Electronics

On March 12, several research institutions have predicted that the situation of the mobile phone market in 2023 may still be not optimistic. According to the report of Strategy Analytics, a market research institution, global smartphone shipments are expected to decline slightly in 2023, with a year-on-year decrease of 1%, and a year-on-year increase of 3% in 2024. In addition, global mobile phone shipments will decline by 4% year-on-year in 2023 and rebound to a year-on-year growth of 2% in 2024.

Coincidentally, IDC released a report this month stating that in 2023, the global smartphone market will have fewer than 1.2 billion units shipped, a year-on-year decrease of 1.1%; "The shipment volume in the Chinese market is expected to be only 283 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 1.1%, according to Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation.".

In fact, the coldness of the mobile phone market this year is only a continuation of last year's "chill".

According to Trend Force data, smartphone brands had expected to drive channel inventory depletion through activities such as festivals and e-commerce promotions at the end of 2022, but the weak global economy continued to impact consumer confidence, resulting in lower overall market demand than expected, dragging down the progress of channel inventory depletion. According to the report, in the fourth quarter of 2022, the production of smart phones was about 301 million units, a year-on-year increase of 4%, and a year-on-year decrease of 15.5%. Finally, in 2022, the production of smart phones was 1.192 billion units, a year-on-year decrease of 10.6%, surpassing the annual recession at the beginning of the epidemic.

As for the continued downturn in the mobile phone market, industry views point out that the main reason is that affordable mobile phones have rapidly filled the market gap in recent years. Both mobile phone manufacturers and mobile phone chip manufacturers have begun to focus more on the mid or low end market, and the trend of various brands of mobile phones "rolling in" towards the mid and low end has emerged.

Industry observer Liang Zhenpeng pointed out that from the perspective of current mobile phone products, high-end mobile phones represented by Apple and Samsung are not innovative enough. In addition, the two camps of iOS and Android, which were originally divided, are increasingly converging. In this situation, many consumers are more inclined to save money and choose more affordable models. Even new growth points such as folding screens have not significantly boosted consumer enthusiasm, on the contrary, The new model is also rapidly entering the price "rolling in" stage.

The data also confirms this point. According to the Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report, in 2022, the sales volume of folding mobile phones with a price of 5000 to 9999 yuan in China increased to 69%. In the folding screen market, the sales volume of products with a price of 15000 yuan or above accounted for 21%, a significant year-on-year decrease of 41 percentage points. The sales volume of 10000 to 14999 yuan decreased to 10% from 20% in the same period last year; The sales volume in the price range of 5000 to 9999 yuan increased significantly by 51 percentage points year-on-year, reaching 69%.

In the face of the "inside roll" in the stock market, today's mobile phone manufacturers are paying more attention to the differentiation of product lines, striving to achieve high-end and affordable take-all, and maintaining revenue and profits as much as possible. Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report.

The iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro released by Apple last year are examples of line differentiation. The standard version starts at 5999 yuan, while the Pro version starts at 7999 yuan. Among them, the most notable "Smart Island" is not available on the standard version. The same strategy is also reflected in Samsung. Currently, among the Samsung mobile phones on sale in China, there are high-end models such as the Samsung W23 folding screen that start selling at 15999 yuan, as well as products such as the Galaxy S22 that range from 3000 to 4000 yuan.

Since this year, domestic mobile phone manufacturers seem to be paying more attention to the power parity market. On February 7th, OnePlus launched a new phone and OnePlus Ace2, which started at 3000 yuan or 4000 yuan for the flagship phone and lowered to 2799 yuan, directly targeting the mid-tier market. On February 13th, Lu Weibing, president of Xiaomi Group and general manager of Redmi brand, said that Red Rice would not be forced to reduce its price, but in order to popularize large memory, the price of the 512GB version of Redmi K60 released at the end of December last year was reduced by 300 yuan to 2999 yuan.

This change in the mobile phone market has also been transmitted to the chip market. According to the Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation report, recently, Qualcomm announced the release of a new processor, which is scheduled to be officially released on March 17. It is said that the model is the Snapdragon 7Gen2. According to industry views, compared to its high-end product, the chip has weakened in performance and is expected to decrease in price, Perhaps it will compete with MediaTek's Tianji 8100 and Tianji 9000 processors to gain more market share in the mid range mobile phone market.

Industry observer Hong Shibin said that for mobile phone manufacturers, adding code to the parity market is a more rational and realistic choice, but fundamentally, this move does not solve the fundamental problem of insufficient innovation in mobile phone products, as there is also a price floor for parity products. Breaking the "inside roll" may even require the industry's leading role and injecting vitality into the market in innovation. Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report.