Window Period To Make Up For Weaknesses And Focus On Europe: Mobile Phone Manufacturers Will Rationally Plan Demand In The Second Quarter

The global impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic is still not completely eliminated, and the smartphone market is facing more and more uncertain challenges.

Recently, a number of institutions have calculated that the demand for smart phones will face the pressure of callback. On the one hand, there are mobile phone manufacturers based on the current market performance of the inventory adjustment action, on the other hand, part of the global market is also facing greater uncertainty.

There are already some signs in the domestic market. According to the statistics of the Institute of communications and communications, in April this year, the overall shipment volume of domestic mobile phone market decreased by 34.1% year-on-year, and the number of new models on the market also decreased by 37.3%. Of course, we need to consider that in the same period of last year, the market is experiencing a small round of gradual opening-up, which leads to a high demand, which makes the comparative base higher, which is a small background.

However, at present, in the competition window period of some brand missing products, the global top manufacturers are carrying out global "gap filling" deployment, including channels and products.

The window period is short and fleeting. Mobile phone manufacturers have a clear understanding of this. An insider of the manufacturer told the reporter of the 21st century economic report that "the cake is so big that everyone is scrambling for share. Eventually, there will be something that can't be eaten (become inventory)"

From the current institutional statistics, in many overseas markets, domestic top brands have quickly occupied a high share. However, as many variables in core markets such as India have not yet come to an end, it is very important to accurately grasp the product matrix and the channel launch rhythm of different markets.

Increase Europe and adjust India

The core of the action lies in more comprehensive globalization and more perfect channel deployment, especially in the stage when China's market competition has already entered the Red Sea.

Among them, the European market is the focus of competition. In addition to Huawei and Xiaomi, which entered earlier, including oppo, vivo, Yijia, realme and other brands, after the market precipitation exploration in recent years, superimposed the competition window period and opened the accelerated penetration stage.

Canalys statistics show that in the first quarter of 2021, oppo has the highest growth rate of 153% among the top five European shipping volume, and currently ranks the fourth with 4% market share; The growth rate was followed by Xiaomi, whose 85% growth rate supported it to reach the top 2 City, accounting for 23%.

Recently, according to the data released by Yijia mobile phone, in the first quarter of 2021, its European market sales increased by 388%, and the sales volume increased by 286% year on year. Among them, the contribution rate of Yijia 9 series products reached 65%.

This is related to the improvement of strategies and channels of manufacturers. Taking Yijia as an example, Wu Yiwen, senior analyst of strategy analytics Global Wireless practice services, pointed out that one year after the strategic restructuring, the European team of Yijia has delivered satisfactory answers. In April 2020, it focused its business development on northern Europe, Belgium and the Netherlands, which helped Nordic countries contribute more than 30% of the European market sales in Q1 2021.

At the same time, she pointed out that the Nord series, a new mid end product launched by Yijia in 2020, will further help the plant penetrate into the mass market. According to the one plus Europe team, in Q1 2021, non flagship products account for about 35% of sales.

In addition, there are channels. It is reported that one plus will join hands with Amazon, an e-commerce giant, and head operators to increase the channels for European users to buy one plus mobile phones and increase user contacts.

In summary, according to strategy analytics statistics, from Q1 2019 to Q1 2021, the shipment volume of millet, oppo, vivo, realme and Yijia in Europe almost quadrupled.

It should be noted that this may also be related to the current uncertainty in the Indian market. Affected by the new crown pneumonia epidemic, India's smart machine market has bid farewell to the trend of sustained high growth in 2020, showing a decline for the first time in history. At present, manufacturers are more cautious about the performance of Indian market this year.

Some industry insiders pointed out that some manufacturers, which used to be mainly in India, began to turn more energy to European market for breakthrough.

Sanyam chaur ⁃ Asia, an analyst with canalys, told 21st century economic reporter that according to the current blockade measures of some states, it will affect 15% - 20% of India's overall demand for smart phones.

Demand slows down and products make up for the shortage

The overall market did not increase significantly in the background, so that the current competitive window period has become very precious. At the same time, there may be a supply and demand node: both the official statistics in April and the data in early may show that the demand may be declining.

Fang Jing, chief analyst of Cinda securities, pointed out in his recent analysis that through the tracking of the industrial chain, the demand for mobile phone market has been slowing down since mid February, returning to the normal level. In terms of domestic market, BCI high-frequency data showed that the demand for mobile phones continued to decline. In the 17th week (4.19-4.25) at the end of April, domestic mobile phone sales were 4.626 million, down 21.8% year-on-year.

At the same time, according to industry chain research, during the May Day holiday this year, the domestic market also fell by 16%.

Fang Jing analysis that the mobile phone market demand slowdown, inventory cycle as the main reason.

Wang Xi, manager of IDC's China research, also told the 21st century economic report that the root cause of this round of global core shortage is that, on the one hand, other terminals such as automobiles are seizing certain production capacity, but the more important aspect is that the terminal manufacturers, taking into account the market share window period of this year and the hidden risks caused by overseas instability factors, It will report relatively aggressive component procurement plan to the upstream, and may adopt a procurement strategy higher than the previous inventory level.

Fang Jing believes that when the inventory of mobile phone channels at home and abroad has been basically replenished, orders have slowed down in the short term. In addition, the current planning of major mobile phone factories, to a certain extent, exceeds the overall market demand. Therefore, after the replenishment cycle, the major manufacturers' planning also began to return to rationality, but the SOC and power chips of the flagship machine were still in serious shortage, and the structural shortage was still continuing.

What tests the deployment capability of manufacturers for product matrix is more. In addition to the normal flagship product release cycle and product response during the promotion period, with the enrichment of more and more product lines such as the Internet of things, a larger matrix is also pushed to consumers, and the channel capacity is also evolving and complemented.

Recently, oppo's K series, which focuses on the online market, has released a series of products including K9 mobile phones, bracelets, TVs, headphones and so on. Compared with the previous generation, it shows that oppo is more active in online channels.

Wu Yiwen also said that the K9 series is mainly online, with cost performance as the cutting edge, and teenagers as the main customer group. This is the first time oppo has seen all categories come together in one series.

Not long ago, oppo also announced that it had reached common strategic cooperation goals with JD, including the short-term goal of achieving 170% year-on-year increase in the turnover of oppo in Jingdong in 2021, and the medium and long-term goal of achieving a compound annual growth rate of 100% in Jingdong within three years.

All these show that in the current competitive window, manufacturers are responding to the changing market environment through rapid market feedback and product system. This will affect the continuous change of mobile phone pattern.