The Chinese Dream of Foreign Brands

Editor’s Note:

Nokia and Motorola are no longer just brands, they carry the stories of the past and have accompanied us along the way. We look forward to seeing these brands revive and compete with the new kings.

Beauty fades, heroes gain weight, some say this is the saddest thing in the world. But change is eternal, so no one can stop one era from destroying another. No matter how high the previous wave was, it will eventually be forgotten on the beach.

Foreign brands in China

Recently, major brands have been making moves. Nokia has been doing its best to assist Foxconn in making the N1 tablet under its own brand. Shortly after announcing its withdrawal from the Chinese market, Lenovo quickly recalled Motorola and launched three new models. The acquisition of Palm by TCL has stimulated the deepest memories of the older generation of gamers. Instead of lamenting, "Why are good cabbages always eaten by pigs?", it is better to accept the reality and speculate on the reasons. After all, it is difficult for people who live in the past to see the rapidly changing future.

Today, China is already the world's largest mobile phone market, with a large number of cheap labor and a highly concentrated consumer population. What is "valuable" is that the market order is not yet mature. In terms of attitude towards the Chinese market, except for Palm, which missed a good opportunity due to strategic errors, almost all international brands have tried their best to impress consumers. Of course, there are definitely some that are not acclimatized, but Nokia, MOTO, and even Palm are definitely not among them.

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Unstoppable steps

Some people say that it is inaccurate to understand MOTO as declining, because these arguments are all based on MOTO's performance in the mobile phone market. In fact, the mobile phone business is only one of MOTO's three major businesses, and it is not the focus. In 2011, MOTO was officially split into Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions Division. At that time, the market value of the former was about 70% of the latter, and smartphones were only a part of Motorola Mobility. Seven months later, Google acquired Motorola Mobility for US$12.5 billion. It is said that the boards of directors of both parties voted unanimously at that time. It was not until January 2014 that Lenovo acquired Motorola's smartphone business from Google for US$2.9 billion. The ups and downs of MOTO mobile phones are like a wandering story of a prince who was favored since childhood and was ostracized when he grew up.

Although Nokia also has many businesses, unlike MOTO, Nokia's performance is more like a prince overthrowing the country. It has been the leader for 14 consecutive years, and was surpassed by Apple and Samsung in 2011. It sounds like the end of a "closed-door policy". In fact, we cannot roughly understand Nokia as "Symbian made it and Symbian made it fail", because Symbian itself is not a problem, the problem is just sticking to Symbian. Of course, this is easy to say, Nokia must be aware of its predicament, but the arrow has already been shot and it is difficult to stop it.

If we attribute MOTO and Nokia to fate, then Palm is a complete man-made disaster. Its key figures pursued artificial intelligence, which seems far away now, and its operators had no understanding of the Chinese market. It also relied on HP, a company that abandoned it after having sex with it. It is really tragic to think about it.

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Why China?

Although the current consumption phenomenon is enough to destroy people's three views, enterprise-level willfulness is by no means as simple as throwing money. First of all, we have to see what these declining nobles still have? Patents, technology, and memorials. To be honest, these are all very scarce for Chinese manufacturers. In a relatively mature market, this requires a long period of research and development and accumulation, and no one dares to touch the mine blatantly. And in those mobile phone markets that are more chaotic than China, basically there are not so many companies with such a big appetite as Chinese manufacturers.

If we want to trace the source of this, in addition to being well versed in the wisdom of Chinese businessmen, we can also know the answer by watching the news broadcast for a few days. So how much appeal can the Chinese dream of foreign brands have? I think it should be far from being so glorious. After all, the rise of domestic brands is an indisputable fact, and now foreign monks may not be able to chant the sutra well. It is worth mentioning that Nokia, MOTO, and Palm still have a certain brand foundation. But whether the brand is used for consumption or for review, it always depends on the product. Although a lean camel is bigger than a horse, sometimes a defeated phoenix is ​​worse than a chicken.

The booming market is prone to produce obsessive pursuits. As the domestic mobile phone market becomes increasingly saturated, competition among manufacturers has begun to return to rationality. Copycat phones die out due to the rise of brands, and new brands focus on technology due to patent barriers. These are all very beneficial to the advancement of the industry. After experiencing a brutal reshuffle, if foreign brands enter China with an attitude of concept, they will always find a sense of existence in this magical land.