takes new ideas to seize the market.
On the evening of April 11, vivo announced the first folding screen product at its new product launch conference.
As far as the product itself is concerned, this phone called "vivo X Fold" does not have much disruptive innovation, but when the starting price of 8,999 yuan was announced, the barrage still became "very fragrant": , a folding screen phone priced at less than 10,000 yuan, is really attractive.
Time goes back to 2018, foldable screen mobile phones "begin to the peak" . Royole Technology has brought a new form to smartphones. Then Samsung and Huawei quickly followed up and launched related products.
But compared to the amazing folding screen, 's fragile screen, expensive price, incompatible software, and eye-catching creases ... all of these common problems have been criticized. This puts the folding screen phones with a "flashy" label and a subsequent bleak market share.
Three years have passed, and the smartphone industry has gradually entered the stock market. The four leading manufacturers of "Rongmi OV" have fallen into the internal conversion for sales, while still trying every means to impact the high-end market exclusively of Apple .
At this time, they noticed the folding screen mobile phone. This concept of "full of imagination" was once again highly expected by manufacturers.
new era of foldable screen mobile phones?
Within one month before and after 2022, OPPO and Honor successively launched their first folding screen mobile phones, OPPO Find N and Honor Magic V. Including the updated vivo X Fold and the Xiaomi mix fold released a year ago, the four mobile phone manufacturers have completed the layout of folding screen mobile phones.
Compared with Xiaomi , the other three companies can be regarded as the " new player " in the folding screen mobile market, and vivo even claims to bring about the "2.0 era of folding screen mobile phones".
So we can take out these four products and see what progress has been made by folding screen mobile phones this year.
is the screen first. All three companies adopt the left and right folding design. Compared with Xiaomi, the other three companies have greatly improved the screen refresh rate. In addition, OV companies have switched to the better quality UTG glass , so it is more wear-resistant when folded.
In terms of hinge solution, Xiaomi's solution is relatively backward, and consumers generally report serious creases. The other three companies have changed the hinge design to reduce the occurrence of creases. Among them, vivo uses floating wing hinges and is very creative. Through a support solution, the depression screen is directly supported, thereby reducing the occurrence of creases in appearance.
In terms of the folded external screen design, the external screen of Xiaomi Mix folder is obviously too narrow due to the limitations of screen technology, and netizens complained about it as a "remote control". The other three manufacturers have achieved the closest ratio to straight-panel mobile phones, which is more suitable for daily use. In other aspects, the four mobile phones have their own advantages and disadvantages, but the overall configuration is still based on the standard of " flagship mobile phone ", so in terms of price, the starting price of folding screen phones is not cheap. Among them, the cheapest oppo starts at 7,699 yuan, while Honor and Xiaomi start at 9,999 yuan.
However, compared with Samsung and Huawei's models that cost tens of thousands of yuan, these four folding screen products can be regarded as "extremely cost-effective" .
But has the cost-effectiveness really brought the market? Not to mention the last three companies that have just entered the market, Xiaomi’s cost-effective strategy does not have an advantage in the folding machine market.
According to IDC China data, Huawei and Samsung account for nearly 80% of the market share of foldable mobile phones in 2021, while Xiaomi Mix folder has less than 15%, and this is still amid the repeated price cuts.
"Above 6,000 yuan, the competition is brand power. " A mobile phone dealer commented on the high-end mobile phone market like this.Obviously, the brand power mentioned here is Samsung and Huawei, which occupy two seats in the high-end mobile phone market.
impacts Apple, we cannot just go one way
"to impact the high-end market."
After the battle in 2021, Rongmi OV has gained little in the high-end market.
According to the latest research report by Counterpoint Research, in 2021, the market share of Android smartphones at prices above US$600 in China shrank from 44.6% in 2020 to 36.5% in 2021.
In other words, since Huawei left the high-end market, the four giants not only did not grab it, but were snatched by Apple. In the final analysis, the brand power of the four giants in the high-end market is far from comparable to Apple's .
Among them, although Honor has made rapid progress, it is criticized for being "full of Huawei"; although the two OV brothers have gotten rid of the label of "high price and low configuration", they are slightly inferior in online marketing. Xiaomi, which "pursuing cost-effectiveness", finds it difficult to get rid of the brand burden of , and its target users and high-end consumers are difficult to overlap.
In contrast, Apple has accumulated a large number of loyal customer groups in the high-end market with its excellent iOS system ecosystem. These users will continue to consider changing to Apple when changing phones, rather than buying Android's "cost-performance flagship phones".
Of course, subverting the old brand image is a common challenge among the four manufacturers. Especially after the mobile phones entered the stock market, it is difficult for the four manufacturers to discover new users from Apple in the high-end market.
is a lack of innovative flagship phones, and on the other hand, it is increasingly expensive. On the contrary, Apple continues to lower the price and becomes the cost-effective party.
Since it is difficult to break through with internal reel , folding screen mobile phones have become another means to rebuild the brand . However, on this road, Huawei and Samsung are ahead of Rongmi OV again.
A mobile phone seller claimed that he had figured out the sales routines of mainstream foldable screen phones: "Generally speaking, for business or gifts, it is recommended directly by Huawei Mate X2. Most girls like to buy Huawei P50 Pocket and Samsung Z Flip."
In his opinion, compared with traditional mobile phones, there are not many types of foldable screen phones, because users do not have the opportunity to choose, and they will basically directly buy the best-selling styles, so the sales gap is very obvious. And in this invisible, user stickiness arises. When users form stickiness, they basically complete their trust in a brand.
For Rongmi OV, user trust is the key to their lack of in the high-end market. Although the
foldable screen phone seems to be "not in great demand", it can at least tell a better story. In short, although this path is difficult to follow, it has to be followed for Rongmi OV.
Conclusion
At present, except for Apple, the Android camp has all completed "folding", and this track will also usher in rapid growth in 2022.
According to the research report of the panel supply chain research agency DSCC, in the third quarter of 2021, the shipment of foldable screen mobile phones has reached 2.6 million units, a month-on-month increase of 215% and a year-on-year increase of 480%. It is estimated that by 2022, the shipment of folding screen mobile phone market will reach 17.5 million units. The data prediction of more than 10 million units of
means that foldable screen mobile phones have officially entered the threshold of consumer-grade product . Against this background, an excellent folding screen product can easily become a hit, and every manufacturer is unwilling to miss this opportunity.
In contrast, the replacement cycle of the traditional mobile phone market is getting longer and longer, and even Apple's "iPhone SE strategy" is in trouble.
From the current point of view, although folding screen mobile phones are a stage of "loss money and gaining publicity", at least it is one of the few products that can make consumers look forward to .
This is enough for domestic mobile phone manufacturers who are looking forward to "high-end dream".
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