Interestingly, when you go to the offline store to buy a mobile phone, the salesperson will even more enthusiastically promote the 4G mobile phone.
Editor’s note: This article is from WeChat public account CV Intelligence” (ID: CVAI2019), author Zhang Xue, Editor Zhang Lijuan.
After about 5 months after the issuance of 5G licenses, terminal products including mobile phones will be listed one after another, which will be the first batch of 5G terminals in the Chinese market.” On June 6 this year, after the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued 5G licenses, The terminal staff expressed this to CV Intelligence.
Unsurprisingly, on July 23, ZTE announced that the first 5G mobile phone ZTE Tianxing Axon 10 Pro 5G was officially released, becoming the first 5G mobile phone in China.
On July 26, Huawei Mate 20 X (5G) was officially released and pre-sold in Shenzhen. This is also the industry’s first commercial 5G dual-mode phone, priced at 6,199 yuan.
In the past August, on the 21st, Samsung Electronics released the Samsung Galaxy Note10+ 5G, and became the first 5G mobile phone launched by Samsung in the Chinese market. Only one day apart, on the 22nd, vivo’s first 5G version of the mobile phone iQOO Pro was officially released, with a low price of 3,798 yuan.
Similarly, on the 30th, China Mobile’s own brand of 5G mobile phone – the forerunner X1 online online and offline sales, the price is 4899 yuan.
At this point, after the release of the 5G license for two months, China’s 5G mobile phone market has gathered five products, so what is the attitude of users on 5G mobile phones now? Is the current popularity of 5G mobile phones only in the media reports?
5G mobile phone demand is not as strong as imagination
In order to better understand the current situation of the 5G mobile phone market, CV recently visited a number of mobile, China Unicom, telecommunications business halls, major stores and mobile phone brand direct stores.
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Undoubtedly,In the business halls of the three major operators, the customers who handle telecommunications services are still the mainstream. Through CV intellectual observation, there are very few people who come to the business hall to specifically inquire about 5G mobile phones and related tariffs.
The staff of the business hall told CV that there are very few cases where customers consult 5G mobile phones. Occasionally, they may only ask for their curiosity, because when the business hall staff introduces further, the customer will Refuse.
Unlike the business hall, Suning, Dixintong and other places under the online, more users are coming from the purchase demand.
So in front of these users, is the choice of buying the “last” 4G mobile phone or buying the 5G mobile phone “early adopter”. When CV intellectuals asks many buyers, most of them say they are still waiting for 5G mobile phones. Attitude will not be easy to buy.
Interestingly, the salespersons in these stores even actively promote 4G phones.
Their sales are basically “now 5G networks are not yet popular, mobile products are relatively immature, and if you want to buy 5G mobile phones, it will not be too late to wait a year or two.”
It is worth noting that most of these stores are not covered by 5G networks, so consumers can’t experience 5G mobile phones in the store, and more of them are ineffective.
Another more intuitive phenomenon is that Huawei’s attention is the highest in the attention of 5G mobile phone brands.
Even if its pricing is not low, but from the observation of the physical store, it still does not reduce consumers’ enthusiasm for Huawei 5G products. Although there are very few people who really want to buy 5G, it is undeniable that a large proportion of them are directed at Huawei products. And this may also benefit from Huawei’s propaganda campaign in the 5G and mobile phones.
According to the relevant person in charge of the channel, due to the current 5G network ladder coverage, the number and speed of base station deployment in first-tier cities is much higher than other cities, and the coverage and signal quality are relatively good, so no matter the three major operations Merchants are still mobile phone direct sales stores, and the distribution rate in first-tier cities is relatively high.
But according to the “Analysis Report on the Operation of Domestic Mobile Phone Markets in July 2019” issued by China Information and Communication Research Institute, from January to July, the total shipment volume of the domestic mobile phone market was 220 million units, down 5.5% year-on-year, including 4G mobile phones 2.11. 100 million, 52,000 mobile phones.
CV Intelligence has found that the sales of 5G mobile phones, whether Huawei, ZTE or IQOO, are still limited by the inquiries of major e-commerce platforms and consulting sales staff. Now, more than online reservations are required. An appointment is also required.
It’s no wonder that David Kerr, senior vice president of Strategy Analytics, said that the sales of 5G mobile phones in China may reach 80 million in 2020, which is expected to be the mostBig 5G smartphone market.
Head players compete fiercely
According to Gartner data, global smartphone sales to end users fell 1.7% to 368 million units in the second quarter of 2019. Gartner analysts estimate that global smartphone sales will reach 1.5 billion units in 2019.
Anshul Gupta, senior research director at Gartner, also said, “ Demand for high-end smartphones is slowing faster than demand for low-end smartphones. To drive intelligence As an alternative to mobile phones, we see manufacturers introducing high-end features such as multi-lens front/rear cameras, borderless displays and large batteries for flagship smartphones to low-cost models.”
In the top five smartphone sales countries, China ranked first with 101 million smartphone sales, up 0.5% year-on-year. However, the growth rate of smartphones is still worrying.
Industry sources said that with the increase in the number of 5G smartphone models in the second quarter, Chinese manufacturers had to empty the inventory of 4G high-end smartphones, and the more terrible than not making money is the loss of shares.
Obviously, 5G mobile phones are seen as a life-saving straw to save the industry. From the earliest major manufacturers to grab the first 5G mobile phone, and then to launch the 5G flagship product in the second half of the year, you can see that the industry is almost too late.
In addition, the industry generally believes that the cost of 5G mobile phones this year will be about 200 US dollars higher than 4G (equivalent to 1,400 RMB). Even in June, China Unicom also predicted that the price of 5G mobile phones will be 10,000 yuan.
So even though consumers have a strong interest in 5G mobile phones at the time, the high selling prices estimated by all parties have become a hindrance to potential users.
It turns out that the 4G and 5G versions of the iQOO Pro just released are only 500 yuan, only 3798 yuan. The price of 5G mobile phones has dropped from 10,000 yuan to less than 4,000 yuan, and this price difference took only two months, and the price reduction of 5G mobile phones was too late.
This also means that the price war between 5G mobile phones between giants will start ahead of schedule.
According to the news, the new Samsung Galaxy A90 5G will be released on September 4, and is expected to become the cheapest 5G mobile phone.
With the launch of Samsung mid-range 5G model A90, the launch of Xiaomi 9 5G version, the red rice K30 support full Netcom 5G, etc., 5G mobile phones that are more in line with the mainstream mass consumption level will start mass shipment next year.
China Unicom official Weibo shows that 5G mobile phones that are expected to be listed in September are Samsung Note 10 5G version, vivoNEX 5G version, Xiaomi 5G model and Huawei Mate 30 5G, Samsung A90 5G version, vivo X series and so on.
A professional in the mobile phone terminal industry chain said that the impact of 5G mobile phones on 4G mobile phone sales in the second half of 2019 was mainly due to the influence of consumer mentality and the resulting sales impact, but in the fourth quarter of 2019 4G mobile phone manufacturers with more than 2,000 yuan of mobile phone stocks must be reduced by at least half, and 4G mobile phones of the same price in the first half of 2020 will not produce new products.
This is mainly because the price of 5G mobile phones will once again exceed expectations, and many manufacturers have to join the price war to compete for the market. By then, 4G mobile phones will face greater pressure.
The popularity of 5G will take some time, but the price war that is starting to rise is expected to accelerate the recovery of the mobile phone market.
Therefore, a cost-effective 5G mobile phone is likely to help mobile phone manufacturers attract a group of potential consumers in a short period of time to help mobile phone manufacturers to quickly survive the market.
But a person in charge of the operator terminal said to CV Intelligence that in the second half of this year, the 5G mobile phone market is still in the stage of lack of products, lack of players, lack of SOC, and competition among head manufacturers. The real knife stage of grabbing market share will have to wait until the second half of 2020.
In addition to the price, consumers pay more attention to the application ecology
At present, in addition to the 4G version of China Mobile’s pioneer X1, as the flagship model, the 5G versions of the other 4 models are not much higher than the 4G version, especially the iQOO Pro 5G version. The price has reached the level of the mainstream 4G flagship machine.
When the price of 5G mobile phones is no longer unattainable, consumers expect 5G mobile phones to bring some new ideas and changes to life. After all, the current 4G mobile phones have become “sick and ill” in homogenization.
“What can 5G mobile phones bring to me?” “What is the biggest change in 5G mobile phones?” “5G mobile phones can do it.” For a time, these three issues can be regarded as the most concerned issues for ordinary consumers.
However, the 5G mobile phones on the market today have not brought too many surprises to users. CV Intelligence interviewed a number of users using 5G mobile phones, they all said that in addition to the speed of the network has improved, other aspects are no different from 4G.
One respondent said, “In fact, in terms of watching video, the contrast between 5G speed and picture clarity is quite obvious, but the traffic is also very fast.”
When asked about the most commonly used applications, one interviewer replied without hesitation: “That should be the speed measurement software. Now there are more and more places where there are 5G signals in Beijing.” /p>
These 5G users also reported that 5G is used.