Mobile terminal ecosystem report: Xiaomi and Apple are eye-catching, while Samsung is bleak

Weibo recently released a smartphone report based on Weibo APP installation, activation, activity and other parameters. The large-scale sample report with hundreds of millions of monthly active users beats the reports of research institutions such as IDC. The data is very comprehensive and detailed. From the overall report data, Apple and Xiaomi's performance is the most eye-catching. Xiaomi App Store has become the largest channel for Android phone manufacturers to build their own app stores. Manufacturers' app stores and third-party app stores are evenly matched in terms of Weibo installation and activation. All mobile phone manufacturers have begun to pay attention to the construction of the entire ecosystem.

The data for the entire report comes from a random sampling of 100 million active devices (per month) from Q4 Weibo data, and the distribution of the top 100 models of newly installed and activated devices according to market prices; the definition of phone replacement behavior is to monitor the frequency of users' mobile phone device usage for multiple consecutive months. When the frequency of use of the original mobile phone device is lower than the maximum threshold, and the frequency of use of the new mobile phone device is higher than a certain threshold, it is identified as a phone replacement behavior; in terms of mobile application store rankings, new devices installed and activated through mobile application store Weibo are ranked according to the share of Weibo installation and activation channels. The cumulative number of installed and activated devices in mobile application stores in Q4 reached 18 million.

Weibo users tend to be mid- to high-end, and the proportion of users of thousand-yuan phones is not high

The report shows that most of the smartphones of Weibo users are mid-to-high-end products. Apple, Samsung and Xiaomi are the top three in terms of monthly active devices, accounting for 2/3 of the total. Huawei, OPPO and vivo account for about 20% and Lenovo, Coolpad, HTC and Meizu account for about 10%. From the data of newly added devices, only 26.2% of them are priced below 1,200 yuan. The number of mobile phone models above 3,000 yuan is small but the increase is large, driven by iPhone 6 and other models.

This data means that the backbone of China's society is concentrated on Weibo. Weibo's product form is public and open, which means that the backbone of China's society is more enthusiastic about participating in public affairs; the proportion of monthly active thousand-yuan phones is relatively low, which may be unexpected by most people, because in the past one or two years, Xiaomi launched the thousand-yuan Redmi, Huawei Honor also launched the Changwan series, and Meizu just launched the Meizu Blue series. The low proportion of new thousand-yuan devices on Weibo shows that the mobile Internet usage habits of thousand-yuan phone users are different from those of mid-to-high-end users. The value, consumption model, and contribution rate of thousand-yuan phones to mobile Internet companies also need to be rethought.

When the mobile Internet enters a relatively stable development period, user accuracy and user quality will become the core of mobile marketing, and the business model of the mobile Internet will also be segmented and changed based on the analysis of user smartphone data. What should the products for mid- to high-end users look like? What should the products for low-end users look like? How to obtain value from these users? These are the core of mobile business model innovation.

Xiaomi's data performance is eye-catching, and domestic mobile phone brands are rising strongly

In the smartphone report of Weibo, Xiaomi ranked second after Apple in the brand ranking of new devices, accounting for 9.9% of new devices, exceeding Samsung's 8.7%. Huawei ranked fourth with 8.0%. Among the top ten new devices, only Apple and Samsung are foreign brands, HTC is a Taiwanese brand, and the remaining seven seats are occupied by mainland domestic mobile phone brands. Among them, the top three domestic mobile phones in the new devices are Xiaomi, Huawei, and Lenovo, accounting for 9.9%, 8.0%, and 7.4% respectively. Huawei's mobile phone growth in the domestic market is also very good. These three will basically be the three horses for Chinese mobile phone brands to go global in the next few years.

In terms of brand retention rate of mobile phone replacement, Apple, Xiaomi and vivo are the top three. Xiaomi users are very loyal, exceeding Samsung and other domestic brands. This is a data that all mobile phone manufacturers should pay attention to. This data is a feedback on the comprehensive experience of mobile phone hardware, product design, software experience, etc. Vivo is also a bright spot, which also shows that the quality of domestic second-tier mobile phone brands is excellent. Samsung's replacement retention rate is lower than Xiaomi, vivo and Huawei. This is a terrible data for Samsung. Samsung's position in the Chinese market may decline in 2015.

The replacement data shows that Apple users are very loyal. The replacement data is of great value. Major manufacturers can find their own positions and directions. The top four replacements for Apple users are Apple, Samsung, Xiaomi, and Huawei (Lenovo is not in the top ten, which needs reflection). The top four replacements for Android users are Apple, Xiaomi, Samsung, and Huawei. From this data, Xiaomi's position in the domestic market is very strong. The replacement data is a user vote for the quality and experience of mobile phones. The performance of Xiaomi and Huawei shows that domestic mobile phone brands will rise more strongly in 2015, and the global market performance of Chinese domestic brands is also promising.

Mobile phone ecosystem: Xiaomi and vivo build their own channels first, Baidu takes the first place in third-party channels

The Weibo report includes data reports on application distribution channels. As an important platform for the mobile phone ecosystem, a strong application store means the position and status of mobile phone manufacturers in the mobile Internet ecosystem. The activity of the application store will also determine the efficiency and quality of application distribution and activation. According to the data from the Weibo report, Xiaomi, OPPO, Meizu, vivo and other companies’ own application stores have become the main channels for their users to obtain Weibo applications. The pre-installed mobile phones + their own application stores of these four manufacturers account for 80%, which means that they have become the leaders of their own brand mobile phone ecosystems.

The strength and activity of its own application stores will drive mobile phone brand manufacturers to become important fulcrums and entrances to industries such as mobile Internet application distribution, mobile payment, and mobile games. Xiaomi has the largest self-built channel, which means that Xiaomi has firmly grasped the initiative in the mobile Internet ecology. Recently, Xiaomi has officially launched the Xiaomi Wallet to guide its own ecology towards a deep ecology. In this regard, Huawei and Lenovo are in the stage of striving to improve, and they still need great efforts and changes. Yang Yuanqing said at the Shenzhen IT Summit that Lenovo will strengthen the integration of software and hardware services in the future. Samsung's own application store distribution accounts for a very low proportion, and Samsung mobile phones are migrating to the Tizen system. Samsung's own application store will not become strong in the short term, and Xiaomi is still a role model for everyone to learn from.

Among major app stores, the ranking data of Weibo installation activation rate share shows that the top four are Xiaomi App Store, 360 Mobile Assistant, Baidu Mobile Assistant, and OPPO Software Store. Xiaomi has once again attracted attention. The activation rate share illustrates the user activity of the app store, and also indirectly illustrates the status and value of the major app stores in the app distribution market. It was unexpected for OPPO to enter the top four, which shows that this manufacturer is low-key, cool and tasteful.

In terms of third-party app stores, Baidu's Baidu Mobile Assistant, 91 Assistant, and Android Market all entered the top ten, with Baidu's combined share of 17.1%. Despite this, the sum of these three is only 0.3 percentage points higher than Xiaomi's 16.8%; 360 Mobile Assistant is the third-party app store with the largest share, accounting for 13.3%, and Wandoujia ranks sixth, which needs to continue to work hard. Zhu Fanghao of Dasheng Mobile once revealed that after 360's investment, Dasheng Mobile App Store will become 360's App Store. Although Dasheng Mobile's market share is not too high, it may have great development after 360's investment. 360's investment in mobile phone manufacturers is also a big factor in the layout of its own 360 Mobile Assistant and security software.

The dangers and opportunities of mobile phone manufacturers, what should they do?

The Weibo report is based on a sample of 100 million users in Q4, which shows the authority and accuracy of this report. Mobile phone manufacturers should be well aware of their own market conditions. However, in-depth data such as the flow of mobile phone replacements and the status of their own app stores have indeed been ignored in the past. Therefore, mobile phone manufacturers should really do something when they see such reports. On the one hand, the reports of large platforms such as Weibo are serious reports with great influence, which will affect consumer decisions to a certain extent; on the other hand, mobile phone manufacturers need to see where the gap with their competitors is and grasp the core of the problem.

Huawei, Lenovo, and Xiaomi ranked among the top three in global mobile phone shipments in reports from different data research companies. The data accuracy and sample size of Weibo's report are large, which means that the data is more accurate and reliable than those of external research companies. Huawei and Lenovo need to work harder on their own app stores. They need to learn from Xiaomi in many details such as the richness of applications, promotion of app store brands, and the convenience of developers submitting applications. Xiaomi is far ahead of Huawei and Lenovo in the layout of the mobile Internet ecosystem.

It is an inevitable trend to unify the experience of mobile phone hardware, software and services. In the future, we cannot rely solely on hardware to make money. Of course, under fierce competition, hardware cannot make much money. Mobile payment, mobile games, O2O, financial management and other dimensions will become important areas for mobile phone manufacturers to move towards ecological competition, and application stores, cloud services, etc. are key parts for mobile phone manufacturers to cultivate user habits and ensure user retention rate.

Every ambitious mobile phone manufacturer should have a chief ecosystem officer, and take experience consistency and ecosystem as core strategies. Of course, external masters and experts can be hired to serve as think tanks. However, it cannot be ignored that when the capabilities and levels of smartphone processors, memory, appearance, etc. have reached a certain level, competing for ecosystems will be the main battlefield of the war.