Will the next iPhone be changed to cater to China?

If we say that in the Steve Jobs era, it was difficult for the maverick Apple to make major changes, of course, the changes here were the products themselves, not the creativity itself, after all, what Steve Jobs sought was uniqueness and simplicity. In the Tim Cook era, Apple's changes will increasingly cater to the market and users, starting with the Mini iPad, the elongated iPhone 5, and even the large iPhone 6 Plus. It is well known that Cook's philosophy is different from that of Steve Jobs. But when the iPhone entered the iPhone 6 era, it was time for a major change, just like when the iPhone 4 was followed by the iPhone 4S, Apple needed a slightly larger innovative change, not just limited to changes in size, to surprise people again.

Media reports have revealed that the next generation of Apple iPhones will be equipped with Force Touch technology. With this technology, iPhone users can achieve new pressure-sensitive click operations on the touch screen. It is reported that Apple is implanting this technology into a new screen similar to the iPhone 6, so that it can sense the force of the user pressing the screen in a new way. This "press feedback" system can eliminate those complex operation gestures, such as double-clicking and long pressing. It is said that Apple will develop new gestures for the iOS 9 system and encourage application developers to be compatible with new scrolling, highlighting and browsing methods.

For Apple Watch users, this experience may be familiar - they are the first group of people to experience this new technology with their fingers. Apple has also applied this force touch technology to the latest MacBook trackpad. In addition to force touch, the new generation of iPhones will have buttonless iPhones. It is reported that Apple may not launch a small-screen iPhone this year. In addition to the frame imitating the Apple Watch design, the new generation of iPhones also uses a narrow frame similar to the Apple Watch with rounded corners. Since there is no Touch ID main key, the size of the phone becomes smaller, but the screen size remains unchanged, and the main key functions are all the same. The Touch ID fingerprint scanning function is embedded in the display, and Apple has applied for a patent for such a fingerprint scanning method. Use pressure touch technology to simulate the main key, so that the host is smaller, but the screen is not smaller.

In addition, the front camera will be removed, the mute and volume control buttons will also disappear, and the standby button on the left side of the phone is the only element protruding from the metal frame. Of course, these are market rumors, and we still need to wait for a while to see what kind of next-generation iPhone product Apple will launch, but from the beginning of the warm-up, the next-generation Apple mobile phone, whether it is iPhone 6S or iPhone7, will have some changes.

Since the Chinese market has become the largest market for Apple phones, Cook has repeatedly expressed his concern for the Chinese market. Therefore, we can expect that future changes to the iPhone will cater more to the needs and usage characteristics of Chinese users, including some usage habits and consumption trends. Will this really happen? Very likely. Chinese users care about performance, size, security, smoothness of use, etc. Apple will make adjustments.

Why do we say that? In fact, we can get a glimpse of the importance of the Chinese market to Apple. Since Apple's iPhone sales in China exceeded those in the United States for the first time in the second fiscal quarter, analysts have begun to pay more attention to the importance of Chinese consumers to the technology giant. "We have made significant progress in China, and we will continue to invest heavily in the Chinese market," said Luca Maestri, Apple's chief financial officer, in a recent earnings call. "The growth of the Chinese market is significantly higher than other parts of the world. In the short term, we expect China to become a larger market than the United States, but in the long run, the Chinese market will definitely surpass the United States."

Some analysts even conducted a survey on the Chinese market and found the following results: First, Apple has the best relationship with wealthy Chinese consumers, but it also has a good relationship with consumers with an annual income of less than 200,000 RMB. Second, compared with other countries, price does not seem to be that important when buying things in China. Third, many Chinese consumers are willing to spend more for their next phone. Regardless of their income, Chinese consumers seem to be more willing to pay for a new phone. Fourth, Chinese Apple product users upgrade quickly, with an average cycle of 19 months. Fifth, among all brands, Apple has the highest loyalty.

This move shows that Chinese users recognize Apple's iPhone. High user loyalty is due to user recognition of the product. If the product's breakthrough is difficult to continue, it is possible that users will switch sides. In fact, some young users around me have begun to shift their positions and no longer follow Apple's lead.

According to the latest news, the latest data released by Gartner, a US market research company, shows that Samsung regained the throne of the world's largest smartphone manufacturer in the first quarter of 2015 after losing to Apple in the fourth quarter of 2014. Samsung's smartphone shipments in the first quarter were 81.1 million units, higher than Apple's 60.1 million units. However, Samsung's market share shrank from 30.4% in the same period last year to 24.2%. At the same time, Apple's global share in the first quarter rose from 15.3% in the same period last year to 17.9%. Lenovo, Huawei and LG ranked third to fifth, with shares of 5.9%, 4.8% and 4.0% respectively.

At the same time, we also see that Chinese mobile phone manufacturers are launching new products faster and more compactly. Of course, there is another phenomenon that the prices of some products that were once defined as domestic mobile phones competing for the high-end market have declined to varying degrees. Does this also mean that Chinese mobile phone manufacturers will eventually find it difficult to gain more say in the mid-to-high-end market, and will eventually choose to continue to fight in the mid-to-low-end market? This is obviously not a long-term solution. Of course, if it can bring about changes in the ecological derivative chain, it is another matter. For example, it can extend to other industrial chains, such as video, games, payment, etc.

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.