2020 may be the most unforgettable year for this generation.
It is so special that many people are deeply moved and unforgettable.
In business, some people say that in 2020, the whole business society is like being pressed the accelerator button. This seems to make some sense. In the accelerated scenario in 2020, some companies or models were put on hold this year. But at the same time, during this year, many new models appeared, which accelerated many new things and brought many new opportunities.
Looking back on the past year,
We saw the help of the takeaway, the network car driver and the courier brother;
We have experienced the prosperity of online conference, online education and telemedicine, the outbreak of live broadcast and the rise of network celebrity economy.
We have witnessed the 5G base station climbing the 6,500m Mount Everest, the breakthrough of Pinduoduo, the rising trend, the turmoil of iQiyi, the persistence of Huawei and the dilemma of Ali.
"... the night now gives way to the ocean of the sun, and the old year melts in freshness. "No matter who or big changes, we can see their tall vitality again in the spring breeze.
Sohu Technology will review the big events, big companies, big changes and "little people" in the field of science and technology and the Internet in the past year through a series of reports, and show the power of "vitality".
This article is the fourth in a series of reports, reviewing the restless year of the mobile phone industry.
Produced by | Sohu Technology
Author | Zhang Yating, Jin Yang
Edit | Jin Yang
"This is the spring of hope, this is the winter of disappointment."
Just like Dickens' opening remarks in A Tale of Two Cities, in 2020, the shares of Huawei, Xiaomi, vivo and OPPO also changed. At the same time, brands such as Yijia and realme are no longer partial, but are limited to "small and beautiful" and begin to attack the mass market.
This year, domestic 5G mobile phones accounted for more than half, and head manufacturers took the 5G fast lane; This year, manufacturers launched a concept machine with black technology such as off-screen camera and scrolling screen to explore new forms of mobile phone evolution.
This year, the epidemic has swept the world, and the mobile phone supply chain and offline sales channels are facing a "life and death test"; Mobile phone shipments continued to decline this year, and manufacturers increased new categories such as smart headphones and smart watches to seek new growth points.
Under the superposition of geopolitics, epidemic situation and other factors, the competition among mobile phone brands will be particularly fierce and dramatic in 2020: Huawei fell to the altar after briefly reaching the top of the world, and threatened to surpass Huawei and take the first place after glory and independence. Xiaomi returned to the third place in the world after six years, and the young dark horse realme has the fastest growth in the world for four consecutive quarters, ranking seventh.
Under the torrent of the times, manufacturers go forward bravely and never stop. Foxconn's difficult return to work under the epidemic situation is exciting; In the face of the blow, Huawei's attitude of "together" and "no one can extinguish the starlight" is moving; Apple finally launched the first 5G mobile phone, which means that 5G is fully commercialized in the mobile phone industry. ......................................................................................................................................................
Market share is changing.
The impact of the epidemic and Huawei's obstruction can be said to be the biggest variables in the industry in 2020.
On the one hand, under the epidemic, the production and sales of mobile phones are affected to some extent, and the mobile phone industry in 2020 is experiencing a cold winter of sales. Counterpoint data shows that global mobile phone shipments in the first three quarters of this year decreased 15.6%, 23% and 4% respectively. As far as the China market is concerned, according to the data of Information and Communication Technology Research Institute, the cumulative shipment of smartphones during this year1-110,000 units decreased by 2 1. 1% compared with the same period of last year.
On the other hand, Huawei's mobile phone shipments are directly affected by the largest component chip of mobile phones, and the market space brought by its "passive" changes is also profoundly affecting the pattern of the entire smart phone market.
Despite setbacks in overseas markets, Huawei has benefited from great achievements in the domestic market. In the past three quarters, Huawei has surpassed Apple and Samsung, and briefly sat at the top of the global smartphone market.
The impact of the new round of sanctions is very direct. The recoil of the third ban began to appear in the third quarter. Many products of Huawei are out of stock. Some users waited for nearly a month after purchasing nova7, and Glory 30 with Kirin 985 chip (under the banner of Huawei at that time) was directly out of stock. So far, the official channels are still out of stock.
Subsequently, Huawei returned to second place, and the gap with Samsung was widened. Huawei's global market share also dropped sharply from 20% in Q2 to 65,438+04.7% in the third quarter. On the other hand, Xiaomi rose from 10.2% in Q2 to 13. 1% in Q3, and returned to the third place in the world after six years.
In China, Huawei's share in the China market still ranks first due to its absolute advantage of over 40% in the past and the sentiment of "supporting Huawei" in the domestic consumer market.
In the western European market where Huawei had an absolute advantage in the past, Xiaomi and OPPO achieved rapid growth this year.
According to the data of Konashe's European mobile phone market, in the first quarter, Huawei fell by 35%, Xiaomi increased by 58% year-on-year, and OPPO increased by 10 times; In the second quarter, Huawei fell by 17%, and Xiaomi rose by 65%, surpassing Huawei to rank third; In the third quarter, Huawei decreased by 3 1%, Xiaomi increased by 9 1%, and OPPO increased by about 4 times.
The brand is waiting for the opportunity.
In the past, the stable market structure began to reshuffle, and behind the change of share, we can also see the timely adjustment made by major mobile phone brands in the face of market changes.
On1October 30th this year, 10, Huawei, which was in the third round of US sanctions, released the most important Mate40 series mobile phones in flagship machine as scheduled in China. In the face of adversity, Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei's consumer business, responded with a short film "Together", thanking consumers, developers and partners along the way, saying that no matter how difficult it is, "Together!"
At the same time, Huawei made a big move of "selling glory". Huawei defines this behavior as "self-help initiated by the glory-related industrial chain", which is based on "unsustainable acquisition of industrial technology elements and great pressure on consumer business".
For glory, independence can make its channels and suppliers continue, and it also "breeds" more growth space for glory, especially in the high-end market. However, it is hard to say whether the new glory will be restricted, and there are reports that glory is communicating with Qualcomm. On the other hand, in terms of identity, Xin Rongyao will also change from Huawei's "brother" to "opponent".
At the same time, Huawei began to further expand its layout in multi-industry collaboration, and the fields of wear, car, big screen and PC blossomed in an all-round way. While exploring new unknown boundaries, it also brings more possibilities to the industry. OPPO and vivo also launched the first smart watch products this year, and increased the layout in headphones, big-screen TVs and other aspects, expanding business diversity, and also preparing for the upcoming 5G Internet of Everything era.
There is a "crack" in the stable pattern, and major brands are waiting for opportunities to compete with each other. Zhao Ming, CEO of Glory, put forward at the internal communication meeting that the goal is to become the first in the domestic mobile phone market.
Lei Jun said that "Xiaomi's goal next year is to reach the top of Europe". Xiaomi released two models of flagship machine Xiaomi 10 and Xiaomi 1 1 for the first time this year. Behind the frequent new machines, we can also see Xiaomi's ambition for the high-end market.
OPPO, Xiaomi and vivo accelerate the expansion of overseas markets. OPPO established its headquarters in Western Europe in Dü sseldorf, Germany in May this year, and then opened the largest flagship store in Western Europe in Hamburg, Germany. Recently, it invested about $50 million in the Turkish market. At the same time, in the middle of this year, it also reached a strategic cooperation with Telecom America, the largest telecom operator in Latin America, and entered Mexican and other Latin American markets through Telcel and Claro (the operator of Telecom America).
Adhering to the principle of "only doing high-end", we began to test the Nord series of mid-range products this year, which have been released in India and will be introduced to China in the future. In addition to the expansion of the mid-range product line, Yijia is also overweight the domestic market. In a recent internal letter, Liu bluntly said that he would "strive to be the first online high-end product in China" next year.
Fortunately, domestic brands still play a leading role in both the China market and the global smartphone market. In TOP7, except for Apple and Samsung, all the others are China brands. Therefore, Huawei's "let" share, whether it flows to Xiaomi, vivo, OPPO or one plus, realme, is still "rotten in the pot" in a sense.
5G plays the leading role
Joining the 5G camp is the general trend of the mobile phone industry in 2020. Last year, 65438+ 10, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced the official launch of 5G commercialization, and the curtain of the 5G era slowly opened. Huawei seized the opportunity in the 5G market, and launched the 5nm process 5G SOC Kirin 9000 and the most difficult 5G mobile phone Mate 40. Its nova7 series mobile phones ranked first in the national 5G mobile phone sales list in the third quarter of this year.
Apple, which thought 5G was too early last year, finally arrived late. This year's iPhone 12 series is equipped with the first 5nm process 5G chip A 14.
Glory has said that it wants to popularize 5G, and will implement the strategic layout from three stalls: "top flagship, high-end flagship and light flagship". Realme announced the "all-round 5G" strategy, and launched realme V3 as low as 999 yuan, bringing the price of 5G mobile phones to 1,000 yuan for the first time. With the 5G flagship mobile phone Xiaomi 10, Xiaomi has gained a firm foothold in the high-end market.
The result of mobile phone manufacturers' efforts in 5G is the rapid deepening of the penetration rate of 5G mobile phones. According to the data of ICT Institute, before this year 1 1 month, the cumulative shipment of 5G mobile phones in the domestic market was 654.38+44 million, accounting for 5 1.4%. However, the emergence of 5G mobile phones has not improved the current situation of sluggish sales in the mobile phone market.
Glory Zhao Ming once described 2020 as "the darkest hour". He believes that the sudden epidemic has brought a biting cold current to the mobile phone market from 4G to 5G. In order to survive the cold winter, the whole industrial chain should rely on each other for support.
Black technology brings new expectations.
In 2020, the main models of manufacturers are still being snapped up. For example, when Mate 40 and iPhone 12 were just released, major e-commerce platforms began to sell seconds of light, and the scalper channel purchased a maximum price increase of more than 3,000 yuan, and offline stores lined up.
The main reasons for the looting of these popular models are brand bonuses and the extension and upgrading of existing technologies. For example, Mate 40 is mainly equipped with out-of-print Kirin chips, and 5G performance is stronger than other manufacturers; The main selling point of iPhone 12 is Apple's first 5G mobile phone, and the performance of A 14 chip is 80% higher than that of the previous generation.
It is undeniable that the upgrading of existing technologies such as fast charging, camera shooting and chip performance will enhance the user experience. For example, due to high power consumption, the battery life of 5G mobile phones has become a big challenge, and major manufacturers have introduced super 10W fast charging technology, which can better improve the related user experience.
At the same time, there are still users who expect mobile phones to achieve deeper innovation. Therefore, major manufacturers began to actively try the application of new technologies such as off-screen cameras and folding screens. Despite the difficulties, they did not slow down the pace of trying to innovate.
This year, ZTE grabbed the world's first off-screen camera phone AXON 2020, and vivo released APEX 2020, which has technologies such as 120 all-in-one screen, off-screen camera, 5-7.5 times periscope continuous optical zoom, etc., but because it is a concept model, it will not achieve mass production and sales. Xiaomi has also introduced technologies such as off-screen camera and telescopic large aperture lens, which have not yet achieved commercial mass production.
In terms of folding screen technology, Samsung, Motorola, Yu Rou and other manufacturers have released a variety of folding screen mobile phones. However, folding screens are still a niche. Zhou Hua, chief analyst of the display industry of data research institution CINNO Research, once told Sohu Technology that flexible screen is a relatively cutting-edge technology, which is not particularly mature in general, and the technical route and material selection have not yet been determined.
It should be pointed out that although various black technologies have not been widely used, users can see the direction of current manufacturers in the field of hard technology and perceive the shape of future smart phones.
Apple has also made some bold "new attempts" this year, such as canceling the free charging head and headphones. As a result, consumers spit a lot, but manufacturers follow suit. For example, Xiaomi 1 1 also launched a standard version without a charger, which may be the biggest "innovation" that Apple brought to the industry this year.
After 2020, all kinds of black swan events occur frequently, and the words such as epidemic situation, supply interruption and "swan song" are exciting. But no matter how unyielding and difficult it is, manufacturers never stop moving forward.