In the mobile phone market, because there is no strongest, only stronger, technological innovation is commonplace. In recent years, simply "stacking" on mobile phones has been a basic operation, but only self-research can become the ultimate in market competition.
01 The power of self-research, the soul of innovation of mobile phone manufacturers"The proportion of self-developed technology and the use of domestic ** chain continues to improve in an all-round way. This is IDC's insight into the mobile phone market in 2024, once again emphasizing that self-developed technology is the source of power to create customized products.
In the author's opinion, this is a continuation of the trend of self-development in 2023. Starting from the second half of this year, all flagship machines will appear on the stage. The Huawei Mate60 series, which is equipped with Kirin chips, the Xiaomi 14 series, which is equipped with the new Xiaomi Surging OS for the first time, and the Vivo X100 series, which has a self-developed image chip and AI large model, etc. Self-development capabilities have long become the core highlight of flagship launches, and they have also intensified the competitive situation.
Behind it is the continuous pursuit of users for the ultimate experience of mobile phones. They crave cutting-edge technology, a stable experience, and a complete ecosystem. In order to meet the needs of users, mobile phone manufacturers need to continue to innovate and improve their self-development capabilities. However, the investment in self-research is large and the cycle is long, so in addition to self-development, manufacturers also strengthen cooperation with the industrial chain through joint definition and in-depth adjustment of core components with the first chain, so as to provide users with better and innovative products and services.
Self-developed and jointly defined core components with the first chain are to strengthen the barriers, so that the latest R&D results can serve more users is the real value embodiment.
This year, the willingness of various mobile phone manufacturers to build the sub-flagship into a bucket machine without obvious shortcomings is getting stronger and stronger, and the volume performance, volume texture, volume configuration, and volume image make the sub-flagship machine "fragrant" more than a little bit. For example, in the first half of the year, Huawei's nova 11 series continued the Kunlun glass and two-way Beidou satellite messages that are only available in Huawei's Mate series and P series. Another example is the Redmi K60 series, which inherits Xiaomi's Xiaomi image brain.
In the second half of the year, this trend became more pronounced. The 1TB large storage that was once only available on flagship phones has also been devolved to the sub-flagship market. The chip, one of the core components of the mobile phone, was widely used in the previous sub-flagship platforms such as Dimensity 8000 and Snapdragon 870.
It is understoodThe upcoming iQOO Neo9 series will span the Qualcomm Snapdragon and MTK Dimensity platforms in terms of performance, with the standard version equipped with Qualcomm's second-generation Snapdragon 8 mobile platform and the Pro version equipped with the MTK Dimensity 9300 flagship chip. Only a month later, the iQOO Neo9 Pro uses the chip of the flagship vivo X100 series, and it is not difficult to see that while the flagship capacity is decentralized, its cycle is also shortening.
Over the years, the cooperation between Blue Factory and MTK has become deeper and deeper. The two sides have jointly tuned the performance to the extreme. Previously, on vivo X80, in addition to releasing the performance of Dimensity 9000 very well, the imaging ability even exceeded that of Snapdragon models in the same period, which is rare in the industry. On the just-released vivo X100 series, vivo and MTK jointly defined the Dimensity 9300 chip, and the blue factory has been defining the chip and has always achieved a closed loop of experience. With the help of vivo blue crystal chip technology stack, the links such as SOC definition and system layer tuning are completely opened up from the bottom layer, and the integrated design of software and hardware is truly realized. After the release of the vivo X100 series, in addition to winning the reputation in the image track that it has always been good at, it even won the evaluation of "strong performance is not like an image flagship".
This time, the iQOO Neo9 Pro is so quickly equipped with the same chip as the flagship - Dimensity 9300, and stands on the shoulders of the flagship to deepen the joint tuning,The joint R&D capabilities cover eight experience tracks: AI, display, performance, imaging, security, gaming, battery life, and communication.
Not only that, the self-developed strength of the blue factory is also reflected in its self-developed e-sports chip Q1 applied to the iQOO product line. IQOO's first self-developed gaming chip, Q1, can achieve industry-leading PC-level super-resolution effects, zero-latency zero-sense frame insertion, and stable super-resolution super-frame concurrency effects, and also brings more than 100 144-frame super-frame games and 37 super-resolution games, creating a huge number of super-frame super-resolution game ecology. It can be said that iQOO's self-developed gaming chip Q1 and Dimensity 9300 are efficient and concurrent, colliding with unprecedented performance "nuclear energy".
In terms of emerging technologies, the blue factory has also given the latest AI model "70 billion blue heart large model" capabilities to the IQOO Neo9 series. In terms of large model volume, the industry's first AI large model mobile phone, the vivo X100 series, has a 7 billion parameter model on the terminal side and a 13 billion parameter model on the end side, allowing the mobile phone to take a step forward towards an intelligent body. The iQOO Neo9 series, which has this ability, can be said to break the ceiling of mobile phones at the price of 3,000 yuan.
02 Break through and refresh the standard of mid-to-high-end mobile phonesThe configuration of high-end flagship products is being "decentralized", which is not only brought about by the gradual maturity of various technologies, but also a strategy to cope with the market with the increasing competitive pressure of various manufacturers in the downward market cycle.
The mid-to-high-end market of mobile phones, that is, the price is around 3,000 yuan, is the most competitive in the Chinese market. According to IDC data, the market share of high-end mobile phones above $200-400 in China in the second quarter of 2023 was 387%, which is still the largest base plate for stable shipments.
As the mainstream price segment of the mobile phone market, the sub-flagship has a wide range of user groups and huge market potential. By launching competitive products in this price segment, mobile phone manufacturers can attract more consumers' attention and purchases, thereby expanding their market share. It is no exaggeration to say that the price segment is the world's best.
In the author's opinion, the price of 3,000 yuan is also between the mid-range and the high-end. Products in this price segment, which have the largest basic market users and can grow into high-end consumer groups, are the most likely to convert consumers in both markets into potential users, so it is worthwhile and strategic for manufacturers to invest energy and resources.
To meet the requirements of today's high-end users: both texture and performance, but also to have a low price advantage. In particular, the user group with frequent phone changes has a certain economic strength, pursues freshness, and likes to change often but cannot generate too much economic pressure. All along, it seemed like you couldn't have it both ways.
iQOO's products are based on extreme performance and gaming experience. In about four years since the first generation of the product was released in 2019, it has nearly 40 million users, and has established a unique "Kuke" user base and differentiated brand identity.
Relying on the advantages of the blue factory, iQOO dares to face challenges. We must not only be the leader of advanced technology, but also become the popularizer of cutting-edge technology. The dual-brand coordinated layout connects different groups of user groups. The powerful dual-core of Dimensity 9300 flagship core + self-developed gaming chip Q1 not only demonstrates the core spirit of "extreme performance" and "full experience" of the iQOO brand, but also makes the image of the iQOO brand as a technological pioneer and performance benchmark more deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.
According to the domestic mobile phone sales ranking in the third quarter of 2023 from Chaodian Think Tank, iQOO ranked seventh overall, with sales of 164 in the third quarter60,000 units, with a market share of 3%;It is the top of all the sub-brands at the moment. After that, there are OnePlus, Realme, Nubia, etc.
The more valuable something is, the harder it will be to do. Long-termism is the starting point for many decisions made by vivo's management, and long-termism, along with many other principles, constitutes vivo's core value: duty. Whether it is Blue Factory or its iQOO, in the face of the long road of self-development, they are determined to bring the best technology and ultimate products to users.
The iQOO Neo9 series will be released on December 27, as the sealing work of the blue factory in 2023, equipped with the flagship series technology that has been widely recognized by the market, showing full sincerity. With the most powerful performance, a flagship image sensor, a thin and light hand feel, and a large AI model, the iQOO Neo9 series will once again refresh the standard of sub-flagship mobile phones.