Flip phones are still being released in 2022? Why is Japan so popular in the manufacturing industry?

Recently, Japanese telecommunications company KDDI and Casio have collaborated to launch a mobile phone called "the most powerful flip phone in history" - G'zOne TYPE-XX. The biggest feature of this phone is its durability. For example, it can remain strong even after being soaked in water for half an hour, and it will not break even if it is dropped from a height of nearly two meters onto a steel plate.

In addition, it is also dustproof, moisture-proof, sun-proof, low-pressure-proof, and freeze-proof. It is no exaggeration to say that this phone is as "anti-shock" as Nokia back then. However, some people have questioned why Japanese mobile phone manufacturers are still launching flip phones in 2022? And with a strong manufacturing industry like Japan, why are its mobile phones now almost ignored except for its own people?

Although Japanese mobile phones are rarely seen now, it was not the case in the early years. Brands such as Sony and Sharp had good sales worldwide. However, now, let alone the global market, the domestic market share in Japan is being taken away by foreign brands.

According to relevant statistics, Apple, Huawei, and Samsung alone account for more than 75% of the Japanese mobile phone market, while Sony and Sharp only account for about 12% of the market, and the rest is divided among other brands. From this, we can see that the survival space of Japanese mobile phones is already very limited, and there are two main reasons for this.

First, it does not meet market demand. For example, the reason why domestic mobile phones have been developing better and better in recent years is mainly because they "focus on what users need". For example, Huawei's imaging strength has always been the top one among mobile phones of the same generation; Xiaomi's screen and sound quality have also become top-notch; Black Shark's configuration experience in gaming is even first-class...

On the other hand, Sony phones either have short battery life, overheat easily, or poor camera pixels. Moreover, the various functions they introduced are also very strange, such as infrared phone book, infrared exchange mailbox, solar panels, fortune-telling software, etc. It can be said that most of the time, ordinary users cannot use them.

Another problem is the high premium. With similar configurations, Japanese mobile phones such as Sony are priced one or two thousand more than our domestic mobile phones, and some are even more expensive than Apple's iPhone. It is simply a high price with low configuration. Under such circumstances, it is normal for the market share of Japanese local brands to continue to shrink.

In fact, it is not difficult to see from the flip phones mentioned above that Japanese mobile phone manufacturers have an inexplicable "conservatism" in overall design. If this trend continues, it will not be surprising if local brands are completely eliminated in the future. I also hope that our domestic mobile phones will learn from this and develop better and better in the future!