With the slowdown in functional innovation, what else can domestic mobile phone ROMs compete for?

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Since Google services have never been able to enter the Chinese market, mobile phone ROMs have formed a very peculiar pattern in China: each lord develops its own ROM based on Google's Android operating system, and derives its own cloud services, application stores, browsers and other products based on ROMs to build a mobile phone ecosystem. Under this pattern, domestic high-quality ROMs represented by MIUI and Flyme were born, and domestic mobile phone ROMs represented by MIUI and Flyme have made many efforts in the stage of functional supplementation.

In the two recent Zealer programs, Zealer founder Wang Ziru repeatedly said that MIUI can no longer be mythical, and that domestic mobile phone ROMs have gone through the stage of functional innovation. In 2015, domestic mobile phone ROMs have increasingly returned to the basis of user experience.

Indeed, in 2015, in the domestic ROM competition environment, the practice of functional supplementation is becoming less and less, and each company is gradually making in-depth efforts in the four major directions of bottom-level optimization, product tonality, system security, and ecological construction. It can be said that the competition of domestic mobile phone ROMs has reached a new turning point.

Functional supplementation stage: MIUI and Flyme dominate

In the past competition landscape, MIUI developed by Xiaomi and Flyme developed by Meizu were both leaders in the traditional competition environment. Meizu's Flyme set its design style since the M8 era, and its design direction has been through the M9 and MX generations, and it has been developed for 5 years. It has gradually developed. Xiaomi's MIUI started by adapting to popular models, and finally developed its own style, and has been developed for 7 generations.

Born in the wild era of Google Android, MIUI and Flyme have made additions to Android's functionality and usability. Now both are quite mature and each has a large number of fans and supporters.

Both MIUI and Flyme are based on Google's Android operating system. With the upgrades of the system, the system UI has lost the trace of native Android. In addition to adding more operating habits that are in line with the Chinese people's own, the system also incorporates Xiaomi and Meizu's different understandings of "user experience".

It can be said that in the competitive landscape of domestic Roms, MIUI and Flyme are the two kings. They are textbook-like existences among domestic Roms and have led the way for the innovative development of various Roms thereafter.

The era of addition is over: functional innovation has slowed down

MIUI and Flyme's weekly update practices were quickly learned by other companies. The rapid updates of various companies quickly brought about comprehensive functional improvements to domestic mobile phone ROMs in the wild era of Google Android, and also solved a series of user pain points. However, this improvement has marginal effects, and the accumulation of functions has quickly led to the homogenization of domestic ROMs.

This is actually determined by many factors. On the one hand, each company pays tribute to MIUI and Flyme, which makes the shadow of MIUI and Flyme visible in other domestic ROMs. For example, MIUI's iOS-like rounded rectangle and drop-down notification bar have profoundly influenced products such as LeWa and Huawei Emotion UI. Flyme's flat and fresh design has become the forefather of domestic ROMs such as LeEUI and 360OS.

On the other hand, according to OnePlus founder Liu Zuohu, there is a strange phenomenon in the domestic OS market, which is to try every means to change Android to be more like "iOS", or to make a lot of skins, and simply regard making ROM as a process of changing the UI. This is a very old idea. If it is just a simple UI or skin change, this is a job with a very low threshold.

The continuous improvement of Google Android's own functionality and aesthetics has also left domestic ROM innovation space increasingly limited. After the birth of Android 5.0 based on the Material Design concept, some functional modules have a better experience than iOS, but domestic companies are still making major changes to the system, and even blindly copying iOS. This has caused the development of domestic mobile phone ROMs to fall into a kind of abnormal state.

In addition to functional innovation, what else can domestic mobile phone ROMs compete on?

After the functional innovation stage, the homogeneity tendency of domestic mobile phone ROMs has become more and more serious, and the innovation in basic functions has long been exhausted. What else can domestic mobile phone ROMs compete for at this time? Bottom-layer optimization, product tonality, system security, and ecological construction have all become the ways of play for each company.

1. Bottom-level optimization

Zealer founder Wang Ziru repeatedly emphasized this point when reviewing Nut phones and OnePlus 2:

80% or even more of the time, the mobile phone ROM experience is determined by heavily used and popular apps such as Weibo and WeChat. Their usability and quality largely determine the quality of the mobile phone ROM.

This view is actually contrary to the pursuit of exquisiteness and beauty by major mobile phone manufacturers in the past. This requirement actually requires the underlying optimization of mobile phone Rom to be constantly improved. In 2015, we are seeing this change in Xiaomi's MIUI 7, Meizu's Flyme4.5 and even 360OS.

MIUI 7 has not made too many adjustments in terms of functions and appearance, and even the system version number has not been upgraded to Android 5.0 but Android 4.4. Some people say that MIUI 7 is just a new skin, but MIUI 7 focuses on optimizing system response speed, background power consumption, CPU performance, and setting special power saving strategies for popular applications one by one. All of these practices are efforts on underlying optimization. Flyme was nicknamed Bugme in the past, but in Flyme4.5, we did not see too many changes in appearance, but instead saw the application of Android 5.0, and also saw that many system instability phenomena are being solved one by one. 360OS is defined as safe, light, power-saving, no jamming, and no overheating, which completely changes the user pain points brought by the Android system and provides users with the best operating experience.

2. Product tonality

In terms of product tonality, OnePlus' Hydrogen OS and Hammer's Hammer ROM are the most typical representatives. One pursues lightness and fun, while the other advocates feelings and experience.

OnePlus Hydrogen OS abandons the concept of "either flat or skeuomorphic", uses some abstract image animations and elements to present content, and adjusts the information architecture to achieve harmony with Material Design, which emphasizes concrete materials and physical relationship simulation. This method of pursuing simple happiness has won the admiration and love of a group of "young people with taste".

Since its birth, Hammer Rom has insisted on taking the realistic route. All icons have been redesigned, incorporating details of "Lao Luo's feelings" and insisting on many obsessive-compulsive design features. This has made Hammer Rom loved and pursued by a large number of "sentimental young people".

OnePlus' Hydrogen OS and Hammer ROM have carved out a path in the monopoly of MIUI and Flyme by emphasizing "tone", and have also formed their own differentiated competitive advantages.

3. System security

System security has always been the weakest area of ​​the Android system. However, this has also become a competitive point that mobile phone manufacturers represented by 360 OS are focusing on.

Zhou Hongyi once explained in an internal letter why he decided to enter the mobile phone industry. He believed that the current security threats on mobile phones are growing exponentially and have reached a critical point. Once an outbreak occurs, without strong security protection, there will be huge losses and it will be too late to cry. “Therefore, we must deeply intervene in the underlying operating system and build real mobile phone security on this basis to achieve the sense of security that users demand.” Dual SIM dual standby, dual WeChat, independent systems, 360 Security VPN, and SMS isolation and encryption have given 360 OS a certain competitive advantage.

4. Ecological construction

Ecosystem construction has actually always been the best done by MIUI and Flyme, but when we see LeEUI of LeETV Super Phone also mentioning this competition point, we can actually see that the integration of many functions at the ecosystem level is actually a very important direction for Rom competition. In this regard, MIUI actually goes further. The implantation of underlying ecosystems such as Xiaomi Finance, Xiaomi Wallet, Xiaomi Life, and Smart Home makes MIUI more comprehensive. Of course, LeEUI of LeEUI has achieved the construction of the ecosystem through the dual-screen interaction of video and mobile phone.

It is conceivable that in the future, when smart homes become more mature, the ecosystem will become a more important competitive point for mobile phone ROMs. If the development trend in the past few years was resource integration, then building a large-scale smart ecosystem is an issue that mobile phone manufacturers need to consider.