The overall recovery of the mobile phone market still takes time

Every National Day holiday is a "golden period" for mobile phone sales. In particular, on the eve of the National Day holiday this Mid Autumn Festival, Huawei and Apple both released new phones, which triggered a wave of phone changes. However, it is still too early to say that the mobile phone market has come out of the downturn and fully recovered at this time. From a comprehensive perspective, the future of the smart phone market is still full of uncertainty.

This round of mobile phone sales boom during the Mid Autumn Festival National Day holiday is still the counter trend growth of high-end mobile phones. "The product is far ahead, and the delivery is far ahead." This joke confirms the popularity of popular models. During the golden week just past, many Huawei and Apple stores were crowded and even lined up. The more high-end models became more popular, for example, Huawei Mate 60 Pro, Mate 60 Pro+, Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max and other models were "hard to find". Not only that, but also the premium for high-end models. For a long time, the high premium of Apple mobile phones has been the dream goal of domestic mobile phones, and now it has been successfully achieved.

Compared with the slight recovery during the holidays, the overall mobile phone market is still sluggish this year. Data shows that the shipments of domestic mobile phone brands in the first half of the year are still declining. In fact, the domestic smartphone shipments have been on a downward trend since reaching the peak in 2016, except for a slight rebound in 2021 due to the large-scale launch of 5G mobile phones, which has returned to the level 10 years ago. The mobile phone market has already passed the good time of rapid user growth and entered a saturation period. In particular, in recent years, against the backdrop of overall weak global economic growth, smartphone products still have serious homogenization, lack of obvious innovation iteration and other problems, resulting in consumers' little desire to change phones, and the change cycle continues to lengthen. It is obviously not enough to rely only on two popular models to make the mobile phone market turn from low level operation for consecutive years to full recovery.

High end is the only way and also the "battle of life and death". Looking at the continuously depressed mobile phone market in recent years, from a unique and stable growth of folding screen mobile phones to the hot models during this Golden Week, it can be seen that mobile phones have changed from just needed products to improved products, and the rising demand has forced product upgrades. Without high-end products, there is no market. Compared with the middle and low end market where profit is the key to space, the high-end market means high profit and high viscosity. It is to seize the growth opportunities of the future market by leading technological innovation and application innovation. For mobile phone manufacturers, what can not be changed is the market trend. What can be achieved is to move towards the high-end, and let the high profits brought by the high-end interact with product innovation to create a brand moat, so as to remain invincible in the ever-changing market competition.

The high-end market is valuable, but not easy to get. Over the years, domestic mobile phone manufacturers have made great efforts in independent innovation and technological breakthroughs, and the progress is obvious to all. Innovation is the first driving force to lead development. Innovation will never end. In the future, we need to focus on tackling key core technologies, establish a technological innovation system with enterprises as the main body, market as the guide, and combining industry, education and research, speed up technological iteration and bottom innovation, break the homogeneous competition, keep accumulating small innovations and micro innovations, and eventually evolve into a technological innovation, Firmly occupy the high-end market.

It is worth noting that innovation includes not only technological innovation, but also mode innovation, application innovation, strategy innovation, etc. For example, 5G technology has put forward new requirements for mobile phone design, manufacturing, sales, service, etc., providing new opportunities and space for smart phone innovation and upgrading. Domestic enterprises have gained certain advantages in 5G technology, but the application of 5G mobile phones still needs innovation. They need to work hard from both sides of technology and application, seize the window period, and stimulate consumption willingness. In addition, we should not underestimate the existing advantages of domestic mobile phones, such as personalized services, high cost performance, diversified channel layout, etc. Diversified product portfolio, expansion of emerging markets, layout of other electronic products, cross-border integrated development, and other model innovations and strategic innovations also help domestic mobile phones to seize more user groups and explore a larger market.

key word: Mobile phone market Mobile phone sales Smartphone products Domestic mobile phone High end market