Xiaomi mobile phone has gone through a 10-year journey. From the first generation priced at 1,999 yuan to the Xiaomi MIX4 priced at 4,999 yuan. With the increase in cost investment in R&D technology, marketing, etc., Xiaomi’s mobile phones are now comparable to those of its competitors , Huawei . Xiaomi , which once used to be the standard for "prices", has also begun to increase its price significantly.
"Xiaomi has undergone great changes. It is growing step by step and growing step by step." On the evening of August 10, at the 2021 Lei Jun annual speech and Xiaomi autumn new product launch conference, Xiaomi Group founder, chairman and CEO O Lei Jun reviewed Xiaomi's 10 years, and announced the price of Xiaomi MIX4, and talked about the high-end road of Xiaomi mobile phones.
The theme of Lei Jun's speech is "My Dream, My Choice". The outside world understands that "high-end" may be one of Lei Jun's dreams and choices.
tried to tear off the "middle-low-end" tag
Recently, Xiaomi received good news: the IDC report of an international research company shows that in the second quarter of 2021, Xiaomi's mobile phone sales exceeded Apple , becoming the second in the world for the first time. The global market share reached 16.9%. In other words, for every six mobile phones sold around the world, there is a Xiaomi phone.
As soon as the data was released, Lei Jun's confidence was even stronger. Lei Jun shouted out Xiaomi’s next goal at the Xiaomi’s autumn new product launch conference on August 10: “In three years, it will win the world’s number one mobile phone sales.” In addition to being the number one in sales, Xiaomi also has a "high-end dream".
"In fact, when Xiaomi mobile phones first started, they started from the high-end. The first generation of Xiaomi mobile phones was the highest-end smartphone at that time." Lei Jun said at the press conference, however, later Xiaomi made the Redmi product for the mass user group, and the market response was good. On a global scale, it promoted the popularization of smartphones and the development of mobile Internet.
But Redmi has also greatly diluted the Xiaomi brand. In addition, its own lack of strength, Xiaomi has been misunderstood by many people as only doing mid- and low-end, and breakthroughs are imminent. Xiaomi, which occupies a large share of the overseas market with mid- and low-end mobile phones, is trying to "break the circle".
"What we need to do is to make a high-end product that is truly recognized by 'rime fans'." On the road to high-end, Lei Jun chose this path: pursue the peak experience regardless of everything, even if it is not perfect; believe in "rime fans" and rely on "rime fans".
officially started with Xiaomi 10. Xiaomi sounded the clarion call to impact the high-end market and described the achievements made by Xiaomi 10 as "a victory in the first battle". As of now, the cumulative sales of Xiaomi 10 series have reached 5.77 million units. In addition, Xiaomi 10S is still selling well. After the Xiaomi 10 series was sold well, Xiaomi began to take advantage of the victory. Three high-end phones, Xiaomi 11, Xiaomi 11Pro, and Xiaomi 11 Ultra, have been successively released. Among them, the user group of Xiaomi 11 Ultra is mainly "audioists" who love taking pictures on mobile phones, pursuing a peak camera experience. It won the first place in DXOMARK's global total score and dominated the list for 122 days.
"Xiaomi's high-end road has just begun now. We will continue to invest at any cost. I believe that Xiaomi's high-end road will definitely succeed!" Lei Jun said confidently.
"rice fries" look forward to what kind of high-end machine
Price and sales are often a contradiction. Can Xiaomi coexist now for the two goals of "second in sales in the world" and "high-end"? This is a question that needs to be solved. A reporter from Yinshi Finance found that many netizens have expressed different opinions on Xiaomi's "high-end" approach.
"Xiaomi has not yet found a point to reach the high-end and establish itself in the high-end."
"I hope Xiaomi can pay more attention to independent research and development, and do not rely too much on foreign suppliers, otherwise I still don't want to buy Xiaomi's high-end phones."
"The current Xiaomi phones do not feel that they have the same high recognition as Apple, Huawei, , Samsung, and other mobile phones."
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Xiaomi, which once won the market with its cost-effectiveness, faced different competitors after changing its strategy.
high-end phones must have high-end core technologies. On August 8, Xiaomi's official Weibo showed that in the past two years, Xiaomi's investment in technology research and development has increased with a compound growth rate of 30% per year. In addition to wired and wireless fast charging, it also has layout and output in chips.
As early as February this year, Lei Jun revealed that Xiaomi invested 10 billion yuan in R&D in 2020. Xiaomi will continue to maintain high investment in technology research and development in 2021, and is expected to increase by 30% to 40%. That is about 13 billion yuan to 14 billion yuan.
financial report shows that in 2020, Xiaomi's R&D investment was 9.3 billion yuan, an increase of 23.5% compared with 2019. In the first quarter of 2021, Xiaomi's R&D expenditure was 3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 61%. Although Xiaomi's R&D investment grew rapidly, it is still significantly behind mobile phone manufacturers such as Apple, Huawei and Samsung, and even lower than OPPO's level in 2019.
is in the mobile phone camp, and Xiaomi does not have any technology that has special advantages.
"Xiaomi spent money to invest in R&D to solve some problems of mobile phone heat, battery life, and screen, but there is still a gap between users' understanding of high-end mobile phones in their minds. "A "mi fan" said in an interview with Yinshi Finance reporter that MIUI has always been one of Xiaomi's core software businesses, but there are many bugs. If it is placed in the ranks of high-end machines, its performance is not stable.
Independent Telecom analyst Fu Liang once said in an interview with the media that Xiaomi phones have not yet fully established a high-end image in the minds of consumers, if it is only considered the hardware cost Xiaomi mobile phones rely on hardware to build up, and the price has increased significantly compared to before, but it has not brought about performance configurations for high-end products. But if Xiaomi has quality problems with a high-end mobile phone at this time, it will seriously affect its brand image, and quality problems may become a stumbling block to its road to high-end.
Xiaomi's today comes from "rice fans". Xiaomi's future, the high-end path that will take, can it go to "rice fans"?
