Breaking out overseas: domestically produced machines are eyeing the 2.6 billion people in India

On December 4, 2015, research institute IDC released a report that global smartphone sales growth will fall below 10% for the first time in 2015, mainly due to the slowdown in demand in the Chinese market. China's smartphone penetration rate has reached 90%, and purchase demand has entered the stage of replacement demand. It is a trend for domestic mobile phone manufacturers to achieve marginal benefits or find a new continent. Huawei and Xiaomi have crossed the sea to attack the city in Europe, India and even Africa. More than half of the handset sales of Huawei, ZTE and Lenovo are completed in overseas markets. Manufacturers such as Jinli and OPPO have gradually built their brands in the Indian market.
However, the outstanding patent issue remains an urgent problem for domestic mobile phones to go overseas. At the same time, in India and Africa, domestic mobile phones are also facing the consumption situation of local residents with low-cost machines, and the contradiction of their own brands trying to break through to the high-end market.
India, Africa has the largest space
IDC data report shows that global smartphone shipments are expected to increase by about 10% in 2015, reaching 1.43 billion units, which is the first time in the smartphone market that the growth rate is lower than double-digit percentage. "After the growth rate of the Chinese market reached its peak in 2014, the growth rate has declined for two consecutive quarters in 2015," said Yan Zhanmeng, senior analyst at IDC.
IDC believes that in the next five years, China's smart phone market is becoming a replacement market, and the growth rate has slowed markedly. Demand from other Asian countries, Latin America and Western Europe is also slowing down. Only the mobile phone market in India and Africa and the Middle East remains. increase.
According to IDC's previous survey data, the overall market share of smartphones in Africa increased by 108% in 2014, making it one of the fastest growing mobile phone users in the world. In 2015, Chinese mobile phone manufacturers are likely to be more optimistic in the African and Indian markets.
According to IDC data, Huawei, Voice, and Alcatel are among the top five smartphone markets in Africa. Huawei's financial report for the first half of 2015 showed that Huawei's consumer business revenue in North Africa increased by 164% year-on-year, making it one of the fastest growing markets for Huawei's consumer business.
"India has more than 1.5 billion people and more than 1.1 billion people in Africa. The two cities are the fastest growing market in the world, and the population structure is young. The market is younger in the next few years. At the same time, the system construction is relatively backward, to a certain extent The market is more active, and the above-mentioned regions will be the fastest growing mobile phone market in the world in the next few years. "Liu Junjie, the director of TECNO marketing of the Chinese brand with the largest mobile phone shipments in Africa, analyzes the reporter.
"But from the actual situation of India and Africa, India's low-end smartphones will remain mainstream in the future, affecting the profitability of domestic mobile phones. The actual growth rate may not be particularly affected by the coverage of operators' networks and purchasing power. Ideal." Liu Junjie analysis.
Brand building has yet to break through
"Domestic mobile phones are basically in the stage of burning money in India. From the fierce competition in the domestic market, Chinese brands hope to gain more profits through brands in the world's third largest market. Chinese manufacturers hope to complete through India and Asia-Africa markets. The brand breakout and surpassing of Samsung and Apple." Wang Yanhui, secretary general of the Mobile China Alliance, said.
Lu Weibing, president of Jinli, told reporters that Jin Li has more than 7,000 channel salesmen in India and 20,000 retail outlets. He built a local factory in India. In 2015, Jinli’s smartphone sales in India are expected to exceed 4 million. "Golden hopes to establish a brand in India through the mid-to-high-end market positioning. At present, the average price of Gionee products is second only to Apple and Samsung."
This means that in brand building, it requires a lot of investment. In 2014, Gionee became the sponsor of KKR, the champion team of the Indian Cricket Super League. Lu Weibing said that more than 85% of people in India are concerned about cricket events. With cricket fans, Gionee will be able to quickly increase brand awareness in the Indian market. At the same time, Gionee established a leukemia fund in India to participate in local charity activities.
In the past, in the African market, the concept of "cottage machine" was mentioned in Chinese brands, but this situation is changing. A mobile phone company executive in Shenzhen told reporters: "In Africa and other markets around the world are dominated by branded mobile phones, there is no chance for the cottage. And the price of Chinese brand mobile phones in the market is not low, like Huawei, Lenovo, Jinli average For more than $200, Alcatel and ZTE are also priced at more than $100."
The head of Huawei's mobile phone business said that in Africa, it mainly focuses on high-end products, mainly promoting flagship mobile phones such as P8, Mate7 and G7. Huawei believes that with the popularity of the network, the conversion rate of functional machines to smart phones is rapidly increasing. Huawei hopes to establish high-end product brands in Africa.
But in Africa, the Chinese mobile phone brand, which is more familiar than Huawei and Xiaomi, is the TECNO of Shenzhen Voice Holdings. As early as 7 years ago, the sound began to deepen the African market, and it has gradually become a climate. In 2014, shipments exceeded 40 million units. In terms of shipments of African mobile phones (including smart phones and function phones), the number of shipments exceeded Samsung, Nokia and Huawei ranked first, with market share accounting for more than 25%.
"African consumer purchasing power structure is a typical pyramid organization. Most people accept smartphones at a slower pace. High-end users will basically choose Apple and Samsung. Huawei is now more likely to enter the high-end brand. Chinese brands enter Apple. Samsung’s first camp still takes a long time to build the brand.” Liu Junjie said.
The patent is still a relatively loose market environment in India and Africa, giving China's mobile phone companies a relatively loose market space. However, the patent issue has always been a problem that Chinese mobile phone companies cannot evade.
Xiaomi, whose dispute with Ericsson in India has not yet ended, has recently suffered a patent lawsuit in the US market. The patent company BlueSpike has accused Xiaomi's smart communication device of infringing the patents owned by BlueSpike. The patent company also sued Huawei a few days ago. In fact, Xiaomi had just reached an agreement with Qualcomm on patent licensing. The prosecution once again reflected the complexity of the overseas market environment. In fact, whether it is Huawei, ZTE, or Xiaomi or Jiajia, it has inevitably suffered a "patent big stick" overseas.
Wang Yanhui said, "The reality is that it is not only Qualcomm, Ericsson, Nokia, Microsoft and other communications companies that want to collect patent fees from mobile phone companies, but also dozens of large and small NPEs (non-patented implements), a mobile phone. The brand really pays the patent fees according to the requirements of these patent manufacturers. It may be that more than half of the price of the mobile phone must be paid to these companies. If this is the case, the mobile phone manufacturers will fall into the desperate situation of immediate closure."
Compared with the US market, the patent environment in India and Africa is relatively loose. However, Xiaomi has not yet sued Ericsson in the Indian market. "Domestic mobile phones sell not only Xiaomi in India, but millet with large shipments can be exemplified by Ericsson. Once Ericsson wins, it can charge royalties, OPPO, VIVO, and one plus in the same way." Wang Yanhui analysis.
Wang Yanhui believes that the mobile phone manufacturers in the African market have not encountered patent litigation problems. On the one hand, the African government system is imperfect, and even many countries do not have such institutions as patent offices; on the other hand, market sales are still relatively small. Therefore, it is very necessary for a Chinese mobile phone brand to go out to sea and have a professional team of lawyers.