More than 30% of domestic mobile phone manufacturers died within one year

Behind the brilliant performance of domestic mobile phone manufacturers such as Huawei, OPPO, and vivo, there are also the tragic endings of mobile phone manufacturers such as Dakele and Amoi. At the "Mobile World Congress Shanghai" (MWCS) which just opened, reporters found that compared with the past, many mobile phone manufacturers were absent, and many of them withdrew from the market due to poor management. According to Peng Zhen, a senior engineer at the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, there were 445 mobile phone manufacturers in China in 2014, but only 309 in 2015, a decrease of 136 in one year. It can be seen that behind the crazy explosion of the domestic mobile phone industry, there is more than just pie in the market. What kind of domestic manufacturers will have the last laugh in the future is also the focus of attention in the industry.

Market is in a state of flux

This Wednesday, the highly anticipated MWCS officially opened. As a global event in the field of mobile terminals, MWCS has attracted much attention from mobile phone manufacturers, and mainstream companies have all attended the exhibition. Beijing Business Daily reporters also saw that not only Huawei, OPPO, Gionee and other top five mobile phone manufacturers in the world participated in the exhibition, but also companies such as Xiaomi, LeTV, LG and others not only participated in the exhibition, but also served as sponsors.

While these companies continue to showcase their products and new technologies and develop prosperously, a large number of mobile phone manufacturers are gradually withdrawing from the stage of history, such as the Dakele mobile phone that once created a crowdfunding myth and the Xaomi mobile phone whose brand value once reached 7 billion yuan.

Survival of the fittest. The fading out of a large number of mobile phone companies is actually a predestined outcome. It is understood that since the rise of smartphones, both traditional mobile phone manufacturers and Internet companies have begun to invest resources madly in manufacturing smartphones, making Chinese smartphone brands spring up like mushrooms after rain. Data shows that in 2011, China launched 4,744 new models of feature phones and smartphones.

Although the Chinese market is large enough, it is difficult to support so many brands. Under the market-oriented mechanism, some companies and products are eventually abandoned by users because they cannot adapt to the market environment.

This was particularly evident in the past year, with 136 mobile phone manufacturers exiting the market.

Competition among enterprises is fierce

There is no doubt that the intensification of market competition is the main factor that has intensified the reshuffle of the smartphone industry. Some industry insiders even commented that the smartphone war continues year after year without a break, and no brand dares to rest, because in this market, stopping means failure. 360 founder Zhou Hongyi even commented that "the smartphone industry is no longer a red ocean, but a bloody ocean."

The fierce competition can be seen from the number of products launched. According to data released by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, from January to March 2016, 274 new smartphone models were launched in the Chinese market, which means that an average of 3 new smartphones were launched in the Chinese market every day. And this is not the peak data. In 2013, 2,288 new smartphone models were launched in the Chinese market, an average of 6 new models per day, which is twice as many as now.

In addition, from the perspective of the Chinese smartphone market structure, the Chinese mobile phone market structure in the past few years was the "China Cool Alliance" (ZTE, Huawei, Coolpad, Lenovo), but now, except for Huawei, other mobile phone manufacturers have fallen behind.

In March this year, Ding Xiuhong, the founder of Dakele Mobile, forwarded the "Announcement on the Suspension of Dakele Mobile Business", announcing that the hardware development, software development, market operation and business cooperation of Dakele's entire series of mobile phones would be suspended, and KeleUI would no longer provide upgrade services. The reason given was, "We were determined to fight, but the reshuffle of the mobile phone industry was faster and more brutal than expected."

Feng Xing, senior vice president of LeEco Holdings and president of LeEco Mobile, commented on the current industry landscape as follows: "The curtain has been raised on changes in the mobile phone industry, and we are already in the early stages of drastic changes. Players who do not change, change slowly, or change incompletely will not be able to escape the fate of being eliminated."

Operational thinking needs to change

For mobile phone manufacturers, the past year was not the most difficult time. As market demand continues to decline, future competition may be even more brutal. According to the latest data from market research firm Strategy Analytics, global smartphone shipments fell 3% year-on-year in the first quarter of this year.

The decline in market size is undoubtedly not a good thing for new and old mobile phone brands. But for many mobile phone manufacturers, it is not without opportunities. In fact, in 2015, while a large number of companies collapsed, new brands such as LeTV and 360 entered and quickly occupied part of the market. During this year's MWCS, LeTV Mobile released the "6G+128G" version of Le Max 2. While launching a new color, Force Gold, it also announced that the second-generation super phone has sold more than 4 million units in total, and the monthly sales in May exceeded 2 million units. Earlier, LeTV announced that its sales exceeded 10 million units in its first year on the market.

As for the reasons for the rapid growth of LeTV mobile phones, Feng Xing believes that the core competitiveness of LeTV mobile phones lies in two persistences: focusing on user needs, adhering to the ecological model, and insisting on omni-channel and multi-variety development.

Feng Xing further stated that in the current situation of fierce changes in the smartphone industry, ecology will be an effective development path, and the industry should change from the traditional mindset of operating equipment to the mindset of operating users. The most important thing for ecological mobile phones is to lay out the ecology and innovate operations. Ecology is everywhere, and I hope more peers will join the ranks of ecology. As for operation, it is an "omni-channel, multi-service three-dimensional operation model", with equal emphasis on all channels such as online and offline operators and offline open markets.

Some practitioners pointed out that the iteration speed of smartphones is accelerating, and homogeneity and price wars have become prominent features. The market capacity is saturated, and although the growth is low, it is still large enough, and the high-end market has shown high vitality. The market share ranking of manufacturers has also changed in the past two years. In the future, the Matthew effect of the strong getting stronger and the weak getting weaker will appear, and the market reshuffle will continue.

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.