The embarrassment behind the prosperity of domestic mobile phones due to the lack of core technology

In recent years, Chinese mobile phone manufacturers have risen one after another. Not only have they severely damaged the sales of foreign brands in the domestic market with their super high cost performance, but they have also entered India, Africa and even European and American countries. This also reflects from another perspective that the quality of domestic products is getting better and better and can be recognized by consumers.

According to the latest data released by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, the domestic mobile phone market has shipped 76.422 million units since 2017, a year-on-year increase of 6.7%. The shipment of domestic brand mobile phones reached 67.048 million units, a year-on-year increase of 8.4%. Through these data, we are pleasantly surprised to find that the shipment of domestic mobile phones at the beginning of 2017 still maintained the strong growth of 2016, leading the global smartphone industry.

Domestic mobile phone shipments from February 2016 to February 2017

But behind the colorful data, if we have a deeper understanding of the industry, we will find some "embarrassing" things behind the prosperity of domestic mobile phones. In the past two years, domestic mobile phone brands have become powerful, powerful enough to squeeze Samsung out of the domestic market, and powerful enough to pull Apple down from the throne of the first place in the domestic market, but they are not yet powerful enough to produce mobile phones without relying on others.

Core technology shortcomings need to be addressed

Back to smartphones, mobile phone processors, screens, and cameras are still the core technologies of smartphones. However, among these three core technologies, very few domestic mobile phones can possess all of them.

Smartphone processors are gradually being monopolized by Qualcomm Snapdragon

Currently, except for Huawei, which has its own mature processors, other manufacturers have to rely on others to provide them. Of course, Xiaomi released its own processor "Surge S1" this month, but this chip is only a mid-to-low-end chip. For its own flagship models, it still has to use Qualcomm chips, not to mention Meizu, 360, and LeTV. Many domestic manufacturers have launched Qualcomm flagship processors for the first time and promoted them as a highlight of their press conferences. Isn't it a bit sad?

Nearly 30% of mobile phone brands are equipped with OLED screens

Just like Qualcomm chips, consumers now generally recognize that Samsung's OLED screens are the best. Xiaomi finally used LG's, and everyone can see the situation of Note2. Huawei Mate9 Pro also uses Samsung's screens, which are still out of stock. You can say that Samsung deliberately doesn't give you more screens, or you can say that Samsung's screen production capacity is insufficient, but Samsung has the final say behind this, and Apple is very likely to use OLED this year, which will make domestic products even more embarrassed.

Most smartphone camera sensors come from Sony

Then there is the camera. Currently, almost all camera sensors in smartphones are from Sony. This is not surprising. Japan has many years of experience in the research and development of optical and electronic products. As extremely sophisticated components, cameras require very high structure and precision. Without years of amazing accumulation, it is not easy to become bigger and stronger. The camera market is also very stable, and brand influence and reputation are more important than other industries. If China wants to make camera components comparable to those of Japan, it will take many years of focused exploration. This is also one of the gaps we need to see clearly.

Hold your destiny firmly in your own hands

In the past, mobile phone manufacturers have always been competing in performance, price, system, and design. Occasionally, some "differentiated" designs will appear, but most of them are functions such as Hi-Fi sound quality and dual cameras provided by third-party manufacturers. For example, dual-camera solutions are mostly from ArcSoft, and Hi-Fi functions are generally in cooperation with ESS Technology...

The localization of core components is urgent

Therefore, in the past, domestic mobile phone manufacturers generally "use whatever others have", and could not come up with market-leading features and designs such as fingerprint recognition and curved screens like Apple and Samsung. So although "Made in China" mobile phones are now popular all over the world, if we look at the core hardware of some mobile phones, domestic mobile phone manufacturers don't have much to show for it. Only by achieving "what I need, I have it" can domestic manufacturers' mobile phone products truly take the lead.

Core technology breakthroughs are still the key

Faced with the rapid growth of OPPO and vivo, domestic mobile phone manufacturers have also accelerated their transformation. Fortunately, many domestic mobile phone manufacturers have a similar sober understanding on the road to transformation. Take Xiaomi's Xiaomi Note 2 and Xiaomi MIX released last year as examples. Although there is a certain degree of "price increase", the novel appearance design such as the dual-curved screen and "borderless" full screen is the key to pleasing consumers. In the low-end Redmi series, Xiaomi's self-developed processor platform is also accelerating the pace of industrialization. In this regard, Xiaomi Chairman Lei Jun emphasized that technological innovation is still one of the company's core driving forces.

Kirin 960 processor

As for Huawei, which has always been good at spending money on research and development, it will certainly not give up on breakthroughs in core technologies. At the MWC that ended this month, it released the Huawei P10 series of mobile phones, which not only use the self-developed Kirin 960 processor, but also are equipped with a new generation of Leica dual-camera lenses, and even the Huawei Mate9 Pro also uses trendy designs such as dual-curved screens.

Huawei Mate9 Pro with dual-curved screen

Compared with the adjustment of channel strategy in response to market trends, insisting on breakthroughs in independent technology should be what domestic mobile phones should focus on in the process of sprinting to the high-end. Especially when domestic mobile phones have formed a "control" situation in the domestic market, when launching a more powerful offensive in the overseas market in the future, the independence of core technology will play a more important role. However, whether it is necessary to have completely independent research and development, each manufacturer has its own decision and inclination.

In conclusion:

Domestic mobile phone manufacturers are continuously expanding their global market share, and many of them rank high in the industry in terms of technology and patent accumulation. However, there is still a clear gap compared with some experienced foreign brands that have been developing for many years. At present, although the threshold of the smartphone industry is low, the homogeneity of the smartphone market is becoming increasingly serious. "Competing in configuration", "competing in price" and "competing in sales volume" have become a thing of the past, and "competing in strength" is the hard truth. Only in the future, when domestic manufacturers accumulate more and more core technologies and become leaders from followers, can they truly hold their destiny firmly in their own hands.

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.