Europe in 2020 will probably be the most competitive market for 5G mobile phones in the world.
The week of February 24-27 is the time period for the World Mobile Communications Conference (MWC). Many manufacturers originally wanted to appear at the conference, but now they have to switch to the online format.
According to chronological order, this week, Realme, Huawei, iQOO, Qualcomm, UNISOC and other manufacturers have completed the global-oriented online show, vivo leading-edge concept machine APEX 2020 and OPPO high-end flagship Find X2 are also on their way.
The reason why manufacturers are stuck with MWC comes from a consensus: Now it is the Chinese mobile phone manufacturers entering the key stage of the global layout of 5G, and Europe is one of the high-potential energy markets, and major brands are determined to win.
Whether young as Realme and iQOO, or as old as HOVM. According to the original plan, both vivo and Realme will officially use the MWC platform to face the world for the first time.
But challenges and opportunities always coexist. Recently, after holding an online conference, Xu Qi, vice president of Realme and president of global marketing, said in an interview with 21st Century Business Herald that the company divides the global market into three categories for deep cultivation, and the partial Internet operation model makes Realme affected by epidemics. Get back faster.
The resulting online publishing method, combined with the company's 5G + AIoT strategy launched this year, "may have a chance to collide with new sparks."
Not long after the Lantern Festival, Lei Jun, chairman and CEO of Xiaomi Group, announced on the social platform "difficulty" that his flagship new product, Xiaomi 10, was changed to "pure online live broadcast". In this way, the first quarter of the domestic brand flagship new machine release trend was unveiled.
It is not uncommon for mobile phone products to be published online, but most of them have been relatively affordable products. For flagship machines that contribute the main sales to the brand, this is indeed a test.
Xu Qi said that the previous online release dates back to September 2019 and launched the Realme Q at the price of about 1,000 yuan at the time in the form of a talk show.
"At that time, I was under a lot of pressure, because this is a very new form, but it actually fits the positioning of Realme's" tech tide brand. "
This time, Realme chose to launch the new X50 pro 5G version online in Spain, the starting station in Europe. The sub-brands of vivo invited the host Wang Zijian to connect with the iQOO 3 online show from the headquarters. During the communication link after the conference, the three guests on stage also wore masks to interact.
In contrast, Huawei, OPPO, and vivo, the top OEMs, refocus on offline channels. In terms of shipments, offline sales account for almost 70%. Therefore, many analysts believe that this is particularly important for domestic shares. The advantages of Huawei brought a greater impact.
The impact of Xiaomi, Realme and OnePlus may be even lighter. The epidemic may catalyze some new consumption habits.
"This epidemic seems to be a new time point for popularizing e-commerce consumption. For example, the proportion of online shopping for vegetables and online shopping will increase rapidly."
Xu Qi said that Realme's business model is mainly based on the Internet operation mode of "asset-light, short channels, and partial e-commerce", so it can recover relatively quickly after being affected by the epidemic, and the impact is relatively small.
At the press conference on February 25, Feng Yufei, president of iQOO brand, announced that the official flagship store of iQOO will be officially launched on JD.com, Tmall and Suning online platforms.
He told the media, "Under the impact of the epidemic, the entire online environment will be relatively better and recovery will be faster."
Xu Qi said that in the face of the new crown epidemic, from the perspective of internal sales data, there were no major abnormal and negative fluctuations overall. "With the recent release and warm-up of some new products in the Indian and Southeast Asian markets, our overall sales have even increased significantly, so for now it looks good."
However, Realme is special because this domestic brand was founded in May 2018 by a former OPPO executive, started in India, and returned to the Chinese market in May 2019. Therefore, China has not become a sales contributor to which Realme particularly relies.
But it's not all optimistic news. Part of the difficulty comes from the supply chain.
OPPO Vice President Brian Shen has previously stated frankly on social platforms, "In fact, the epidemic will definitely have a significant impact on the production capacity of this flagship machine, and the early supply will be relatively tight, because a certain link in the supply chain (even the packaging box) The production capacity will be affected, and the production capacity of the entire machine will be affected. The safety and health of employees must be first and foremost, work must be resumed only after meeting safety conditions and approval. "
Xu Qi said that the previous epidemic has temporarily affected the progress of logistics and resumption of work, so shipments have fallen in the previous period, but recently, work has gradually resumed in accordance with national policies and regulations. smoothly."
Channel disputes are quickly concentrated online in the short term, which will inevitably bring new pressure.
Xu Qi and the team found that current young users are more inclined to "offline experience, online order" consumption, Realme needs to think about how to expand more channels for the public to understand.
At the same time, competition among competitors is very fierce, and the market development over the decades has made the channels and share of the Chinese market relatively fixed, that is, offline channels account for about 70% of total shipments.
"At this time, how we can seize more markets while maintaining our existing share is a test for our team."
Vivo, one of the top four domestic giants, wanted to use MWC to complete the global map and siege the city in Europe on a large scale. You know, the other three major factories have been working in Europe for many years.
Similarly, this is also the first global conference of Realme. As one of the main positions of the 5G battle, Europe is a battlefield that every mobile phone brand with growth momentum cannot ignore.
Canalys analyst Jia Mo believes that in addition to Huawei's external influences limiting its rapid expansion in the European market, the other three top brands have put Europe at a higher strategic level.
Jia Mo said that Europe in 2020 may be the most competitive market in the world.
This is because Europe is an important bargaining chip for domestic brands to establish a global position; meanwhile, the Central and Eastern European market represented by Russia is in a mature but not saturated stage of the smart phone market. "In 2019, the global smartphone market shipments fell by 2%, but Russia, India and other countries contributed most of this increase."
QiXu Qi said that Realme will roughly divide the global market into three categories, and will strengthen its efforts in mature markets, emerging markets and other markets with the "5G + AIoT" dual strategy.
Among them, mature markets are countries and regions with rapid 5G development, including China and Europe. In this type of market, Realme plans to use one year to complete the AIoT product + ecological layout and will also seize the 5G entrance. He emphasized that "full 5G will be achieved in China, and 4G mobile phone products will no longer be produced."
5G development progress in emerging markets is relatively in its infancy, including India, Indonesia, Southeast Asia and other places. "We will bring global 5G products and 5G cutting-edge experiences to these markets, establish Realme's 5G leader status, and strive to be the local AIoT head brand."
Other markets are mainly targeted at the Middle East, Africa and other markets. Realme will build local users' awareness of 5G and AIoT products, while vigorously developing 4G products.
Xu Qi said that this year will focus on two regions, namely China and the Pan-European region. China is a Red Sea market, and Realme wants to continue to make breakthroughs at home; Europe is a high potential energy market. At present, 5G also has certain development trends, and the market opportunity is very large, which is more in line with Realme's overall positioning.
Realme now uses Spain as the starting point for Europe. This year, it plans to fully bloom and promote it in different countries in Eastern and Western Europe. "Last June we have officially entered the Russian market and have spent a lot of time and energy thinking about how to build a brand and open channels. At present, Realme is on the track of continuing in the Russian market." Xu Qi introduced.
Another difference in the 5G era is the terminal form.
With the ubiquitous Internet of Things and high-speed network features gradually landing, seizing more connection entrances has become the next must-have for mobile phone manufacturers. OPPO founder and CEO Chen Mingyong previously stressed that OPPO will no longer be a mobile phone company.
QiXu Qi said that Realme expects to become a global 5G ubiquitous. In markets where 5G is not yet popular, it will participate in 5G network construction in depth and explore 5G scenarios with local industry partners; in the AIoT field, it will expand around three major scenarios: individuals, families, and travel.
In terms of operation mode, AIoT will also adopt the model of “asset light, short channel, partial electricity supplier” just like mobile phone.
But the problem is that the circle of Xiaomi's ecological chain has been continuously expanding, and Huawei has also released different terminals one after another.
"Now Chinese consumers should be no strangers to the ecosystem. This is a big challenge for us. We will think about three aspects: first, for whom exactly do we build our ecosystem? We define the technology tide brand for young people The second is how to enhance the experience of connecting everything between products; the other is the richness of the product. "Xu Qi said.
He added that the Realme Link being built as a traffic hub, hoping to connect multiple categories of AIoT products, is a very important part of Realme brand building and experience improvement.
In fact, the Internet of Things between different mobile phone brands is also trying to promote.
Xu Qi said, "We are currently creating a Realme exclusive AIoT product. In the future, we will also open some ports, introduce some other brands that are more commonly used in everyone's life, and join this interconnected ecosystem."
According to Xu Qi analysis, from the global market, India and Southeast Asian markets already have a good foundation for AIoT penetration. Realme expects to become the Top 1 brand in the local AIoT industry.
In the Middle East and Africa market, the penetration rate of AIoT products is extremely polarized, and Realme needs to be a local AIoT ubiquitizer.
In China and Europe, due to the rapid progress of 5G infrastructure, young users need more personalized options, and Realme will gradually build a complete AIoT ecosystem.
