TCL plus BlackBerry tells us that 1+1 is likely to be less than 2
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In the Chinese and even global mobile phone market, there are few cases where a brand can return to glory after "lying down". Perhaps TCL wanted to challenge itself, so they brought BlackBerry back to the Chinese market. On July 4, a company called Meili Wireless Technology (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. quietly opened an official Weibo account and attached a very simple introduction: to provide users with the latest BlackBerry product information and services. Inadvertently, BlackBerry, which has already been under the control of TCL, announced its return. Behind BlackBerry is the ambitious TCL. Can the return of BlackBerry help TCL grab a piece of the pie in the Chinese market this time? Or is it just another failed sentimental tragedy? TCL Communications, which is in trouble both internally and externally , took over the BlackBerry brand through contracting 7 months ago. This was another difficult decision made based on the background that its own brand and its subsidiaries Alcatel and Palm were all struggling to recover. As one of the oldest brands of domestic mobile phones, TCL has encountered fierce competition in the market in the past two years. Its fate is almost the same as that of old companies such as ZTE, Lenovo, and Coolpad. It has been defeated in the wave of the rise of the new generation. The mobile phone business that Li Dongsheng said once saved TCL has now become his biggest burden. Recently, TCL Group announced its product sales data for the first half of 2017. TCL Communication's performance continued to decline. Its mobile phone products sold a total of 21.17 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 36.16%; of which 10.62 million units were sold in the second quarter, a year-on-year decrease of 33.40%. This sales figure includes smartphones and feature phones. Perhaps we can't imagine that just two years ago, TCL still occupied the throne of the first place in overseas sales among domestic mobile phone manufacturers. In early 2016, TCL announced to the public that TCL Communication's global mobile phone sales exceeded 83.55 million units last year, becoming the world's fifth largest mobile phone manufacturer and ranking first in overseas sales of domestic mobile phones. However, this was also the last glory of TCL Communication. Since 2016, TCL's communication business has been declining every quarter, and it is appropriate to describe it as getting worse and worse. According to the 2016 performance report released by TCL on April 7 this year, TCL's communication performance in 2016 fell sharply year-on-year, with sales of 68.766 million mobile phones, a decrease of 17.7% from 2015. By the first quarter of 2017, its overseas market continued to be sluggish, with mobile phone sales of 10.546 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 38.7%. While continuing to decline, TCL is also facing a serious imbalance in the proportion of domestic and foreign markets and the dilemma of only low-end phones conquering the world. According to TCL's 2016 performance report released to the public, TCL Communication sold 68.766 million mobile phones in 2016, and among the global sales of nearly 70 million units, only 38.98 million were smartphones. This shows that Alcatel's feature phones have largely supported TCL's sales, but in today's market, only smartphones can represent the competitiveness of a mobile phone company. Relying on feature phones to generate the majority of revenue is not a good thing, because low profit margins are the biggest weakness of such products. After all, Nokia, the dominant player in the feature phone era, has fallen for so long. In addition, according to data previously released by TCL, more than 90% of its mobile phone sales come from overseas markets, while TCL Communication's market share in the domestic market is negligible. Today, TCL Communication has only one self-owned brand (TCL) in China, and in the perception of most domestic users, TCL is not a competitive brand. It is reported that most of its products on sale are mainly for the elderly. Faced with the dilemma of the domestic market, Li Dongsheng once said, "We must rebuild the competitiveness of TCL Communication in the Chinese market." But at the same time, Li Dongsheng seems to have always lacked enough patience. Therefore, TCL Communication has become the company with the most frequent personnel changes in the past two years. It only took one year for the former CEO Yang Zhe to be swept out from the air. Aka and Palm can still support a piece of sky in the overseas market, but if they are brought to China, it may only add trouble. Therefore, half a year after acquiring the BlackBerry brand, TCL decided to build up its momentum and use BlackBerry as a touchstone to once again impact the mid-to-high-end market, completing a two-pronged attack. The return of BlackBerry may become another failed sentimental farce. Today, the biggest problem for TCL Communication in the domestic market is insufficient brand awareness. The outstanding advantages in the field of home appliances have formed an inherent brand awareness among users, resulting in the fact that when TCL is mentioned, users often think of TVs first, and will not think of it as a mobile phone brand. This dilemma is also reflected in the Gree mobile phone that Dong Mingzhu vigorously promotes. Perhaps, it is not a good choice to use the influence of these old-fashioned home appliance companies to make mobile phones in China. Because the mainstream user group of mobile phones in the future has increasingly shifted to those born in the 1990s and 2000s. Therefore, in order to get rid of the embarrassing situation that TCL brand alone cannot support, TCL brought BlackBerry back to the domestic market. This move undoubtedly hopes to help it seize more market share (especially the high-end market where it has been blank) through the high-end image of BlackBerry, an international mobile phone brand. However, BlackBerry, which has been declining, may not help TCL achieve its vision of counterattack. Because even at its peak, BlackBerry’s influence on the mainstream consumer groups in China was very small. At that time, BlackBerry phones, which were mainly positioned as high-end and secure, were only used by a small group of people in China. Now, BlackBerry, which is no longer as brave as it used to be, is even more difficult to gain ground. It can be seen that TCL’s acquisition of BlackBerry and Lenovo’s acquisition of Motorola are exactly the same, both hoping to rely on the brand appeal of these traditional mobile phone giants to counterattack. However, times have changed. If it is an acquisition of a rising brand, it is estimated that there is still a chance to attack. TCL’s acquisition at the end of last year may not have clearly considered the actual situation of the domestic market. Indeed, BlackBerry and Motorola are both brands that have been falling and forced to sell themselves. To take down these "lonely nobles" who have no hematopoietic function and need external blood transfusions, the only thing the takeover can count on is the trace of sentiment that these brands bring. For example, the current Nokia... It is reported that the upcoming Chinese version of BlackBerry KEY one will use the iconic physical full keyboard again. In the current era of high screen-to-body ratio and even full-screen, the KEY one equipped with a physical full keyboard is more like the new Nokia 3310, a replica product full of literary and artistic atmosphere. Perhaps, those old users who are familiar with BlackBerry may be full of longing after seeing it and want to play with it again. However, the number of users who are really willing to spend for this may not be optimistic. Analyzing the current status of Motorola and Nokia, it seems to prove that the feelings of the old brands may be a good topic of conversation and marketing gimmick, but it is increasingly difficult for domestic mobile phone users to pay for feelings. The future development law of smart phones has told us the direction of market demand, and it is not a wise move to go against the trend. As for BlackBerry, whose belief bonus is not as good as Nokia and Motorola, I am afraid that even selling feelings will not have a good result. Recalling the early summer of 2008, the BlackBerry whose stock price on Nasdaq continued to rise and whose market value reached 84 billion US dollars was sold for only 4.7 billion US dollars 5 years later? Because the market always ruthlessly eliminates the laggards whose ideas do not match the laws of the times. I am afraid that the laws of the market cannot be reversed by a snap of the fingers. Perhaps TCL will not agree with this pessimistic prediction, but the final market performance will help TCL realize that two legs do not necessarily mean small steps and fast running, and 1+1 is often less than 2. As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity. |
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