Danger! The same old notch screen...

Looking into the future from the current point of the smartphone industry, you may see a beautiful picture drawn by the delicate brushes of full screen, 5G, flexible curved screen, artificial intelligence, etc., but there are mountains and seas in between. The beautiful picture will eventually become a reality, but we are more concerned about who is struggling to cross the mountains and seas, and who is being carried forward by the times.

Looking back at the past from a bright future, you may find that most of the industry is being pushed by the times, stumbling and awkward. The current embarrassment is the strange phenomenon that has emerged from the full-screen trend - dangerous bangs.

[[223422]]

Apple officially launched the iPhone X in the fall of 2017, and its notch screen became a hot topic. Due to the limitations of current technological development, the notch screen has become a product of compromise in the face of reality. Even a technology giant like Apple cannot avoid it.

Mediocre bangs are all the same

However, it was the product of this "compromise" that attracted a huge number of imitators, especially after it came to China from overseas, people at that time attached great importance to having bangs, which was a spectacular sight.

A rough calculation shows that, in addition to the iPhone X, which pioneered the notch, more than 20 Android phone brands will adopt the notch screen, including some of the big brands we are familiar with. It can be seen that history always develops in a "circular" way, with the back bumping into the front. Although technology is constantly evolving, the smartphone market still cannot get rid of the label of "homogenization".

However, manufacturers do not seem to have thought that today's consumers are no longer as blindly following trends as before. The existence of the Internet has also flattened the dissemination of information. We have more channels to obtain information about mobile phones, and manufacturers cannot rely on the advantage of information asymmetry to "plunder". Now consumers can vote for mobile phone manufacturers with the money in their pockets, instead of just being a lamb to be slaughtered.

Notch screens are more than just a weapon on the battlefield

Last year's "full screen" craze is a good example. With the popularity of Xiaomi MIX phones and the maturity of corresponding technologies, major manufacturers have flocked to launch their own "full screen" phones. Whether it is a thousand-yuan phone or a flagship phone, "full screen" seems to have become the standard for manufacturers. According to statistics from a statistical agency, more than 100 full screen phones were sold worldwide in 2017. But in 2018, how many of these phones are well-known and recognized by people?

Obviously, in the current context of near-saturation of domestic mobile phones, consumers are more pursuing mobile phones with personalization or excellent performance. The "full-screen" mobile phones made using public molds have long since disappeared after the craze, and have been submerged in the vast sea of ​​mobile phones.

I believe that the "notch screen" mobile phones that are foreseeable this year will also be a powerful weapon in the hands of most mobile phone manufacturers, but sadly, this is also the only capital that these manufacturers can use to compete with other manufacturers. When "notch screen" mobile phones compete in the market, the next competition will be the connotation and technology behind the mobile phones. Obviously, most mobile phones without the "notch screen" are like soldiers who have lost their weapons and can only be ruthlessly killed on the cruel battlefield, giving people the impression that the mobile phone manufacturers have only released such a mobile phone.

IT Home conducted a survey in early March titled "Does the notch screen on domestic phones affect your rating of them?" The results showed that most IT Home netizens have a negative attitude towards manufacturers following the trend of "notch screens." In this survey, a total of 6,305 users expressed their opinions, of which 5,000 users expressed their disgust with domestic mobile phones following the "notch screen", accounting for 79.3%.

In the daily discussion of the editorial department, all editors expressed their opinions on "bangs". Later, during the discussion on bangs, Assassin said: Imitation and copying when learning to walk are not terrible, but what is terrible is that copying becomes inertia, and low-cost acquisition of new designs becomes natural, then our domestic products will lose their core competitiveness and will have no future.

For users, completely following the trend will obviously not make them buy it. So are mobile phone manufacturers stuck in the "notch screen" and unable to escape the curse of homogenization? Obviously not, because there are still mobile phone manufacturers who are constantly working hard to create new mobile phone appearances.

Innovative enterprises are one in a million

In the imitation show of "notch screen", many manufacturers did not follow this trend, but continued their own steps steadily, such as Samsung, the leader of the Android market. We can see that in the flagship mobile phone Galaxy S9/S9+, Samsung continued to use the appearance of S8, focusing on more powerful camera performance, and also won good reviews from consumers. Of course, we must also clearly see that Samsung's indifference to the "notch screen" is based on its strong scientific research strength and a large number of patents. Samsung's investment in mobile phone research and development is astronomical, and its strong vertical integration ability also gives Samsung the capital to say no to the "notch screen".

I believe that most manufacturers do not have the strength and courage of Samsung, so innovation in appearance is the guarantee for these manufacturers to gain user reputation. At the end of 2016, we saw Xiaomi and its full-screen mobile phone Xiaomi MIX, which aroused cheers from consumers and the industry. Everyone said that mobile phones can be made in this way. Xiaomi and its Xiaomi MIX led a wave of aesthetic trends. In 2017, when "full screen" became a trend in the industry, Xiaomi continued to improve its MIX mobile phone and launched Xiaomi MIX2, which was also warmly welcomed by everyone.

By 2018, the "full screen" trend seems to have dissipated more than half, and 5G is still in its infancy. For most mobile phone manufacturers, 2018 seems to be a low point for innovation. At this time, domestic manufacturer vivo has stood out again. This manufacturer, which is often labeled as "high price and low performance", not only launched the world's first vivo X20 mobile phone with under-screen fingerprint, but also displayed a new concept mobile phone - vivo APEX at MWC2018, which attracted everyone's attention, especially the nearly 100% screen-to-body ratio of the front panel of the mobile phone and the unique pop-up camera, as well as the half-screen press-down fingerprint that current technology can achieve, all brought endless glory to vivo APEX.

Although this phone is still in the non-mass production stage, we are used to seeing muddy water in ditches. When we suddenly see the vast ocean, will we still care whether we can cross it?

This is actually the innovation of mobile phone manufacturers. Although vivo and Xiaomi may still launch “notch screen” mobile phones, the mobile phones released by the above manufacturers have changed the inherent impression of users. Although following the “notch screen” is a normal profit-seeking behavior of manufacturers, which is understandable, it is obviously a risky behavior to launch a completely different mobile phone in a red ocean mobile phone market. However, this is also the best opportunity for manufacturers to make a name for themselves. Of course, the ultimate goal of innovation is to make users use mobile phones more conveniently rather than taking a unique approach to create behaviors that existing technologies cannot achieve, such as replaceable mobile phone modules. For users, this kind of innovation is not worth choosing.

Due to technology and patent barriers, there is still a big gap between domestic mobile phone manufacturers and giants, but we are pleased to see that manufacturers including Xiaomi, vivo, Huawei and others are innovating in different fields. Some of them are competing with international giants for the right to speak in future communications, and some have made a splash with their stunning appearance. Although these innovations cannot bring huge profits to manufacturers in the short term, it is precisely because of such highly innovative manufacturers in my country's mobile phone industry that domestic mobile phones can continue to narrow the gap with international giants.

The high-end market that was originally monopolized by Apple, Samsung and other manufacturers is now being impacted by domestic manufacturers such as Huawei and Xiaomi. What supports them in entering the high-end mobile phone market is innovation. Perhaps they are small and go unnoticed, but once these tiny innovations are gathered together, they bring infinite power.

People are always forgetful, and so are manufacturers. More manufacturers adopt a follow-up strategy, from "dual cameras", "vertical dual cameras", "double-sided glass", "2.5D glass" to the current "notch screen" and "full screen". These mobile phone manufacturers do not seem to have learned lessons from the past. They just follow the trend of what is popular in the market and do not have much innovation ability. Even if they are doing well now, they will still be despised by consumers behind the scenes.

The “notch screen” is only the icing on the cake, innovation is the hard truth

When talking about "taking what is useful", Mr. Lu Xun also emphasized that "we should use our brains and have a vision", we should "possess", and more importantly, "select" and "discern". IT Home believes that manufacturers following the "notch screen" is also a response to the market, which is better than being lifeless and indifferent to the market. But at the same time, what we take should not be just the empty shell of the "notch screen". The shell will eventually decay, but if it is injected with the vitality of technology, it will grow more and more beautiful. What we take should be the key technology and the spirit of innovation.

If we put the cart before the horse, then I'm sorry, these mobile phone manufacturers and the mobile phones they launch will only become cannon fodder in today's mobile phone market and will be eliminated by the market. After all, consumers will use the money in their pockets to vote for companies that are full of innovative genes rather than those that fish in troubled waters.

Beware, dangerous bangs!