Meizu's decisive battle in the mid-range market: the rise and fall of domestic mobile phones

Meizu has been working very hard this year. Driven by Huang Zhang's words "No matter how much it costs, we must make it!", the newly released MX4 has been positioned from a quasi-high-end flagship model to a mid-range price killer with a price of 1,799 yuan. Meizu has used its industrial design and hardware configuration comparable to high-end phones to compete with domestic mid-range phones that focus on high cost performance. It can be foreseen that the bloody situation in China's mid-range phone market in the future will be no less than the price war between Xiaomi and Huawei in the low-end phone market that has broken the bottom line.

In Toutiao's opinion, the biggest change Meizu has made after a long period of silence is to change from insisting on itself to catering to the public, and to take the first step from a smartphone manufacturer that simply polishes its products to building a smart hardware platform for the Internet ecosystem. Some people realize that these practices are too much like Xiaomi. In order to suppress the Xiaomi Mi 4 and Xiaomi's self-built smart hardware system with its new products, Meizu has spared no effort in all aspects: the phone has a good design, a low price, focuses on 4G and purchases Sony's ultra-high pixel cameras, the operating system comprehensively improves the user experience enough to be on par with MIUI, and connects with mainstream manufacturers' products to create an open smart hardware platform. Every layout is intended to compete with Xiaomi in the future.

Many people will doubt whether Meizu's attempt to imitate Xiaomi and kill Xiaomi will work. Toutiao believes that such doubts are groundless. Meizu chose to maintain a certain level of style while lowering its profile, catering to the needs of the public, and doing things that conform to the laws of market development. This is not only a correct choice, but also a correct choice, because only in this way can domestic smart hardware manufacturers gradually improve their competitiveness and challenge Apple and Samsung in the high-end market to a certain extent. Toutiao believes that Meizu MX4 will have a good market response, unless there are serious defects in product quality.

Regarding the topic of Meizu, I think we should stop here, because for Meizu, this is just the first step of the new long march, and the success or failure is still to come, so let's wait and see. Next, I want to talk about which domestic mobile phone manufacturers will rise and which may decline, and who will dominate the future of the Chinese mobile phone market.

This is a big topic, but at such a special moment today, Toutiao brother thinks it is time and necessary to discuss it. Domestic local manufacturers can currently compete in the mid-range market, and they must also make a name for themselves in this market. Regarding the choice of Luo Yonghao and Smartisan Technology, Toutiao brother can only say haha. But Toutiao brother hopes that domestic manufacturers who are eager to compete will not forget that the mid-range market is for survival and accumulation of strength, and the high-end market is your ultimate goal.

According to data from various sources, Apple and Samsung are still the two giants that stand in the way of domestic mobile phone manufacturers. Luo Yonghao and Wang Ziru also mentioned the uniqueness of Apple and Samsung during their debate. But in fact, these two giants are not unshakable.

I think Samsung will face big problems in the second half of this year: First, Samsung's product innovation has been mediocre in the past two years. At least from the perspective of consumers, the gap between Samsung and many domestic manufacturers is narrowing; second, in terms of software and the Internet, Samsung has never established its own ecosystem and competitive barriers, and is even worse than Xiaomi, which started out as a copycat; third, once the large-screen iPhone 6 is released, many old iPhone users who chose Samsung because of the large screen may switch sides and return to the Apple camp. If Samsung cannot come up with innovative products in the future, it will inevitably lose its market share to leading domestic mobile phone manufacturers.

Apple also faces many challenges. I will write a special article to analyze this in detail. Here I will only talk about the conclusion. In my opinion, Apple's disruptive innovation is stagnating, and the motivation to stimulate consumers will become smaller. Even if Apple does not lose its innovation and integration capabilities, its various future innovations may not show much advantage in the Chinese smartphone market, because it is difficult for Apple to perfectly connect and land in the Chinese market with the subsequent business changes around mobile Internet life. Apple is therefore just a manufacturer that sells high-quality smartphones and smart hardware. A few high-end consumers will buy its products at high prices because of its excellent user experience, but for most consumers, buying domestic mobile phones and smart hardware products that are not excellent but very good will become a more cost-effective and rational choice.

As a result, domestic mobile phone manufacturers will face a vast market, and a market with higher barriers and more intense competition. Toutiaoge believes that in the future, China's low-end mobile phone market will not be dominated by Xiaomi, it will definitely belong to China Cool Union, and ultimately to Hualian, that is, Lenovo and Huawei. Why do you say that? Because Lenovo Mobile should still make full use of its strong industrial chain operation capabilities to create huge production capacity and establish an efficient sales system, and then focus on the fast-growing 4G mobile phones and thousand-yuan smart phones, and use the "sea of ​​machines" strategy to submerge competitors in the vast ocean and occupy a large market share. Huawei's strong R&D capabilities and gradually improved channel system will give its low-end products a great advantage in terms of cost and function.

In the fiercely competitive mid-range phone market, Toutiao believes that Huawei, Xiaomi and Meizu will likely form a three-way competition.

Huawei's advantage lies in the fact that it has already formed a self-research and development system for hardware, and its R&D strength and technology are no less than those of world-class manufacturers. In this regard, Huawei can even compete with high-end hardware manufacturers such as Apple and Samsung. The only shortcoming of Huawei at present is that it has not established its own competitiveness in industrial design, software and Internet ecology.

Everyone is very clear about Xiaomi's model, so I won't elaborate on it. Building a mobile Internet platform and connecting everything is the core competitiveness that Xiaomi may develop in the future, and now is just the beginning.

Meizu has been analyzed above. I would like to say just one thing. Meizu does not have the R&D strength of Huawei, nor the mobile Internet advantage of Xiaomi, but Meizu's brand tone will be more advantageous than Huawei and Xiaomi in the future. I hope Huang Zhang will continue to delve into the mid-range market to accumulate experience and strength, improve product lines and ecosystems, and wait for an opportunity to return to the quasi-high-end market and continue to enter the high-end market.

So, apart from Lenovo, Huawei, Xiaomi and Meizu, which domestic mobile phone manufacturers does Toutiao brother think the most? Don't worry, it is definitely not Luo Yonghao's Smartisan, but OPPO, OnePlus and VIVO.

Especially OPPO and VIVO, they are the few domestic mobile phone manufacturers that dare to enter the high-end market. Moreover, they have their own unique features in the research and development and design of mobile phones, and often release products that make everyone shine. Although these products have many shortcomings and it is difficult to call them excellent high-end mobile phones, but behind their innovative products is the in-depth research and exploration of mobile phone hardware. This kind of internal cultivation will be the cornerstone of their innovation of excellent mobile phone products. If OPPO and VIVO can have some understanding and efforts in software and Internet ecology, I believe they will have a place in the mid-to-high-end market.

As for domestic mobile phone manufacturers such as ZTE, Coolpad and Gionee, Toutiao brother feels that they have not yet established any core competitiveness. When Lenovo begins to really make full efforts in the mature smartphone market, their so-called advantages in the past will no longer exist, and it may be in the near future that a large amount of market share will be eaten away by Lenovo and Huawei.

Finally, Toutiao still wants to remind Luo Yonghao, who calls himself the "popular boxer", and his Smartisan Technology that before establishing real core competitiveness, superficial appearance, usability and quality are really just empty talk. Apple did win the favor of consumers by relying on Jobs' brainwashing, beautiful and textured industrial design, and usable and good-looking interactive design, but without the support of technical content and R&D strength, the business model of the Apple empire cannot be truly established.

The above words are also harsh but honest advice to all domestic mobile phone manufacturers.

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.