text-remarks “label =” Remarks “> (Mainland market) The market share of smartphones decreased by 4.1 percentage points to 9%, and shipments fell by 33% year-on-year, a decline greater than Apple, OPPO and vivo.
Xiaomi therefore needs to seek new growth in overseas markets. Currently, Xiaomi has a presence in Europe, Africa, North America, South America and many other regions. In Asia, the largest market outside China is India and India. Japan, Millet has been working in India for many years, and the share to eat is almost the same as the demographic dividend. The Indian market has little room for increase. Japan is a worthy fight Market.
Xiaomi actually reached a global license agreement with NTT Docomo, Japan’s largest mobile operator, in 2018. The agreement covers NTT’s standard wireless patents. This means that Xiaomi has already made strategic plans to enter the Japanese market.
While domestic mobile phone brands such as Huawei, ZTE, and OPPO have already taken the lead in the Japanese market, perhaps from the perspective of many domestic mobile phones and Xiaomi, there is no strong mobile phone brand in Japan. Sharp Sony has declined, which means that As Japan enters the Japanese market, it will not encounter the strong resistance of Japanese localization giants. Overseas regions where Huawei OPPOs can survive, Xiaomi can naturally survive.
Again, Xiaomi ’s mobile phone and home appliances have been designed with MUJI. To a certain extent, Xiaomi ’s home appliances have a certain degree of indifference with Japanese home furnishings.
How big is the opportunity for Xiaomi? First of all, it depends on the needs of Japanese consumers and the current status of the smartphone market.
According to the second quarter of 2019 data released by Strategy Analytics, the share of Japanese smartphones is dominated by Apple, accounting for about 50.8%, and Samsung, Sharp and Sony each have less than 10% market share. Huawei’s market share slipped to 3.3% from 5.9% a year ago.
From the perspective of Japanese media, Xiaomi hopes to surpass Apple by expanding sales in Japan of products with both high performance and low price. However, in my opinion, it is difficult for Xiaomi to shake Apple in the Japanese market, and it may be Samsung’s market in Japan.
The cost-effective strategy doesn’t work in Japan, and the product itself is even more critical.
Xiaomi emphasized that we should bring the pleasant experience of cost-effectiveness to Japan. But the word cost-effectiveness may be difficult to develop in Japan. Because of the cost-effectiveness, Apple has achieved sufficient cost-effectiveness in Japan. For a long time, the price of Apple mobile phones in Japan is almost the lowest in the world, plus the contract subsidies of Japanese operators, the price is lower. This is why Apple’s mobile phone has maintained its leading position in the Japanese smartphone market. It relies on the superior software and hardware integration experience and industrial design, lower prices and excellent performance. After the launch of Apple’s new iPhone11 series this year, Apple is still popular in Japan. In October, Apple’s products captured the top ten mobile phone sales charts.
Sony, which had a high market share in Japan in the past, still lost to the iPhone. According to Sony, the reason why it lost to the iPhone in the Japanese market is except for the superior quality of the iPhone and the closure of software and hardware In addition to the Japanese market, price is also a major factor.
Before and after 2016, Sony Japan’s marketing manager Sugiyama Bokang once said that because the iPhone is cheaper than Xperia in Japan, almost everyone can buy it. Take Z5 as an example, it is twice the price of iPhone6S. Sony has said that users who choose Xperia really understand the brand value of Xperia, as long as you pay a little more for better cameras, sound quality, and water resistance. The main iPhone users are high school girls. Although this is a bit sour, but to some extent it also reflects the iPhone’s cost-effective advantages in Japan.
But relatively speaking, even so, the average price of Xiaomi phones in Japan is still significantly lower than the iPhone. As a brand new brand, it ’s not realistic to rely on cost-effectiveness to snatch iPhone users. Product experience, performance, user awareness, and channel network, Xiaomi still has a long way to go in Japan. <3.jpg? ImageView2 / 2 / w / 1000 / format / jpg / interlace / 1 / q / 85 "img_width =" 711 "img_height =" 477 "alt =" "Depth" Xiaomi is entering the Japanese market. How likely is Xiaomi to succeed? "inline =" 0 "style =" ">
For example, Japan advocates durable and exquisite culture. In terms of smart phones, Japan’s three-proof mobile phones, from Sony, Sharp to Fujitsu, Kyocera and many other manufacturers, many of its mobile phones are waterproof, dustproof and drop-proof.
From this point of view, Xiaomi and other manufacturers want to open up sales in Japan. Specially tailoring the three-proof process according to the needs of users in the Japanese market may be an option to consider. On the other hand, the software and application adaptation level needs to adapt to localization needs. For example, NFC payment is almost a necessary and indispensable feature for Japanese mobile phone users. Japanese mobile phone users are also accustomed to making purchases via mobile payment without going out with a wallet, but they are not scanning QR codes, but NFC payment. Foreign mobile phones have certain thresholds for implementing NFC functions in Japan. Operators, banks, Credit card terminals and payment service providers need to break the barriers of mobile payment and finance in Japan. This is not easy. If a mobile phone does not support NFC payment function in Japan, it is basically difficult for users to buy.
Xiaomi’s entry into Japan is a gamble with a low input-output ratio
From the size and saturation of the Japanese market and the difficulty of entering the Japanese market, Xiaomi’s trip to Japan may be a gamble with a low input-output ratio.
According to IDC data, in the second quarter of 2019, Japan ’s total mobile phone shipments were 6.933 million units, about one-tenth of China ’s, a year-on-year decrease of 1.8%.
This means that Xiaomi’s entry into the Japanese market is preempting existing users in a highly saturated market with a small user volume. As mentioned earlier, regardless of brand height, Japanese localization, and cost-effectiveness Advantage, it is difficult for Xiaomi to grab the market of Apple, it may be easier for Xiaomi to grab the market share of Samsung, Sony and Sharp. But the mobile phone market is about home court advantage. The same products have very different sales in different markets. For example, Samsung cannot play in the Chinese market, but it is still the world’s largest mobile phone manufacturer. Sony and Sharp are basically unable to sell in other parts of the world, but they can still live well in Japan. This is actually the home advantage of Sony Sharp.