With the rush to promote new technologies, has the mobile phone industry become "involutionary"?

Competition in the mobile phone industry is becoming increasingly fierce, but the market is showing signs of fatigue, which has led to the spread of the view that the "mobile phone industry is involuntarily". But for consumers, mobile phone involuntariness does not seem to be a bad thing.

Written by reporter Zhao Tianyu Edited by Liu Zhao

New Media Editor/Fang Yongzhen

Data shows that in the second quarter of 2021, domestic smartphone shipments fell 11% year-on-year, and sales also fell 6% year-on-year, showing the market fatigue. Such dismal data is also the lowest quarter since 2012.

On the other hand, major mobile phone manufacturers did not slow down their pace. The mid-year "new machine wave" arrived as expected, including Huawei, which continued to focus on photography and videography, Xiaomi, which focused on under-screen camera technology, Honor, which strived for high-end, iQOO (vivo sub-brand) with dazzling configuration, and realme (a new smart phone brand) with obvious improvements in workmanship and design...

On the one hand, there is a slightly weak market, and on the other hand, there are mobile phone manufacturers that are advancing rapidly. The competition in mobile phone product strength seems to have no end, which has also led to the spread of the view that "the mobile phone industry has begun to involute". However, some industry insiders believe that the current situation of accelerated competition in the mobile phone industry is caused by a variety of factors, and the results of technological innovation should be judged by the market, and there is no need to overemphasize the view of "involute".

What is the competition trend in the mobile phone industry?

The outbreak of “new technology” was “awkwardly promoted”

For the smartphone market, it has long been an indisputable fact that competition is fierce and the track is cruel.

For example, the mobile phone fast charging technology, which is most closely related to ordinary consumers, has undergone many technological changes from Apple's 5V1A in 2013 to the present. In 2019, 65W fast charging was already the industry ceiling. In 2020, major mobile phone manufacturers upgraded this number to 100 watts, and the top domestic mobile phone manufacturers are testing it. In 2021, 120W fast charging has been widely used in flagship phones of major brands. A certain brand has even released 200W wired fast charging technology, which only takes 8 minutes to fully charge a 4000mAh mobile phone.

The ensuing explosion of a wide variety of unprecedented "new technologies", some of which were even forced to be "awkwardly pushed", has become very obvious in 2021.

▲ Netizens complained that the selfie effect of the under-screen camera was not good

For example, the mobile phone screen is the focus of competition among major manufacturers. Since the full-screen era, in order to better handle the mobile phone screen and camera, the notch screen, water drop screen, and punch-hole screen have appeared one after another. During this period, there was even a lifting camera, but due to mediocre consumer feedback, it was not promoted. In 2021, the under-screen camera technology, in which the front camera is completely built under the screen, came into being, and the truly full-screen mobile phone was born.

However, the current under-screen camera technology is not perfect. The higher the resolution, the denser the screen pixels are, and the camera's light intake rate will be greatly reduced, seriously affecting the shooting effect. If the pixel density of this area is reduced, it will greatly affect the display effect. Therefore, the shooting quality of the under-screen camera that is "forced" to be used may not be perfect.

In terms of screen materials, Samsung's latest OLED luminescent material E4 screen has been favored by many manufacturers. From the data, the E4 luminescent material has been greatly optimized in terms of peak brightness and power consumption compared to the previous E3 material. Unexpectedly, the E4 luminescent material has just shown its "sharp corners". The iQOO 8 mobile phone, which was released in August this year, actually uses Samsung's E5 luminescent material with lower power consumption and longer screen life, which is surprising.

In addition, the 200-megapixel mobile phone camera was also unveiled this year, which made people sigh that the mobile phone industry has "changed." However, the practical value of these configurations is far less than what is described in the publicity.

▲Behind the accelerated competition, 100W fast charging is rapidly promoted and applied

What factors are affecting the mobile phone industry?

Natural disasters + competition

In fact, the "changes" in the mobile phone industry are caused by multiple factors, including "natural disasters", but more are caused by market factors.

The "natural disaster" is naturally the COVID-19 pandemic. Not only the mobile phone industry, but also the real economy including the technology industry and manufacturing industry have been greatly affected from a global perspective: IDC (Internet Data Center) data statistics show that global smartphone sales in 2020 fell 8.8% year-on-year, and domestic smartphone sales were even worse, with a year-on-year decline of 11.2%. It can be said that it has experienced an out-and-out "cold winter."

Ma Yan, a professor at the School of Computer Science at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, believes that, on the one hand, the domestic smartphone penetration rate is high, but consumers' purchasing power has weakened due to the epidemic and they lack the subjective willingness to replace their mobile phones, which has curbed market demand; on the other hand, the epidemic has affected the research and development, production and release progress of mobile phone manufacturers, which is an important factor causing the cold winter of the mobile phone market in 2020.

Of course, there must be a way out when the car reaches the mountain. Major mobile phone manufacturers did not sit and wait for death, but actively adjusted their pace to start "self-rescue". For example, they released the same series or similar products separately, that is, to extend the life cycle of the same series of products and use time to exchange for market.

Another example is making a fuss about the functions of mobile phones and packaging these functions as gimmicks to attract consumers. In order to cope with competition, some manufacturers even "force" some imperfect technologies to the market and force "marketization", which has caused the phenomenon of "involution".

▲Chip shortage is also one of the important reasons for the "involution" of the mobile phone industry

In addition to the epidemic, another topic that cannot be avoided is the global shortage of semiconductor chip production capacity. The mobile phone industry is also one of the victims: from core processors to memory to image sensors, all of them require chips and all of them face chip shortages.

So what consumers ultimately see is that mobile phones have made limited progress in terms of processors, memory, etc., new products are flocking to seize the market, and all kinds of publicity are making a lot of noise, but in fact, more are being done to tinker with the camera, screen materials, and charging technology.

Another thing worth mentioning is the change in the domestic smartphone market share: in the second quarter of 2020, Huawei firmly sat in the top spot in the domestic smartphone market, accounting for 45% of the market share, while the market share of vivo, OPPO, and Xiaomi was suppressed to less than 20%.

By the second quarter of 2021, Huawei had disappeared from the top 5 of the list, which created an excellent opportunity for vivo, OPPO, Xiaomi and even Honor brands to fight back. A "big melee" has thus begun, and accelerating market capture has become the top priority at the moment, which is also an important reason for boosting competition among mobile phone manufacturers.

Is the mobile phone industry in a state of internal competition?

Maybe there is no need to over-interpret

The original meaning of the Internet buzzword "involution" refers to the phenomenon of intensified irrational competition, falling into a vicious cycle of resource consumption, and declining return-to-effort ratio. For example, in the Internet industry, due to the expansion of the number of companies and the uneven distribution of industry resources, vicious competition has intensified, and eventually formed involution phenomena such as "big and small weeks" and "996".

Judging from the current context alone, involution is not a good word. It even has a certain irony. The industries that are involution seem to be full of crises and are in urgent need of "change".

So has the mobile phone industry gone into involution? Some industry insiders agree with this view: Sun Yanbiao, director of the First Mobile Phone Industry Research Institute, once pointed out in an interview with the media that in the past few years, the mobile phone industry has been in a stage of slow technological innovation, or in other words, there has been no major innovation, but constant small innovation. In the context of highly homogenized mobile phones, each manufacturer is bound to seize some small innovations to differentiate themselves, and involution has formed.

However, Xiang Ligang, CEO of Feixiang.com and an expert in the communications industry, disagrees with the view that the industry is involuted. In his opinion, the more mature the product, the more likely it is that innovation will decrease and homogeneity will increase. This is not an isolated case in the mobile phone industry, but a common phenomenon in industrial consumer products, and cannot be described as involuted.

As for the emergence of some technologies that are not yet mature and have obvious marketing attributes, Xiang Ligang believes that this is not a common phenomenon, but just a gimmick of individual mobile phone manufacturers, the purpose is also to attract consumers to buy. Objectively speaking, this has promoted competition among the mobile phone industry, which is conducive to cost reduction in the long run.

▲The E5 screen is considered to have "reached the ceiling of the mobile phone display industry"

In fact, for consumers, the involution of the mobile phone industry is not all bad. The most intuitive feeling is that it brings more choices to users. For example, in terms of screens, although the true full-screen technology is not yet perfect, it points out the direction for the development of mobile phone forms. There are similar folding screens, curved screens, etc.; in terms of mobile phone experience, smart phones are getting better and better. Not only are they thin and light, but the cameras are also on par with digital cameras and surpass SLRs. The most important thing is that through manufacturer optimization and processor upgrades, the previous Android phone freeze phenomenon seems to have disappeared, and there has been a great improvement in performance.

Therefore, some people have given a new understanding of the "involution of the mobile phone industry". For example, Pete Lau, founder and CEO of OnePlus, once said on Weibo: "The increasing involution of the mobile phone industry may be the new normal. In fact, no matter which category, homogeneity is inevitable. I see that what is more popular now is to create differentiation through a lot of brand marketing, which is a better option."

Ma Yan, a professor at the School of Computer Science at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, also believes that technological progress will never stop, and technology is the best driving force. The goal is to strive for "higher, faster, stronger, and greener and more environmentally friendly." The topic of whether the mobile phone industry is involuted may not need to be over-interpreted. Instead of observing sales data for a period of time, it is better to extend the time line, let the manufacturers measure the standards, and let the market judge the results.

"On the other hand, in the global environment, if domestic mobile phone manufacturers do not take the initiative to innovate technology, they will be easily overtaken by foreign manufacturers. From a general perspective, the current market structure is conducive to the overall progress of the domestic mobile phone industry." Ma Yan said. ■

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Produced by: Beijing Science and Technology News | Science Plus Client

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