy Analytics shows that in the European market, Xiaomi surpassed Samsung and Apple with a market share of 25.3% to become the number one mobile phone brand in Europe.

At present, Xiaomi has ranked first in the market share of smartphones in 22 countries and regions.

　　According to statistics from Canalys Research, a market research organization, in the second quarter of this year, the smartphone brand realme continued to rank first in the Philippine mobile phone market, and for the first time won the top spot in the Bangladesh mobile phone market.

At the same time, realme ranks among the top five smartphone brands in 18 markets.

　　From the global market perspective, in July this year, Canalys Research released the ranking of the global smartphone market share in the second quarter. Xiaomi's mobile phone sales surpassed Apple, with a market share of 17%, and it was promoted to the world's second place for the first time; Samsung still ranked first. Position; OPPO and vivo are fourth and fifth respectively, with a market share of 10%.

　　In overseas markets, “domestic mobile phone brands such as Xiaomi, OPPO, vivo, Huawei and other top companies have gradually occupied and established a “half of the country”.” Wang Liping analyzed that an important reason is that these domestic top mobile phone companies are in foreign markets. Different market strategies have been adopted to actively expand overseas markets through various methods such as localized operations, localized services, special models supplied in different places, setting up research centers abroad, looking for foreign offline operators, and online operations.

　　Li Zhen believes that the formulation of localized overseas operation strategies for domestic mobile phones is relatively successful. For example, Xiaomi and vivo have established production plants in India, opened up local sales channels, developed localized products and services based on local conditions, and deeply explored user pain points in foreign markets.

　　“In addition, domestic mobile phones are increasingly focusing on brand and quality, and are developing 5G mobile phones with the development of the times, allowing consumers to experience better application scenarios and transmission speeds. At the same time, domestic mobile phones cover all models from high-end to low-end. There are many features, and the cost-effective advantage is obvious." Wang Liping said.

　　Domestic mobile phones focus on new highlights

　　The latest report released by the international data research company IDC shows that in the second quarter of this year, in the domestic mobile phone market, vivo ranked first in the domestic market with 18.6 million units shipped and 23.8% market share; OPPO shipped 16.5 million units Ranked second in terms of volume and 21.1% market share; Xiaomi and Apple ranked third and fourth with 13.04 million units and 8.6 million units respectively; while the glory that left Huawei and re-started with 6.9 million units shipped With a market share of 8.9%, it has entered the fifth place in the domestic market for the first time.

　　Taken together, these top mobile phone manufacturers account for nearly 80% of the domestic mobile phone market.

"In the domestic market, domestic brands have a wider layout, with high, medium and low-end models available. At the same time, because they are designed and produced locally and cost-effectively higher than those of Apple and Samsung, the recognition of domestic users has gradually increased. ." Li Zhen said.

　　Where is the highlight of the domestic mobile phone competition?

Wang Liping analyzed that different brands have slightly different focus points, mainly focusing on appearance, screen, camera, performance, battery life, and sound quality.

For example, Huawei's foldable mobile phone, vivo's fashionable selfie and extreme image series, etc., all reflect the efforts of domestic mobile phones in innovation.

　　In the future, driven by 5G networks, ultra-high-definition video live broadcast, massive data, and the Internet of Everything will gradually become reality.

Therefore, "stronger computing power, larger storage space, and smoother running interface are the most direct needs and concerns of consumers." Li Zhen said.

　　Will the overall mobile phone market continue to grow?

The answer is yes.

　　Wang Liping said that in the post-epidemic era, the public's consumption ability has gradually recovered, and the public's demand for diversification and quality of consumption upgrades has gradually increased.

At the same time, with the improvement of global 5G infrastructure, the advent of the 5G era will surely lead to further upgrades in mobile phone market consumption.

　　"There is still a lot of room for growth in the mobile phone market. On the one hand, mobile phones will be upgraded from multiple perspectives such as algorithms, computing power, storage, and peripherals as communication technology is updated. Mobile phones that subvert the current form are on the way; on the other hand, On the one hand, the downstream industry ecology is becoming more and more abundant, and the era of Internet of Everything is coming. Mobile phones will carry the sensor function of interconnection and play a more important role." Li Zhen said.