Top of the big era

It's the Spring Festival, and Zhou Buqi is ready to take a rest. Except for some general direction judgments, he basically doesn't need to deal with other matters in the domestic business.

At the beginning, he even attended a company dinner on New Year's Eve to celebrate the New Year with his colleagues who stayed at the company to work overtime during the Spring Festival.

It's not needed now.

Boss Zhou is busy, and his colleagues in the company can understand.

However, for some people, there is no concept of holidays at all, even during the Spring Festival. For example, workaholic Lei Jun heard that Boss Zhou had returned to China, so he hurried over to visit.

Now the situation of both parties has been completely reversed.

At the beginning, Zhou Buqi was just a young boy starting a business in college, while Lei Jun was the general manager of Jinshan Company. There was a huge difference in status.

Zhou Buqi went to visit, but everyone ignored him.

It's different now, Lei Jun has to hurry up and lean up. Although some things can be communicated on the phone, it is not as real as before, and it is more or less proactive in establishing friendship.

Under the leadership of Lei Jun, Xiaomi is really popular now.

Last year, Xiaomi carried out Series B financing, with a valuation of US$4 billion.

After getting the money, Xiaomi's ultra-low-price mobile phones really turned the domestic smartphone market upside down and had a huge impact on traditional mobile phone manufacturers.

However, as a new company, Xiaomi has always had an unresolved problem, which is the issue of shipments.

Consumers have to go to a "lottery" to draw lots to buy a Xiaomi phone.

When he heard that Lei Jun was coming, Zhou Buqi first asked for relevant data on domestic mobile phone sales last year, and then had a phone call with Zhou Shaoning to gain a basic understanding of the industry.

In the past year of 2012, a total of 362 million mobile phones were sold in mainland China, including 242 million smartphones.

Zhou Buqi has no interest in paying attention to the traditional mobile phone market.

His focus is on smartphones.

Surprisingly, the smartphone brand with the highest sales volume is Samsung, with shipments reaching 37 million units last year.

Secondly, there is Motorola, which was acquired by Asda and successfully transformed.

Sales volume: 32 million units.

However, Motorola is now positioned as a low-end affordable mobile phone. Although its sales volume is high, it cannot make much money. It is not at the same level as Samsung.

Ranking third is Lenovo mobile phone, with sales of 23.5 million units;

Fourth, Apple, sold 20.8 million units;

Fifth, ZTE, sales volume 19.4 million units;

Sixth, Huawei, sold 18.5 million units.

Aster's flagship high-end series, Aster, has sold 7.5 million units, ranking 11th.

Commenting on ASDA's domestic development last year, Zhou Shaoning concluded that it was "a lot of joy and a lot of sadness."

What is worrying is of course the sales of the Aster series.

Aster is a high-end model that competes with the iPhone.

However, iPhone sales exceed 20 million units, and Aster's sales are only one-third of the other party's.

Zhou Buqi's attitude towards this was relatively calm, and he said with a smile: "What's so strange about this? My skills are inferior to others, and I am more comfortable using my iPhone."

Zhou Shaoning said: "It's not just that his skills are inferior to others."

"Um?"

"In the past year, the overseas sales of iPhone were about 100 million units, and the sales of Aster series also reached 42 million units. Calculated in proportion. In overseas markets, Aster sales volume is about 40% of iPhone; in the domestic market , Aster’s sales are only 35% of iPhone’s. It is obvious that domestic users are more inclined to iPhone than overseas users.”

"Your data is too deceptive." Zhou Buqi didn't think this was a problem. "This must be related to per capita income. For some developed countries, you can buy a high-end machine after working for a few days. Between iPhone and There is no need to be so careful when choosing between Aster. If you are not used to it, just change it. Domestic users who want to buy a high-end machine will have to spend a month’s salary, so they must consider it repeatedly and get it right at once.”

Zhou Shaoning said: "There are such factors, but it must be related to domestic consumers' understanding of products. Many people still have an inherent understanding that foreign products are better than domestic ones."

Zhou Buqi said with a smile: "The public's sensitivity to the changes of the times is definitely not as strong as that of businessmen, and it is not a big deal. So I always say that we should pay attention to young people and make the market based on their preferences. Only young people Only people can perceive the changes of the times more quickly and realize that the quality of domestic products is rapidly improving. For older consumers, the concept that foreign products are good has been formed for so many years, and it is difficult to change even if they want to. ."

Zhou Shaoning deeply agreed with this and sighed, "Yes, we still have to rely on young people to promote it. However, the income of young people is generally not too optimistic, and the users who can afford high-end machines are the young and middle-aged generation. "

There is actually another factor behind this.

It’s the fashion attribute of the iPhone.

Jobs is a marketing master. His positioning of the iPhone is not a "mobile phone" at all, but a "fashion product" in the market. If it is a "mobile phone", it has been used for two or three years, and all functions are smooth, and there is no need to replace it; if it is a "fashion product", it has been used for one year, and a new model comes out the next year, and the old model is no longer fashionable. It's time to replace it with a new one.

Under such product replacement logic, many mobile phone manufacturers want to defeat the iPhone by making mobile phones, which is almost impossible.

The iPhone has broken through the circle and risen to a new dimension. In order to design the shape and appearance of the iPhone, Apple has to spend huge sums of money to recruit designers from luxury goods companies to develop the fashion attributes of the iPhone.

Just like a girl's bag.

Why do girls have to carry a bag when they go out on the street? Many times the bag is not a functional requirement, but a fashion requirement. It is an accessory.

This makes iPhone very popular among girls.

This isn't just a phone.

It is also a personal decoration.

Other mobile phone brands obviously cannot reach such heights.

What can be compared with Aster's high-end phones is actually Samsung's high-end phones. These are products that compete in the same dimension.

"Where's Samsung?"

This is Zhou Buqi's biggest concern.

Zhou Shaoning said: "Basically, the worries are half and half. Last year, Samsung's domestic shipments were 37 million units, and Asda's total shipments were about 40 million units. The high-end models are almost the same between the two. Asda's domestic shipments are about 40 million. Mainly, Motorola’s two low-end models are very popular, relying on their price advantage.”

Zhou Buqi thought thoughtfully and said: "Our mobile phone prices are very low, so sales are very high. Samsung's related products maintain high profit margins and can still have large sales."

"That's right."

Zhou Shaoning felt quite helpless about this.

In the current social understanding, it is still mainstream that foreign brands are better than domestic ones.

Regardless of the list, the mobile phone sales of domestic brands such as Lenovo, ZTE, and Huawei are still very high, but these data are not convincing.

These companies have strong official backgrounds and can obtain large purchase orders from government, enterprise, institutions, universities, military and other institutions.

Coolpad, a member of the "Chinese Cool Alliance" among the traditional four major manufacturers, quickly fell behind because it had no such official support and could only compete in the market.

Zhou Buqi was very relaxed and said with a smile: "It's okay, don't be in a hurry, just take your time. Make your own products well. Times have changed, and users have also changed. Just wait. As long as the product is good enough and the price is competitive, All other factors are secondary.”

Zhou Shaoning said "hmm".

Zhou Buqi then asked: "Where is Xiaomi?"

This changed from "sadness" to "joy". Zhou Shaoning said with a smile: "It turns out that Motorola's American team does not recognize our business ideas at all... Well, it is Xiaomi's way. I will implement it resolutely. Then the market will Feedback was given, and Motorola survived. In the past year, Motorola's global shipments of smartphones exceeded 100 million, and domestic sales exceeded 30 million. Nokia's situation was miserable. Its mobile phone business was acquired by Microsoft, and its market strategy has not changed. If it remains the same, it will be difficult to recover, and the shipment volume of smartphones seems to be only 20 million."

Zhou Buqi said: "Let's talk about Xiaomi first. Lei Jun said he wanted to see me, and he is expected to come now."

Zhou Shaoning said: "Xiaomi's mobile phones were in short supply, so Motorola followed suit. Many young people couldn't get Xiaomi's mobile phones, so they came to buy Motorola. Well, the strategy you formulated is better. Xiaomi broke the situation and broke the domestic smartphone market. Even if Lenovo and ZTE have a lot of shipments, most of them are collectively purchased and customized by operators. The mobile phone brands that can really be competitive in the market are Xiaomi and Motorola. Motorola is Xiaomi has succeeded by following suit.”

Zhou Buqi nodded, "So you have to be careful. Since the balance has been broken, there will definitely be a group of mobile phone manufacturers following Xiaomi's trend in the market. If you can follow suit, others can too. Maybe traditional brands such as Lenovo, Huawei, and ZTE can Mobile phone manufacturers have also begun to follow Xiaomi's model. The next two to three years will be the real test for Motorola."

Zhou Shaoning smiled and said: "Motorola has a strong advantage over them all, that is, Motorola has overseas markets. Especially in the European and American markets, the profit margin can be higher than in China."

At this time, secretary Guan Nanqing came over to report that Mr. Lei had arrived.

"Take him to the living room." Zhou Buqi then said to Zhou Shaoning on the phone, "Speaking of overseas markets, I really have some other ideas. Let's talk in detail after the Spring Festival. Lei Jun is here, I'll go Meet him.”

Zhou Shaoning hurriedly said: "He may ask you to further help in the supply chain, well... Xiaomi and Motorola are now competitors in the market."

"With Xiaomi's current momentum, can it be suppressed? It is precisely because our peers are suppressing Xiaomi that we should help Xiaomi. Only in this way can we establish a solid cooperative relationship." Zhou Buqi was a little funny, "Okay, I Got it, I’m going to see Lei Jun, this guy is really not idle for a moment, he’s not taking a break even after the Chinese New Year.”