For 18 years. Since Motorola's Tiantuo A6188 was officially launched in June 2000, the smart phone has just passed 18 years. Looking back, only to find that there are so many mobile phone cards around us disappearing into sight.
In the past 18 years, with smart phones as a watershed, functional machines have withdrawn from the stage of history, smart machines have sprouted, grown up and erupted. Now it seems that they have begun to languish in the downturn. Due to the prolonged cycle of user replacement and the lack of innovation in the entire industry, The overall sales volume of the smart phone market in China and even the world is entering a decline stage. According to market research firm IDC, in the first quarter of 2018, China's smartphone market shipments were 87.5 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 16%.
In the front end of the domestic mobile phone market, it is the five giants of Huami OV and Apple. According to the latest data released by GFK, the overall market share of Huami OV and Apple’s mobile phone in the first quarter of this year was as high as 85.8%. Over the same period increased by 15.2%. The market share left to dozens of other small and medium mobile phone brands, less than 15%.
GFK, a third-party research organization, summarized the current domestic smartphones as a “T-shaped triangle” into a “T” pattern. It can be said that there will be more mobile phone brands in the domestic smart phone market dominated by the five giants. .
Whether it's a mobile phone brand that is struggling with life and death, or has disappeared in the market, we are all tangled up as consumers. However, the mobile phone market is always a new generation for the old, and many 'old' brands that once remembered seem to be It also can not afford people's enthusiasm. Looking back at these ever-imposing and popular mobile phone products, it will always bring some valuable and meaningful things to the industry.
With a smartphone 18, let's review these 'old' brands that have fallen or are still struggling.
The 'old man' abandoned by the time
'Wave Cell Phone, Fighter in Cell Phone.'
Whenever an industry encounters a major reshuffle, there are always many new companies that have emerged successfully, and many of the former giants have been abandoned by the new era. While the mobile communications industry is changing from functional to intelligent machines, the waveguide is The traditional giant abandoned in the new era.
Once upon a time, Waveguide mobile phone also dominated the domestic mobile phone market. The data show that 2003 was the peak period of Waveguide mobile phone. This year, its mobile phone sales exceeded 10 million units, and its market share jumped to 14.2% in one fell swoop. According to its published financial report , Bird's shares revenue of 10.8 billion in 2003, net profit of 245 million, compared with 2001's performance has more than tripled.
At the beginning of the functional machine era, the mobile phone function was relatively single, and there was not much difference in the products of each product. Therefore, advertising became the most important means to snatch users. The source of the excellent achievements of Waveguide is the massive advertising and brainwashing indoctrination. Please be a popular singer. Li Hao endorsed, named the football team and put a lot of television (outdoor) advertising, Bird's propaganda at the time compared to today's OV can be described as worse than.
As a result of mass advertising, the phrase “waveguide mobile phone, fighter in mobile phone” became the representative of the first generation of brainwashing ads. Perhaps it was because of the sweetness of advertising. The leadership of Bird began to invest more in product promotion, but At the same time, the investment in research and development has gradually reduced. The data show that in 2003, the expenditure of the Bird Advertising Publicity Expenditure was as high as 258 million yuan. However, the current research and development expenses have dropped from the same period of last year - from 88.89 million yuan in 2002 to 58.5 million yuan. The decision-making also laid the ground for Bird's decline in the future.
With the pursuit of 'emerging' functions for users, such as photography and music, there is no core technology in the market competition. Compared to Nokia and other international manufacturers with strong technology accumulation, they have begun to lose ground. However, the leadership of Bird's mobile phone does not seem to be aware of it. The core technology is the fact that it is competitive, but it continues to increase investment in advertising. The data shows that in 2004, Bird's mobile phone investment costs totaled as much as 410 million yuan, but at the same time that advertising costs have risen sharply, its R&D expenses have increased. No increase occurred. In 2004, Bird's mobile phone total investment of R & D costs less than 60 million yuan.
This misguided decision made Waveguide mobile phones quickly abandoned by the industry in the mobile phone market, which is paying more and more attention to technical strength. Since 2005, Bird's mobile phones have started to suffer huge losses, and losses that have continued for many years have also caused Wave to gradually abandon the mobile phone business. Nowadays, Waveguide has been transformed, and the development and sales of mobile phone motherboards have become its main business.
Paranoid paying the price
No matter which industry, the giants will have some of their own paranoia, although they insist on not necessarily correct. This point in the smart phone industry, Nokia and BlackBerry are the best representatives.
Both have been leaders in this industry. One is the Finnish giant who dominated the world's mobile phone market for the first time in more than 10 years, and the other is the American presidential special brand that symbolizes security and business. Both of them have allowed millions of fans to dump it. In the industry, it also has absolute right to speak. Similarly, the most important reason for the fall of both is to face changes in the era, choose to adhere to their own choices, and eventually drown in the wave of the times.
Let's talk about the BlackBerry first. As a symbol of business and security, the US government department’s dedicated mobile phone, BlackBerry seems to represent security and business from the moment it is known. The classic full keyboard design has also caused numerous fans to dump it. In the face of the rise of a new generation of smart phone manufacturers represented by the iPhone, BlackBerry did not choose to follow but still stubbornly insist on its own BlackBerry OS and full keyboard design.
In the stage where the mobile Internet is not yet mature, the ultimate security of BlackBerry and the convenience of full keyboard design are very suitable for the era. But in the face of the new generation of iPhone and Android, these designs of the BlackBerry are no longer suitable. This era. Therefore, the giant eventually fell into the wave of the times. In 2016, Blackberry announced its abandonment of the hardware business (ironically, Blackberry announced that it had given up its hardware business, and its share price has increased significantly). Mobile phones, it is TCL who took over the BlackBerry brand.
TCL has now taken over the BlackBerry for more than a year. It has introduced two products and still inherits the classic full keyboard design of the BlackBerry. However, these two products have not received market recognition, and TCL Communications has also suffered a perennial loss.
The Finnish giants Nokia and Blackberry are all under their own stubbornness. As the giants who have dominated the global smart phone market for more than ten years in a row, none of Nokia's status in the era of feature machines can challenge its authority. It used to have the best design, best quality and most user recognition. This strength also made the Saipan system once occupied more than 60% of the smartphone market share.
But like the BlackBerry, in the face of the iPhone and the new generation of Android, Nokia did not choose to follow up, but instead insisted on the original Saipan and Intel jointly developed a new intelligent system Meego. As a product of the last generation, Saipan is no surprise, but it was a surprise that Meego, who had been high hopes for Nokia, was abandoned by Nokia after the N9 defeat. After giving up Meego, Nokia chose Microsoft Windows Phone, Nokia’s mobile phone business. Also sold to Microsoft in 2013 for 3.79 billion euros (about 5 billion US dollars).
Unfortunately, such a strong combination of Nokia and Microsoft did not form the third pole of the smart phone market. Windows Phone has not been able to become the mainstream of the market. In May 2016, Microsoft introduced the Nokia feature phone for US$350 million. Sales of related services to Foxconn Fu Chikang and Finnish company HMD Global.
Nowadays, HMD's Nokia has also joined the Android camp. It has raised the banner of the sales strategy. Although the new Nokia has some improvement in sales, but overall it is still niche.
Who can blame myself?
Blackberry and Nokia insisted on the wrong direction of development and led them to be eliminated by this era. From a certain point of view, it is not entirely wrong. After all, the giants always have their own pride and want to lead the trend instead of Follow the trend. And there are other mobile phone manufacturers, obviously holding a good card, but in the end it is hard and stench, which HTC, LeTV, etc. is the best representative.
As early as September 2008, HTC launched its first Android smartphone T-Mobile G1, which became the only Android smart phone on the market that could compete with the iPhone. Thanks to its prophets, it developed in the smartphone market. In the early stage, HTC had a good grasp of development opportunities. The company's share price continued to rise. In 2011, HTC's market value was as high as US$33.5 billion. In the same year, HTC’s share in the global mobile phone market reached 15%, ranking fourth in the world. Android camp Mobile phone manufacturers first.
But as the old saying goes, it's easy to beat Jiangshan, and the HTC quickly declines after reaching its peak.
After fame, a series of problems came to the door, which also allowed the founder-born HTC to have full exposure to the fate and weakness of having no core technology. Since 2010, HTC has encountered a series of patent disputes, and various patent lawsuits have not existed. Stopped. Because there is no core technology, HTC failed to win lawsuits like Motorola and Samsung, which are rich in technology, but suffered a continuous defeat and was banned in many places around the world. This series of bans also unveiled HTC’s overall decline. The curtain.
Excluding these external factors of patent lawsuits, HTC management is also faint in business strategy. The crazy sea tactics allowed HTC to sell up to 20 products at the same time. This sales strategy makes HTC's product line very messy. Many models' ID design, hardware configuration, and selling price overlap with each other. Even many HTC's own sales staff cannot tell the difference between the two models.
In addition, the neglect of the mainland market has also caused HTC to lose its last chance to make a comeback. In the face of the explosive growth of the mainland market, almost all manufacturers have sharpened their heads and squeezed in the hope that they can get a share, but HTC’s market for the Mainland However, it seems that there is no interest at all. The old product design, delayed listing, over-pricing, and inactive after-sales service are frequent issues. This has also left HTC in the middle of the competition between the mainland market and its competitors.
HTC's mobile phone business is now on the verge of death, and the core Pixel team has also been sold to Google. Now Wang Xuehong attempts to reinvigorate HTC with VR, but it still seems to be a long way from now.
In addition to HTC, another representative of 'death' is Jay's LeTV. As a rookie of Internet mobile phone brands, in order to rapidly expand market share and bring more users into their own ecosystem, Jia Yueting launched 'Hardware Free' This is a below-cost sales strategy.
The low selling price did in fact lead to a significant increase in sales of LeTV handsets in a short period of time. In just one and a half years, the sales volume of LeTV handsets exceeded 20 million units. This achievement has attracted countless attention. , While sales skyrocketed, the sales strategy below the cost price also laid a huge hidden danger.
With the eruption of the music chain crisis, LeTV's supply chain has also fallen into a haze. Numerous suppliers are offering cards under the Levision brand to collect debts. LeTV's sales volume has also been plunged and has quickly disappeared into public view. Jia Yueting has already travelled to the United States and headed into his dream of building a car. Once the 'China's good countryman' Sun Hongbin also gave up LeTV. Looking back at the development of LeTV, it was like a meteor, and it came quickly. Also fast.
'Conclusion'
In 18 years, the mobile communications market has undergone several major changes and reshuffles. Each reshuffle has the 'new man' superior and the 'elderly man' exiting. So, is it really because the market cannot accommodate old brands?
Looking back at these 'old' companies exiting the market or on the verge of exit, each company has different reasons for failure, but the laws are still worthy of the players on the field to learn from now. Whether it is the head brand or the 'other' ranks. The mediocre players in the game, the experiences of the 'predecessors' who sink, will all become their best warnings, and they will constantly remind them: how to avoid detours so as not to become the next wave that was shot by the waves.