Domestic manufacturers collectively lowered the flagship price

In the context of a year-on-year decline in shipments in the first quarter, domestic smart machines ushered in a new wave of price cuts. Following the Meizu MX4 and Huawei Glory 6, the Xiaomi Handset 4 became the third domestic flagship model to join the 1499 bargaining army in 2014. If we count the new machines in 2015 such as Nubia Z9 Mini and Le Lele 1, the current domestic flagship mobile phone has pulled the competitive price line to 1499 yuan.

It is still difficult to determine whether this round of price war can help domestic smart machines to reach the low point of market saturation, but it is certain that today's consumers are no longer sensitive to the price of thousands of smart machines, and the demand for smart machines is already high. Gradually change from the price factor to the function and experience. This is also equivalent to providing domestic smart machine manufacturers a clear direction for improvement, that is, returning to the product itself, controlling the core technologies, and strengthening soft services, so as to ensure product quality and user experience in order to gain a better reputation in the market.

Domestic flagships competing for "1499 yuan" label

As people continue to express their feelings that mobile phones are being replaced by faster and faster, "more and more cheap" has gradually become a trend. Just in May of this year, the Meizu MX4 entered the 1499 yuan sequence. Huawei Glory 6 also joined the flagship army of 1,499 yuan immediately afterwards. This year, the new models Nubia Z9 Mini and Le Ville 1499 flagship family became Growing stronger.

"The price of music alone is not as good as the public." A few days ago, Xiaomi also announced that the price of Xiaomi's mobile phone 4 has dropped to 1499 yuan. Such a large number of domestic flagship machines joined the ranks, undoubtedly making 1499 yuan a new label for the smart phone market, and this tag is less than 4 years apart from the 1999 yuan era established when smartphones fell below the 2,000 yuan mark. The sudden drop of 500 yuan, people have to say that the domestic flagship machine is still not out of the old road of price war, but also shows that the domestic flagship market is fierce competition.

For the domestic mobile phone price war, I believe that people are no longer unfamiliar, and there is no joy to see the mobile phone price cuts a few years ago. Today's consumers are no longer sensitive to the price of the thousand-yuan smart machine. The reason is that the improvement of living standards is one aspect. More importantly, the consumer demand for smart machines has gradually shifted from the price factor to the function and Experience up.

Since consumers pay more attention to factors such as the function and experience of mobile phones, what is the driving force behind the competitive price cuts of domestic flagships?

Market saturation, price cuts become helpless

Domestic mobile phone manufacturers collectively fell to the high price of 1999 yuan this year, which is obviously different from their previous efforts to increase the revenue generated by the high-end market. There are many reasons for this.

First of all, the market is saturated, and price cuts can guarantee shipment volume. According to a survey released by the US market research company IDC, in the first quarter of this year, the domestic mobile phone market shipped around 110 million units, down 3.7% year-on-year. Among them, the smartphone market shipped around 100 million units, down 2.5% year-on-year. This is the first time that the Chinese smartphone market has experienced a year-on-year decline in the past six years. Comparing with the growth rate of domestic smart phone's quarterly shipments kept above 20%, the signs of this year's decline indicate that the domestic smart phone market has gradually become saturated. Saturation of the market must be accompanied by increasingly fierce competition. Price reduction is one of the most direct and easiest measures for competition. Therefore, domestic smart flagships have entered the 1499 yuan sequence and this market situation is also dictated by it.

Second, mobile phones are faster and faster, and price reductions can guarantee their survival. According to Deloitte's survey, the update cycle of smart phones is about 12 months, which is shorter than the cycle time of the tablet, notebook and TV. This year, the global smart phone replacement sales volume is expected to exceed 1 billion for the first time. Faced with such a rapid replacement rate, price reduction sales, it became the first choice for the old flagship to expand sales to inventory. In this 1499 yuan flagship war, like the Meizu MX4, Huawei glory 6, millet 4 and other 2014 models of the flagship models, in the face of Nubia Z9 Mini and music as a new model 1, only price cuts have Competitive advantage, this is a last resort.

Again, the transparency of the supply chain led to smart machine price wars. With the development of smart phones today, the threshold is getting lower and lower, which has attracted many manufacturers, such as hammer mobile phones, music mobile phones, Gree mobile phones, etc. are all rising stars, and the relative transparency of the entire supply chain has also become a guide to lower prices. Suo. Once one of the brand manufacturers takes the initiative to lower prices and launch a new round of price wars, other brands will be involved. Nowadays, the Hardware configuration of mobile phones is the same, and no one manufacturer dares to keep the price of its own mobile phones firm. If the price is cheap, there will be chances for the manufacturers to continue to survive. By occupying market share through mass shipments and keeping their own users with their own operating systems and services, they will have the opportunity to expand into new markets.

Although the price war is not the best way for the smart phone market, it will be more difficult to survive without price cuts. The price war is more helpless for mobile phone manufacturers.

Consumers prefer dual upgrades of hardware and services

The price cuts of domestic manufacturers' flagships can go to inventory to expand the market for manufacturers. For consumers, they can experience so-called high-profile mobile phones at lower prices. However, such fierce price competition cannot really boost the growth of the domestic mobile phone industry, and it is very easy for the smart phone industry to remain in a vicious circle of price-driven without brand premium.

Price reduction competition may be a necessary way for manufacturers to survive, but whether or not the mobile phone can continue to guarantee the quality of the mobile phone and the hardware and software experience after the price reduction is still unknown. Today's consumers have become more rational in their choice of smart phone products. They are pursuing products that are cost-effective, care about product balance in all aspects, or are more innovative value mobile products. And these are often the shortcomings of the current domestic mobile phone manufacturers. When the price war makes the profits of the entire industry tend to be zero, the manufacturers only attract consumers through other aspects of competition, such as quality, brand, and services. Or, it will reverse the promotion of manufacturers to enhance R & D capabilities, create differences, out of the cycle of price wars.

Smartphones on the market can already meet people's needs in all aspects, and performance has reached a bottleneck. Consumers' demand for mobile phone functions has been reduced. If all phones have similar hardware and functions, then the user experience is better. Undoubtedly it will win. The quality of the hardware and software of the product will be an important aspect of the product's brand value. To a certain extent, the hardware quality of the product and the quality of the software service are also part of the manufacturer's differentiation. In situations where the hardware and software features of the product are easily copied, quality control and service capabilities will have an impact on consumers. The domestic Thousand Yuan Machine Market can introduce the concept of "quality" into it, thus allowing more domestic Thousand Yuan Machine Manufacturers to gradually move away from the bad ideas surrounding the "cost-effectiveness". With higher product quality, we will break the monopoly of the “cost-effective” theory on the thousand yuan machine market and increase the premium capacity of the domestic thousand yuan machine.

As a domestic mobile phone manufacturer, to attract more attention from consumers, it should return to the product itself, control the core technology, strengthen soft services, and ensure product quality and user experience in order to gain a better reputation in the market.