Competing to "push" new technologies, is the mobile phone industry "involuted"?

Author/Reporter Zhao Tianyu Editor/Liu Zhao

New Media Editor/Fang Yongzhen

Data show that in the second quarter of 20021,domestic smartphone shipments decreased 1 1% year-on-year, and sales also decreased by 6% year-on-year. The market is full of fatigue. Such bleak data is also the lowest quarter since 20 12.

On the other hand, however, major mobile phone manufacturers have not stopped. In the middle of the year, the "new machine wave" arrived as scheduled. Huawei, which continues to focus on camera technology, focuses on high-end glory Xiaomi, has a bright iQOO(vivo sub-brand), and realme (new smart phone brand) with obvious progress in workmanship design. ...

On the one hand, it is a slightly weak market, and on the other hand, it is a triumphant mobile phone manufacturer. The competition of mobile phone product strength seems to be endless, which also makes the view that "the mobile phone industry has begun to roll over" spread like wildfire. However, some insiders believe that the current situation of accelerated competition in the mobile phone industry is caused by many factors, and the achievements of technological innovation should be judged by the market, and the view of "involution" should not be overemphasized.

For the smart phone market, it is an indisputable fact that the 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 5V 1A in 20 13 years to now. In 20 19, 65W fast charging has become the ceiling of the industry. By 2020, major mobile phone manufacturers have raised this number to100W, and top domestic mobile phone manufacturers are also testing it. 202 1 year, 120W fast charging has been widely used in flagship mobile phones of major brands, and a brand even released 200W wired fast charging technology, which is full of 4000mAh mobile phones in just 8 minutes.

As a result, all kinds of unheard-of "new technologies" broke out and even were forcibly pushed, which was very obvious in 202 1.

Netizens spit out the screen camera's self-timer effect is not good.

For example, the mobile phone screen is the focus of competition among major manufacturers. Since the era of full screen, in order to better handle the mobile phone screen and camera, Liu Haiping, water drop screen and hole digging screen have appeared one after another, and there are even lifting cameras during the period, but they have not been popularized because of widespread consumer feedback. In 20021year, the off-screen camera technology with the front camera completely built under the screen came out, and the real full-screen mobile phone was born.

However, the current off-screen photography technology is not perfect. The higher the resolution, the result is that the pixels on the screen are very dense, and the light entrance rate of the camera will be greatly reduced, which will seriously affect the shooting effect. If the pixels per inch in this area decrease, the display effect will be greatly affected. Therefore, the shooting quality of the "hard push" off-screen camera may not be perfect.

In terms of screen material, Samsung's latest organic light-emitting diode E4 screen has been favored by many manufacturers. From the data point of view, E4 luminescent materials are superior to previous E3 materials in both peak brightness and power consumption. Unexpectedly, E4 luminescent material has just exposed its sharp corners. The latest iQOO 8 mobile phone released in August this year actually uses Samsung E5 luminescent materials with lower power consumption and longer screen life, which makes people stunned.

In addition, a 200-megapixel mobile phone camera has appeared this year, which makes people lament that the mobile phone industry has changed. But the practical value of these configurations is far less than that described in the propaganda.

Behind the accelerated competition is the rapid popularization and application of 100-watt fast charging.

In fact, there are many factors behind the "mutation" of the mobile phone industry, including "natural disasters", but more are caused by market factors.

"Natural disaster" is naturally an epidemic in COVID-19. Not only the mobile phone industry, but also the real economy, including the technology industry and manufacturing industry, has been greatly affected. According to IDC (Internet Data Center) statistics, in 2020, global smartphone sales decreased by 8.8% year-on-year, and domestic smartphone sales were even worse, with a year-on-year decrease of 1 1.2%, which can be said to have experienced an out-and-out "cold winter".

Ma Yan, a professor at the School of Computer Science of Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, believes that on the one hand, the penetration rate of smart phones in China is high, and consumers lack the subjective will to replace their mobile phones due to the weakening purchasing power of the epidemic, which leads to the suppression of market demand; On the other hand, the epidemic has affected the R&D progress, production and release of mobile phone manufacturers, which is an important factor causing the cold winter of the mobile phone market in 2020.

Of course, in the end, there will be a way. Instead of sitting still, major mobile phone manufacturers are actively adjusting their pace and starting to "save themselves." For example, release the same series or similar products separately, that is, extend the life cycle of the same series of products and exchange time for the market.

Another example is to make a fuss about the functions of mobile phones and package these functions into gimmicks to attract consumers. In order to cope with the competition, some manufacturers even "pushed" some imperfect technologies to the market and forced "marketization", which led to the phenomenon of "involution".

The shortage of chips is also one of the important reasons for the involution of the mobile phone industry.

In addition to the epidemic, another unavoidable topic is the global semiconductor chip production capacity shortage, and the mobile phone industry is also one of the victims: from the core processor to the memory to the image sensor, chips are needed without exception, and all of them are facing the problem of chip shortage without exception.

Therefore, what consumers finally see is that mobile phones have made limited progress in processor and memory, new products are piling up to seize the market, and all kinds of publicity are noisy. In fact, they are more tinkering with cameras, screen materials and charging technology.

In addition, we have to mention the changes in the domestic smartphone market share: in the second quarter of 2020, Huawei held the top spot in the domestic smartphone market, accounting for 45%. The market share of vivo, OPPO and Xiaomi has been suppressed within 20%.

In the second quarter of 20021,Huawei has disappeared from the top five of the list, which has created an excellent counterattack OPPOrtunity for vivo, oppo, Xiaomi and even glory brands. A "chaos" began, and accelerating the occupation of the market has become the primary task at present, which is also an important reason to boost the competition of mobile phone manufacturers.

The original intention of the popular online word "involution" refers to the phenomenon of intensified irrational competition, which falls into an endless cycle of internal consumption of resources, and the ratio of income to pay is decreasing day by day. For example, in the Internet industry, due to the expansion of the number of companies, the uneven distribution of industry resources and the intensification of vicious competition, the involution phenomena such as "Big Week" and "996" have finally formed.

From the current context, involution is not a good word, and even has a certain irony. The involution industry seems to be in crisis and needs "change" urgently.

So are you involved in the mobile phone industry? Some insiders agree with this view: Sun Yanbiao, president of the First Mobile Phone Industry Research Institute, pointed out in an interview with the media that in the past few years, the mobile phone industry has been in a slow stage of technological innovation, or there has been no big innovation and small innovation. Under the background of high homogeneity of mobile phones, manufacturers are bound to seize some small innovations to make differentiation, and involution is formed.

However, Fei Xiang CEO Xiang Ligang. Com and a communication industry expert do not agree with the view of volume in the industry. In his view, the higher the product maturity, the more likely it is to have less innovation and more homogenization. This is not a case of the mobile phone industry, but a phenomenon of industrial consumer goods, which cannot be described as involution.

As for the emergence of some immature technologies with obvious marketing functions, Xiang Ligang believes that this is not a common phenomenon, but a gimmick of individual mobile phone manufacturers, with the aim of attracting consumers to buy. Objectively speaking, this promotes the competition among the mobile phone industries, which is conducive to reducing costs in the long run.

E5 screen is considered as "touching the ceiling of mobile phone display industry"

In fact, for consumers, the volume 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 screen, although the real full-screen technology is still not perfect, it points out the direction for the development of mobile phone forms, such as folding screens, curved screens and so on; In terms of mobile phone experience, smartphones are getting better and better. Not only is it thin, but the camera is also comparable from "comparable to a digital camera" to "beyond a SLR". The most important thing is to optimize vendors and upgrade processors. In the past, the phenomenon of Android phone jam seems to have disappeared, and the performance has been greatly improved.

Therefore, some people have given a new understanding of "involution in the mobile phone industry". For example, Liu himself, the founder and CEO of One Plus, once wrote Weibo: "The mobile phone industry is becoming more and more involuted, which may be the new normal. In fact, no matter which category, homogenization is inevitable. I think it is more popular and a better choice to create differentiation through a large number of brand marketing. "

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

"On the other hand, in the global environment, if domestic mobile phone manufacturers do not take the initiative to carry out technological innovation, they will easily be overtaken by foreign manufacturers. The current market structure, from a big perspective, is conducive to the overall progress of the domestic mobile phone industry. " Ma Yan said.

Produced by: Popular Science Central Kitchen

Producer: Beijing Science and Technology News | Science Plus Client

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