Taking Samsung as an example to discuss the Chinese mobile phone market and survival rules

After several years of baptism, the Chinese mobile phone market has formed the pattern of “NSn”: N is Nokia with more than 30% share, S is Samsung with more than 20%, and n represents other mobile phone brands. It may be Motorola, which is LG. It is Lenovo. It may also be Huawei or ZTE, which only takes operator channels. It may even be an Apple iPhone with too many gorgeous halo and no gorgeous channel. Because this is the moment when a market rule changes.

The change in market rules is primarily due to changes in the general environment. The broadband mobile network started from 3G has made it possible for mobile phones to access the Internet. Mobile Internet has given various types of companies access to opportunities. The survival rules of mobile phone companies have naturally changed.

Another reason for the change in market rules is the change in the product environment. It is only a matter of time when smart phones completely replace ordinary function phones. The introduction of open platforms in the camp of smart phone operating systems and the application store model have changed the rules of the game in the industry. Mobile phone companies naturally have to adapt to the environment to change the survival rules.

So, what is the way to survive the new competitive situation? Ovum analyst Tracey Chen recently expressed his opinion that there are three possible paths in the Chinese mobile phone market: supporting operators, consumer electronics, and controlling application platforms. There are successful examples of each method, but at the same time, there are also companies that have integrated these methods to develop their own characteristics in the Chinese market, such as Samsung. In today's mobile phone market, the veteran mobile phone companies have been affected. Even the industry’s boss Nokia is difficult to avoid, but only Samsung can not only resolve the impact but also use other competitors’ adjustment opportunities to grasp the timing, so that the turnover and market Shares are climbing. How does Samsung grasp the scale with its own understanding of the market? Take Samsung as an example here to illustrate the importance of these three paths in the Chinese mobile phone market today.

Path One Supports the needs of operators
· The development of the network can not be separated from the terminal · Who is the most support operator, who is most likely to profit from 3G

The operator's control of mobile phones began in South Korea to develop a CDMA network and became famous for NTT DoCoMo's FOMA service. Now this idea has been borrowed by global operators. Among China's operators, China Mobile has relied mainly on the open terminal market on 2G mobile phones, but it does not want to release mobile phones in the 3G era. China Unicom was the first to operate the CDMA business. It borrowed experience from South Korea to control the terminal industry chain. Now it is still shifting to the WCDMA network and still grasping the terminal. From the iPhone to the thousand-dollar smart phone, China Unicom has made many efforts. China Telecom has inherited China Unicom's approach to CDMA terminals in the mobile business. After taking over, China Telecom pays more attention to the diversity of terminals. Now, all three major operators have set up their own terminal specifications and used the terminal strategy as an important part of their 3G operation strategy. Yang Zhiqiang, vice president of the China Mobile Research Institute, pointed out in a recent meeting: “In the past, communication operators have paid less attention to terminals. Especially in China, mobile terminals are an open market, but now the development of the network is inseparable from the terminal. of."

"Samsung is undoubtedly the most compatible with Chinese operators in all mobile phone companies, and is also the most popular among Chinese operators," said Deng Kuibin, deputy general manager of Sino-Market Research. It should be said that in the cooperation with operators, most companies hope to obtain the best and thickest conditions through the game, while Samsung adopts almost unconditional full-fledged strategies. Samsung is the first mobile phone manufacturer to develop TD-SCDMA terminals. It is also the first foreign company to launch TD-SCDMA handsets and is the first foreign brand to launch CDMA/GSM dual-mode and dual-standby mobile phones. When operators started to customize terminals, Samsung did its best to cooperate with them. Naturally, operators are deeply involved in the deep customization of scale. Currently, Samsung and China Mobile have custom models such as the SPhone (I9008), Oscar I7680, B7702, I6330C, and I8180C. The China Unicom custom models include the SPhone (I9088), I6500U, and I5508, and China Telecom. Custom models are more SPhone (I909), Wave (澜 series) F859, "big" B7732U, etc., customization is evident.

"Operators require control of the user interface and pre-install their own value-added services," said Tracey Chen. In fact, customization not only requires companies to have flexibility in their operations, but also requires mobile phone companies to have strong R&D capabilities and local market insights. China's 3G market has just started. Whoever supports operators most may also benefit from 3G.

Path 2 The mobile phone is a consumer electronics device . The mobile phone has more features of consumer electronics. The mobile phone marketing must cater to the various demands of consumers.

The original mobile phone was only a communication terminal, and later it has more and more features of consumer electronic devices. Two different positionings require different operating styles. The former's corporate styles such as Ericsson, Motorola, and Siemens are now not in the mainstream of the mobile phone market; the latter requires operating styles such as Sony, Apple, and Samsung, and it should be said that the characteristics of consumer electronic devices are becoming increasingly dominant in mobile phones. Now.

Consumer electronic devices need to pay more attention to appearance and experience from the beginning of product design, not just the quality of communication terminals, but also need to meet the various demands of consumers in marketing to give users a sense of satisfaction. Consumer products companies have their own DNA. Samsung Electronics is a model of consumer electronics.

"In the case of mobile phones being consumer electronics devices, handset manufacturers must work with content and application vendors, and certain devices with specific features will be widely acclaimed in certain market segments, such as music equipment." Tracey Chen said. Samsung introduced music phones such as the S3370, Genoa & Lindy (C3518 & M5650U). “In some cases, mobile phone manufacturers have first worked with vertical portals to jointly launch pre-installed mobile phones of various types of widgets. This strategy creates the differentiation and selling points that can attract users in the target market segment. The segment has seen some signs of success, attracting young people who want to visit these sites on the move,” Tracey Chen also said. Samsung introduced the cool C3300K, Ferris S5628, Skyscraper S5628i and other social mobile phones, and also launched Baidu mobile phone S5330 with Baidu.

As the industry becomes more and more customized and products become more and more intelligent today, Samsung is looking for new ways to invest in young mindsets. It not only launches the aforementioned mobile phones that meet the diverse needs of young people, but also rejuvenates 3G mobile phones. Thousand yuan series of mobile phones. At the same time, Zhang Jingchu and Yu Wenle are also invited as spokespersons for fashionable young people such as S5520 and S5580. Zhou Xun and Huang Lixing are spokespersons for smart phone series products such as SPhone, Galaxy Tab and Wave (Strontium Series) S8500 (WCDMA)/F859 (CDMA). This can only be done by companies with consumer electronics DNA.

Path III Mobile phone is the application platform · Samsung application platform strategy can be attacked, retreat can keep, multi-pronged approach to create core competitiveness

"Companies that can control the user interface will make the most profits." This is what Tracey Chen finally concluded.
Originally, the user interface was grasped by the mobile phone company. The mobile phone company was the builder of the application platform, and established an open platform for third-party developers. Since Apple, RIM, Samsung, Nokia and other vendors have done so. of. However, in order to avoid becoming a ready-made data transmission channel, operators have also launched their own application store. China's three major operators all do this, and this will inevitably compete with the handset manufacturers' stores.

In the game of the software platform, see how Samsung decided.
In fact, earlier than Apple's APP Store, Samsung built its own Samsung Paradise, providing users with download channels. Now Samsung has a more comprehensible name "Samsung Apps." Samsung mobile phones with different formats and operating systems, such as the bada system mobile phone Wave (澜 series) and the cross-border three major operators of the 3G standard Android system mobile phone SPhone, etc., can obtain a wealth of applications from Samsung Apps (Samsung Apps). The advantage of Samsung Paradise is that it is truly cross-platform and cross-standard, and Samsung is also the most balanced mobile phone company in the world that supports operating systems and technical standards. This will attract more applications.

However, for the application platform, Samsung's strategy is not publicity, it is not as big as Nokia launched Ovi, as a competitor to all successful application stores in the world. Samsung's strategy is to first work hard to serve the existing mobile phone customers, while observing the future development trend, the so-called attack can be attacked and retired.
In fact, for mobile phone software, which has attracted fierce competition in almost the world's most powerful ICT industry, Samsung's low profile is worth studying. However, the low-profile is not inaction. In order to meet the user's demand for application software, Samsung's mobile phone cooperates with the mainstream smart phone application stores, such as Andrews, Jifeng, and Youyi, to provide up to 4,000 Chinese for Chinese users. application. In addition to the application store, Samsung even launched its own mobile operating system bada and smart phones using the bada system, and Samsung Paradise provided more than 1,000 Chinese applications for the bada smartphone operating system.

There is too much power trying to enter China, a huge mobile phone market with more than 800 million mobile communications users at this time, and the degree of competition is naturally conceivable. What rules can be used to survive in the Chinese market? Is it path 1, path 2, or path 3? Perhaps, learning Samsung is the most secure way to form its own core competitiveness.