Text: Observer.com, Lu Dong, Editor: Zhang Guangkai].
On February 1, the observer network found that OPPO's brand OnePlus (OnePlus) has launched a number of new products on the German official website, which marks the beginning of the Chinese mobile phone brand's return to the German market.
Just a week ago, Oppo and Finnish telecommunications company Nokia reached a patent dispute settlement and signed a global patent cross-licensing agreement, including 5G patents, ending pending litigation in several countries around the world.
Perhaps the reconciliation between OPPO and Nokia will be the key to OnePlus's return to the German market after 18 months. After all, it was due to the patent lawsuit with Nokia that led to the ban on OPPO and OnePlus in Germany.
Observer.com noticed that compared with the previous limited number of accessories, the new products on the official website of OnePlus Germany include the flagship OnePlus 12 series, the folding screen OnePlus Open and many other newly released mobile phones, as well as ** headphones and other products.
OnePlus Germany's official website.
OnePlus's return to Germany coincides with the recovery of the mobile phone market.
According to a report by market research agency IDC, global mobile phone shipments will decline by 3% year-on-year in 2023After 2%, it is expected to increase by 3% year-on-year in 20248%, and will continue to maintain single-digit growth in the next few years, with a five-year compound growth rate of about 14%。
Coincidentally, the American mobile phone chip giant Qualcomm predicted yesterday (January 31) that the mobile phone industry will show a moderate recovery this year, and the company's mobile phone chip business revenue increased by 16% year-on-year in the fourth quarter of last year, reversing the year-on-year downward trend; Qorvo, the leader of RF chips, also expects that the smartphone market is expected to be **.
However, despite OnePlus's return to Germany, the OPPO Germany official website is still empty, with no new products unveiled. Another Chinese mobile phone maker, Vivo, whose German website is still in the process of being removed from the shelves, also has a patent dispute with Nokia.
The patent battle between OPPO and Nokia originated in June 2021. According to OPPO, at that time, the license agreement between the two parties expired and no agreement could be reached on a renewal agreement. As a result, Nokia launched dozens of infringement lawsuits against OPPO in many countries around the world before the expiration of the previous agreement between the two parties and on the first day of expiration, trying to force OPPO to accept high and unreasonable patent fees through litigation, and then OPPO launched counterclaims in many countries.
Nokia has already divested its C-end mobile phone business, so the impact of patent wars on Chinese mobile phone brands is more obvious. After losing lawsuits in some countries, brands such as OPPO and vivo had to choose to withdraw temporarily. In 2022, OPPO and Realme were ranked fifth and fourth in the European mobile phone market. But since the beginning of 2023, both have dropped out of the top five in Canalys' quarterly statistics.
Patents will have a certain impact on OPPO's market, but the two things are not completely equal. Recently, Liu Zuohu, chief product officer of OPPO and founder of the OnePlus brand, said frankly in an interview with the observer.com, "I won't do it completely because of the patent incident, how to do it in the future, we must first admit that Europe is still a relatively large market, and the business model needs a certain amount of time."
OPPO Germany's official website.
As the world's fourth-largest mobile phone manufacturer in 2023, OPPO has to face more than just Nokia.
On January 8 this year, Interdigital, an American wireless and mobile technology company, announced that the company had won a major lawsuit victory against OPPO in Germany, and the Munich District Court ruled that OPPO had infringed InterDigital's 5G patent, "OPPO is not a licensee of the patent and has not acted in a way that complies with SEPs, and InterDigital should obtain injunctive relief in the German market." ”
It is not only OPPO that covets the European market, but also hopes to return to the glory of the global market as soon as possible.
On January 4 this year, Honor announced that it had signed a new patent cross-licensing agreement with Nokia, which covers the basic inventions of both parties in 5G and other cellular technologies, and the terms of the agreement are confidential information for both parties. To a certain extent, this move has also cleared the patent barrier for Honor's globalization.
On January 11 this year, Zhao Ming, CEO of Honor, said in an interview with Observer.com that 2022 is the first year of Honor's global market, and last year was the first year of the European market. "In 2024, we will take Europe as the second home market, and its core is to be able to take the road of branding and high-end development in Europe like China. ”
But it is not so easy to gain a foothold in the European market.
According to data released by market research agency Canalys, in the third quarter of 2023, mobile phone shipments in Europe (excluding Russia) will be 32 million, down 6% year-on-year, which is the 10th consecutive quarter of decline, of which the top three Samsung, Apple and Xiaomi together occupy 76% of the market share, and the fourth and fifth Motorola and TCL only occupy 5% and 3% of the market share respectively.
This article is an exclusive manuscript of the Observer.com, and it is not allowed to be unauthorized and shall not be allowed.