Domestic mobile phone sales have nothing to do with sentiment, even patriotism

Recently, I saw an article by an industry insider commenting on the Chinese mobile phone industry (involving many mainstream mobile phones or manufacturers with mobile phone businesses), in which he talked about the current success of the Chinese mobile phone industry and some manufacturers, which are all due to selling feelings to the market and users to varying degrees. In fact, there is nothing wrong with the viewpoint of this article. After all, it is human nature that the market and users' preference and even worship for certain product brands will directly or indirectly turn into actual purchasing power. But what is unconvincing is that the author of the article went to the other extreme in proving this viewpoint, that is, he exaggerated and even distorted the role of feelings, while ignoring and even misinterpreting the basic facts of the development of related manufacturers to today.

Speaking of sentiment (only in the smartphone industry), Xiaomi is probably the best at it. Fan marketing or fan economy (equivalent to sentiment) comes from the most specific expression of Xiaomi sentiment in the initial market and users. Of course, Xiaomi’s sentiment slogan at that time was: Born for fever. The industry’s highest-configured mobile phone at the time, the cheapest price (relative to competitors), and the unique Internet marketing method at the time made Xiaomi successful in its early days. In fact, here, it is not difficult for us to find that the support behind the so-called Xiaomi sentiment is the cost-effectiveness of the product (mobile phone). However, with the imitation and intensified competition from competitors, especially the advent of Huawei Honor, Xiaomi’s so-called sentiment has been continuously diluted by more cost-effective and more open marketing methods, until Xiaomi mobile phones were surpassed by Honor in sales. It can be seen how vulnerable the sentiments created by Chinese mobile phone manufacturers are.

Some people may raise questions here. Xiaomi's mobile phone sales have entered the top three in the world. Isn't it the sentiment that plays a role? Of course not. What is it? It is the Redmi mobile phone that is more cost-effective than its own Xiaomi mobile phone and the mobile phones with the same configuration of its competitors. The "born for fever" and hunger marketing that constituted Xiaomi's so-called sentiment have long been replaced by cost-effectiveness and open purchase. It can be said that the transformation of Xiaomi, the originator of sentimental marketing in China's smartphone industry, is precisely a typical example of the continuous decline of sentimental factors. Imagine that if Xiaomi still uses the original sentiment for marketing today or thinks that it will play an important role, then Xiaomi will be the first to be killed. The cleverness and secret of Xiaomi lies in that when it makes its competitors mistakenly believe that sentiment is important, it has decisively returned to the product cost-effectiveness itself (that is, the timely launch of the Redmi series of mobile phones), because Xiaomi knows that this is the universal and unchanging user sentiment.

In addition to Xiaomi, let's take a look at Huawei and Lenovo. Industry insiders who hold sentimental views say that Huawei and Lenovo have come to where they are today mainly because of patriotism (the biggest sentiment). In the eyes of this industry insider, Huawei Honor mobile phones use its own HiSilicon chips and many patents, which have become Huawei's bargaining chips for selling mobile phones with patriotism (sentiment). In fact, on the contrary, when Huawei announced that its mobile phones would use its own chips, it aroused not patriotism in the industry, but strong doubts and resistance. That is, is the performance of Huawei's own chips stable enough? Is the power consumption too large? Is the compatibility good enough, etc. The ultimate hot sales of Honor in the market prove that the fundamental reason is that the product is excellent and meets the user's demand for high cost performance. Here we especially want people who hold patriotic views to investigate how many users who buy and use Honor mobile phones buy them because Huawei mobile phones use their own chips and out of patriotism? I believe the answer will be clear. Here we need to remind industry insiders who hold this view that Huawei mobile phones are also sold in overseas markets by relying on the cost performance of the products themselves (in fact, the overseas market has nothing to do with the so-called patriotism for a long time).

Similar to Huawei, Lenovo, as a representative of the internationalization of Chinese enterprises, has actually been growing amid criticism from the Chinese people. Lenovo's initial success was not due to the patriotic sentiments of its users. Do you still remember the "10,000 yuan Pentium"? At that time, the Chinese PC market was almost dominated by foreign brands, and the average price of Pentium PCs was over 20,000 yuan. It was Lenovo that broke the ice of foreign PC price monopoly with 9,999 yuan and opened the way for the popularization of Chinese PCs. Since then, the status of Lenovo 1+1 in the minds of the Chinese people was not driven by the patriotic sentiments of its users, but by affordable (more cost-effective) PC products.

Entering the smartphone industry, do you remember the scene 5 years ago when Lenovo first launched the first generation of LePhone to challenge Apple's iPhone? At that time, Lenovo Chairman Liu Chuanzhi's words "This is in China" should be the best interpretation of patriotism, but it was still difficult to avoid the disastrous failure of the first generation of LePhone. This once again shows that patriotism is fragile in the face of the market and users who pursue affordable products, and it will not become the main reason for the market and users to buy. Looking at Lenovo's ranking in the top five in the global smartphone market today and its acquisition of Motorola Mobility, it is all the result of Lenovo's own innovation and efforts to improve the cost-effectiveness of its products and the accumulation of comprehensive strength.

In fact, it is not difficult to find from the above facts that at the beginning of the development of Huawei and Lenovo, the so-called patriotism not only did not help these two companies, but brought more doubts and ridicule. And they finally gained the recognition of the market and users (including overseas markets and users) by relying on the excellent cost-effective products themselves. Here, we really don’t know what the purpose of this industry insider is to attribute Huawei and Lenovo, two internationally recognized successful companies in the industry, to the support of narrow patriotism? Is it ignorance of industrial development or ridicule of the IQ of the vast number of Chinese users (except for having blind patriotism and creating two international companies with annual revenues of nearly 50 billion US dollars, which is simply a fantasy)? Even replaced and distorted the concept of patriotism?

It is undeniable that although China's smartphone industry has risen, at least relying on cost-effectiveness (not sentimentality) to win more than one-third of the global smartphone market share, it is precisely because of the main cost-effectiveness that proves that the brand and quality of our products still need to be improved. This is the real user sentiment that our manufacturers should pursue, that is, the high recognition of the brand and quality by users. Only in this way can a premium be generated (just like Apple), and the Chinese smartphone industry can obtain revenue and profits commensurate with the market share. And all this must first return to the product itself. This is already a consensus among our companies, and even business common sense.

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.