Mobile Phone Manufacturers In The Absence Of Core: Cost Pressure And Aiot Ecology

? ? ? ? Although the lack of core situation has structural relief, but the rise in the price of yuan accessories is actually continuing. With the coming of the industry peak season in the second half of the year, this will further popularize the price segment of 5g mobile phones and bring certain challenges.

? ? ? At present, in the second half of 2021, the 5g mobile phones released by mobile phone manufacturers are still competing at the medium and high-end prices, but not entering the lower price range in large quantities. This is obviously different from the initial industry forecast of large-scale popularization of 5g mobile phones at 1000 yuan.

? ? ? The reason is that the high-end 5g mobile phone chip inventory is sufficient, but the low-end 5g mobile phone chip is lack. Xu Qi, vice president of realme and President of China, recently told the 21st century economic reporter that the current price rise of raw materials is continuing, which makes it inevitable for mobile phone terminal manufacturers to face the problem of appropriate deployment of product launch rhythm and positioning, and lead to the price range of some flag ship models to be launched in the future. Of course, "quality price ratio" is still the core strategy of the brand.

? ? ? ? At the same time, under the wave of 5g, in addition to launching mobile phone products more frequently, more comprehensive aiot ecology is deployed, and it is even hoped that a better sense of interaction will bring certain challenges to the existing pattern of old brand large factories, which is also a promising competitive situation.

Core failure tests decision-making efficiency

? ? ?“ The shortage of SOC chips for mobile phones has been changing, which means that the company's strategy needs to be adjusted appropriately all the time. " An insider from a mobile phone manufacturer told the 21st century economic reporter. At the beginning of this year, he pointed out that 4G mobile phone chips were the most lacking in the industry. At that time, the view was that the lack of core would be improved in the second half of this year, but it has not been the case today.

? ? ?“ Considering that consumers in some countries do not have complete deployment of 5g infrastructure and are not willing to change their phones, under the condition of 4G core shortage, our original strategy was to implement 5g sinking this year, so as to replace some consumers who would prefer to buy 4G mobile phones. But now we find that low-end 5g SOC chips are also in short supply, and they can't sink any more. " This is a microcosm of the company's strategy that needs to be adjusted appropriately this year.

From the perspective of business decision-making, today's phenomenon is also understandable. Compared with the already mature 4G chip market, 5g SOC chip has a higher profit margin. Large head chip manufacturers naturally prefer to produce high profit product series. However, the situation of core shortage is not alleviated as a whole. Therefore, it is not a proper judgment to launch low-end 5g SOC chips at this stage.

This can be seen from a series of new mobile phone products released in succession recently. Manufacturers including Xiaomi, Rongrong and vivo have released new mobile phones in the second half of the year mostly in the middle and high-end price range.

Although sprint to the middle and high-end market is the unified strategic direction of mainstream mobile phone brands in recent years, this trend will inevitably affect the better popularization of 5g mobile phones in current nodes.

Fortunately, the 5g mobile phone with medium and high-end price is not low in technology. For example, the iqoo 8 series recently released by vivo sub brand is matched with 120W ultra fast flash charging and 2K super retinal screen; And it is the first ultrasound 3D wide area fingerprint technology jointly developed with Qualcomm in China. According to reports, this will be 11.1 times larger than the ordinary fingerprint technology under the screen, and the unlocking speed will be increased by 38.7%. The price range of this series is about 3800-6000 yuan.

From another perspective, vivo takes the lead in carrying the emerging fingerprint unlocking technology, which also has a closer connection with Qualcomm.

Realme has a relatively rich series of products launched this year. Xu Qi told the 21st century economic reporter that changes in the supply chain can sometimes be "caught off guard"“ So we have some products this year, and some rhythms have been slightly affected. But I think the overall response to the general trend is OK, because we deploy earlier. Of course, there are some product lines that will suddenly have a small iteration version. The reason is that, on the one hand, it can supplement the demand of more consumers, and it is also affected by the supply chain to a certain extent. "

According to the master Exploration Series released recently, Xu Qi said that the current market feedback of the product is very good, resulting in a slight shortage of supply. It is reported that the price of the series is about 2400-3000 yuan.

"The lack of core is really a big pain point. The overall trend is good, but there will still be a shortage in the second half of the year. " Xu continued that the prices of raw materials such as storage and screen are all rising, and the relationship between supply and demand will certainly lead to the trend of price increase, which will be the pressure that every terminal manufacturer will face.

He stressed to reporters, "I believe that even in the case of price hikes in the whole industry, we will still do a good job in quality price ratio and provide more competitive products at the same price range. This is what realme has always wanted to promise to consumers."

Xu Qi told the 21st century economic report that in the second half of the year, realme will launch several heavy products with quality price ratio; In terms of price segment, with the appearance of some more flagship configurations, "maybe our price segment has a little bit of exploration, which is also our overall (development strategy) trend."

In view of the tight supply chain situation, Xu Qi believes that the real large-scale coverage of 5g at 1000 yuan will be delayed until the second half of next year.

Accelerate the deployment of aiot ecology

Entering the red sea battle stage, simple mobile phone products have long been insufficient to form the moat of competition between brands. Especially in the 5g era, the popularity of more intelligent terminals has also accumulated the foundation for rich intelligent interconnection ecology. This has become the reason why many mobile phone brands are expanding to aiot product types.

Among them, apple, based on its relatively closed IOS system and its multi terminal interconnection experience, is the industry leader. Undoubtedly, apple is a manufacturer with obvious strong ecological capacity.

More emphasis on the experience of terminal interconnection has become one of the core goals pursued by mainstream brand manufacturers. Realme recently launched its first notebook product to emphasize this point.

It is reported that realme's aiot strategy is "1 + 5 + T", 1 is mobile phone, and 5 includes wearable, smart TV, notebook, tablet and audio. Before that, it has basically completed the deployment in these fields, and has accumulated in the domestic market for about two years except notebook and tablet.

"In recent years, it has become a trend for mobile phone brands to do aiot, and because the mobile phone industry has grasped the core terminals used by users, mobile phone brands can gradually bring some subversion in various fields." According to Xu Qi, realbook is the first generation of notebook products of the brand. Next, based on the continuous extension of notebook business line, it will create a product line belonging to the low, medium and high series of realme book.

Referring to the performance of peers, the biggest enlightenment Apple has brought to the mobile phone industry is the feature of Internet. Xu Qi pointed out that, for realme, in the next few years, how to make everything connected and further integrated; How to improve the user experience and software between the products will be the next focus. At the same time, Apple's sense of design leadership is also very strong, realme will naturally continue to explore the design because of its positioning of young user portraits.

However, supply chain preparation should also be considered. In an interview, Xu Qi said that at present, the supply chain of notebook computers is relatively mature, and most of them can share the supply chain with mobile phones, such as storage, display screen, shell mold opening, etc.

"These are the advantages we have accumulated on the supply chain side for a long time. Although the supply chain will be out of stock in the past two years, we have made corresponding preparations and deployment very early, so we can launch products with good performance and comprehensive strength in this period of time. " He pointed out that realme had actually planned notebook products more than a year in advance, so the supply chain was relatively well prepared.

From a macro perspective, with more and more mobile phone manufacturers planning to launch laptops and tablets in the future, it is not ruled out that new adjustments will be brought to the existing market structure.

Xu Qi believes that "the Chinese market has been working in the traditional PC industry for a longer time, and is relatively in a relatively obvious leading position. In the mobile phone industry into the PC industry soon, it is certainly difficult to subvert the entire industry. But we can also see that in recent years, mobile phone brands, including apple and Huawei, have been relatively successful (in this category). It should be said that they have brought some influence and changes to the overall pattern of the PC industry. I feel that with the development of mobile Internet, different mobile phone manufacturers may enter this track, and the pattern of PC industry will still change. "

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