The recently passed "618 E-commerce Online Shopping Festival" has not been able to drive the continuously sluggish mobile phone market. 618 has always been a sprint period for mobile phone manufacturers to drive sales in the first half of the year, and also an important window for observing the trend of the mobile phone market in the second half of the year. After the "618" incident this year, various mobile phone manufacturers have also released "battle reports" as in previous years, which at first glance seem to be the top, just like netizens jokingly saying "as long as there are many attributes, everyone is the champion". However, upon careful analysis, some are partial comparisons after adding multiple limiting conditions, some have a very low sales base last year, and some have limited actual growth. For the overall sales situation, the market analysis organization's evaluation is "lower than expected, lower than the same period last year". Is it because mobile phone manufacturers haven't worked hard enough this year? On the contrary. This year's "618", even the Apple phone, which has always been known for its value preservation, has significantly reduced its price, and even launched the world's first live streaming sales. Although many netizens believe that Apple's live streaming lacks interactivity and sincerity, at least they have let go of their character. Other domestic mobile phones are racing to lower prices to new lows in order to impress consumers. Especially, this year's "618" is known as the "most popular 618 in history", and the platform's promotion efforts are unprecedented. The downturn in the mobile phone market is not only reflected in the "618". Since the beginning of this year, smartphone sales have continued the previous downward trend. According to data from the China Academy of Information and Communication Technology, in 2022, domestic smartphone shipments decreased by 23.1% year-on-year. According to an international data company IDC report, the shipment volume of China's smartphone market decreased by 11.8% year-on-year in the first quarter of this year. The supply chain is more sensitive to the chill of the market, and destocking has been a top priority for mobile phone manufacturers in the past two years, with price reductions becoming the norm. Before the arrival of "618" this year, the stock of chip manufacturers did not increase but decreased, which is enough to indicate that they are not optimistic about the market. Mobile phones are no longer available for sale, and many people attribute it to the impact of the epidemic in recent years, increased overall downward pressure on the economy, and sluggish consumption. These are indeed important factors, but in fact, domestic smartphone shipments have been declining since reaching their peak in 2016, except for a slight rebound in 2021 due to the large-scale launch of 5G smartphones. From this, it can be seen that the fundamental reason for the continuous downturn in the mobile phone market in recent years is that the market has entered a saturation period, passed the stage of rapid user growth, and the lack of obvious hardware upgrades and innovation iterations has led to a longer replacement cycle. The price reduction of Apple phones is seen as a response from industry leaders who are not optimistic about the market, but it should also be noted that Apple is still the biggest winner in this "618" sales. Market data shows that in the first quarter of this year, Apple ranked first in China's smartphone market with 19.9% market share. In the case of market decline, the sales volume increased by 6% year on year, and the sales volume was also the highest quarter since 2015. Relying on previous differentiated innovation and subsequent "brand+ecosystem" construction, Apple has firmly occupied the high-end market for many years. From this, it can be seen that innovation is still the only way to cope with fierce competition and sluggish markets. Innovation is the key to winning the market. This year, the smartphone market is characterized by a "high-end increase and low-end tightening". Market data also shows that although the overall smartphone market
Edit：Hou Wenzhe Responsible editor：WeiZe
Source：economic daily
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