3 Chinese smartphone brands among global Top 5

[cirr]

Huawei's Honor brand of smartphone sales hit 20m in 1 year

BEIJING, 1 hours, 3 minutes ago

China's Huawei Technologies has taken sales of its low-price Honor brand of smartphones to 20 million from 1 million in just one year, hitting pay dirt with the disruptive online-only strategy it copied from smaller upstart Xiaomi.

Given the early signs, Huawei executives hope to emulate the phenomenal growth of Xiaomi, which broke into the global top five in just a few years - a success not likely to go unnoticed by the growing ranks of low-cost Chinese smartphone makers.

But analysts say the low-cost strategy has fanned the price wars and thin profit margins prevalent in China, and that its spread could affect margins at all makers.

Honor brand president Jeff Liu said industry transition to an online sales strategy was inevitable given the competitive pricing, afforded by reduced distribution expenses that would otherwise make up 30 per cent of handset costs.

"E-commerce is massively changing the traditional channels for the smartphone industry, and we needed to go in that direction too," Liu said in an interview in Beijing, where he unveiled the Honor 6 Plus smartphone last week.

Honor handsets dropped the Huawei name last December and have since been marketed and distributed independently of Huawei-branded phones. They are sold in countries ranging from Belgium to Brazil, primarily via marketplaces such as those of JD.com in China and Flipkart Online Services in India.

The brand makes up a quarter of Huawei's 2014 shipment goal, and in the third quarter, helped the Shenzhen-based telecoms equipment maker pip Xiaomi to the number three spot in global market share, according to data from Gartner.

CLOSE RACE

Huawei is not the only Chinese smartphone maker to notice Xiaomi's online approach. Lenovo Group Ltd in October said it would sell a line of devices by Internet only, though it has released few details.

The strategy has taken off in this year in particular. Privately owned Xiaomi, valued at over $45 billion, sold 15.8 million smartphones in July-September versus Huawei's 15.9 million, according to Gartner. A year earlier, Xiaomi reached just 3.6 million compared with 11.7 million for Huawei.

"It's going to be a very, very close race this next year," said Counterpoint Research analyst Neil Shah. Huawei has been pushing the Honor brand in Europe and Latin America, in contrast to Xiaomi which mainly targets China and India, Shah said.

"If Huawei is strong in two or three markets, it balances out Xiaomi doing well in China," he said.

THIN MARGINS

Huawei has long sought to establish a brand outside of China, but the online model it has adopted for Honor could export the price-sensitive market conditions it seeks to avoid.

The continued success of Xiaomi and its aggressive pricing is likely to squeeze profitability in the medium term for nearly all handset makers except market leader Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and high-end handset maker Apple Inc, Fitch Ratings said in a report in October.

A regulatory filing showed Xiaomi's operating profit margin was just 1.8 per cent, though the smartphone maker said the figure did not take into account all aspects of its business. By comparison, Samsung's 2013 margin was 18.7 per cent.

Honor "doesn't make money but doesn't lose money," said brand president Liu.

To widen the profit margin, Honor needs to raise its image and woo wealthier consumers with high-spec products, Huawei consumer division chief Richard Yu told reporters last week.

"If Huawei wants to survive, we have to win in developed markets like Europe, a high-end market," said Yu. "Next year is very important for us to target the high segment." – Reuters

 

[TaiShang]

Xiaomi‘s New Flagship Possibly Leaked in Live Photos!

December 23, 2014 Leaks, Xiaomi

Xiaomi has been on the news lately with the purported leaks of the Xiaomi Mi4s/5. We have reported today that a possible Xiaomi Mi 4s is characterised to have 5.7-inch screen (other sources claim that it may spot a more compact – 5.5 inches screen), which will be covered by the sapphire glass and spot a 2k resolution (packed in a 2.5D screen), Snapdragon 805 chip (other sources claim 810 version, which is less possible knowing the fact that the 810 version of the chip would not be ready for the mass production on the possible release of Xiaomi’s new flagship), will have a higher megapixel camera, will be running MIUI based on Android5.0 and it may have a support for fingerprint recognition.

Right now we have some fresh live pictures, where we can possibly see the new device by Xiaomi in flesh and blood!



Let us admit that these pictures are quite high quality and in the first picture you can clearly see a MI logo, which may be a Xiami’s new flagship device! What is more, the device in the pictures looks a bit different to the previous leaks we have posted today. Here we cannot see that super slim bezel and there are no visible capacitive buttons on the bottom of the device. It may imply the fact that the Xiaomi has decided to ditch the capacitive buttons and go with the on-screen ones.

In addition, it looks like this device is surrounded by an aluminium frame, which is not a big news for the company since it has already been used on the MI4 model. Also, we can see volume up/down buttons along with the power button on the right, which seems to be a right placement. Furthermore, we think that the device in pictures is very similar to the older MI3 model.

The rumours claim that it could be either a Mi4s/Mi5 or a completely new flagship device, which would not be as cheap as previous MI series devices as it may cost 2999 Yuan (in comparison, the Mi4 costs 1999 Yuan). That could mean that the company has decided to throw anything what is possible on the smartphone in the new portfolio of the devices.

Having said all that, it is not clear which phone in the pictures is the real deal and which one is fake.

 

[Lure]

LOOL So China still relies on foreign countries for its server needs? I knew about Operating system(obviously), but not about servers. Seems there is still even more catch up you need to do than i thought before.

As for smartphone business, As i said earlier, Other Chinese 'innovative smartphone companies are just midgets/insignificant compared to Huawei, who designs and manufactures its own processors(something only 2 or so smartphone companies are capable of worldwide) and other criritcal parts that goes into its phones in house. This is what makes a real smartphone company, not assembling parts made by other companies and just making some little modifications and calling them your phone.lool Many companies can do that to be honest(e.g Micromax, Lava, Meizu etc). But not many companies can design and build the most critical parts that goes into their own smartphones like Samsung, Apple and now Huawei. So to be honest i dont think that these other smaller companies like Xiaomi are any real threat, since it doesnt even design any of its critical parts that goes into its phone, its only good in advertisement, modifying the android user interface in its phone and creating new ways to distirbute its phones/create exicetement about them. Apart from this, it doesn't do anything much that can be considered groundbreaking, unlike Huawei.

Well some portion of what you say is true. If you think a smart phone as puzzle that is assembled, companies that buys each piece of puzzle has less strategic significance than the ones that they somehow designs or produces it's own puzzle pieces.

However sometimes companies use hardware from other companies simply for price policy. For example as you've mentioned Samsung designs and produce it's own processor. But on some of it's mobile phones it uses Qualcomm designs. Even some flagship products uses Qualcomm chips. Sony (I'm only giving this example because it's a reputable brand, Sony actually has no success in smartphone business) also uses Qualcomm designs.

Also every smartphone producer uses ARM Instruction Set Architecture (it's a british company so you can be proud), it's like an industry standard today. MIPS has also made some inroads -thanks to China- however it's not that mature yet. I'm not gonna talk about Intel architecture because it's not "simple enough" for mobile use. Intel made poweful and innovative chips for PC, but they are not that good at designing efficient electricity consuming chips, that's why they are struggling to make inroads.

Besides except for Apple, rest of the brands use Android OS simply because it's open source and each brand can actually create it's own User Interface and only uses the engine. For Chinese companies, the clock is ticking for making their own mobile OS. Because as the time goes by and Android becomes more and more mature each year, the probability of the widespread use of another OS would be converging to zero. Because each OS needs a software ecosystem to live and this software ecosystem is created by developers, who are currently working on mainly Android and IOS. You need more market share to convince more developer to develop mobile apps for your OS, however you'll need mobile apps to get some market share in the first place. No one wants to buy an OS with limited software ecosystem.

The glass of the smart phones are also important. As far as I remember Samsung refused to sell glass to Huawei for 6 months after Huawei designed Kirin. This stagnated Huawei's production a lot. As far as I know 3 countries currently produces glass that is suitable for using in smartphones : USA, Japan, Korea.

For the memory part, Samsung is the dominant power in the industry competing with a Japanese company. But most of the companies buy Samsung memory including Apple.

For the Camera part, companies generally don't outsource and produce their own cameras for their smartphones. It's very subjective, but I believe Samsung dominates the industry on this one and Sony is making a good inroad.

 

[Lux de Veritas]

A few observations:

1. All the 5 phones are American concepts running on American technology/operating systems.

2. The top two (Samsung & Apple) has more than double the market share of the bottom three.

3. The bottom three phones cost half the price, and even less than the top two brands for similar specs.

4. It's a fight between innovation and quality vs. price. Innovation and quality are still valued in this world, hence they lead.

@Chinese-Dragon did I miss any point?

The Chinese smart phone are running on Taiwanese MTK chipset while most of the world are running on Qualcomm.

 

[TaiShang]

Lenovo P70t with a 4000mAh battery spotted in live pictures
December 24, 2014


Just a few days back we reported that Leneovo will soon announce the Lenovo P70t with a huge 4000 mAh battery. At that time, we only had limited pictures which didn’t really show off the device completely. But today, almost a week after the report, we have four new live pictures of the device which reveal the P70t in its full glory.



The black and white models of the device was seen online. The overall chassis is round around edges and device has a smooth finish. The rear panel is given an artificial leather finish. On the right, you have the power and the volume rocker buttons, while the left side is completely clean. On the top left corner of the back cover, you have the round camera sensor along with an LED flash and at the middle you have the Lenovo branding. There is a metal frame around the body of the device.



As for the specifications, the phone features a 5-inch 720p OGS display. Inside, there is a 64-bit MT6732 quad-core processor with 1GB RAM and 8GB ROM. The rear camera sensor measures 13MP while the front sensor measures 5MP. The phone supports dual SIM cards on 3G, 4G LTE and GSM networks.



But the highlight of the device, like we mentioned above is its battery. The Lenovo P70t comes with a large 4000 mAh battery which the company claims can provide standby times of over 46 days. While the phone will last for more than 2 days easily with user it’s replaceable 4000 mAh battery, its battery life is further increased by some of the tech inside the device. For example, when the user locks the phone, it automatically shuts down all the background apps. Also, when the phone is fully charged and still charging, it smartly utilizes the charge from the socket and not the battery to avoid wasting the phone’s fully charged battery.

Clearly, the Lenovo P70t is built for businessmen and other users who would never want to run out of charge. While the pricing has not been disclosed yet, we expect an announcement soon.

 

[cirr]

Oppo to ship up to 50 mln smartphones in 2015 - report

Wednesday 24 December 2014 | 20:10 CET | News

China-based handset vendor Oppo is expected to ship up to 50 million smartphones next year compared to 25-30 million units in 2014, Digitimes reports, citing industry sources. For total shipments in 2015, 35 million units will be sold in the Chinese market while the remaining 15 million will be shipped to overseas markets. Oppo currently has four production bases in China with combined output totaling 2.5 million units a month on average, according to the report.

Oppo to ship up to 50 mln smartphones in 2015 - report - Telecompaper

 

[illuminatidinesh]

I have been using the Mi products for a while now, very impressed with the build quality and lives upto to the expectation.
How it differs from other market gaints? Camera quality, Processor, heating problems(now rectified) ,
Any day I will go for Xiomi compared to samsung (Mind u i was fan of samsung 2 years back).
To Chinese members here, DRAY has a point,unless the Chinese brand comes up with something innovative I will myself will look for some other brand ,of course at affordable price( Nationality doesnt matter).
Congrats to Xiomi though- they exposed the stands of Samsung , nokia and HTC......

 

[zeronet]

The glass of the smart phones are also important. As far as I remember Samsung refused to sell glass to Huawei for 6 months after Huawei designed Kirin. This stagnated Huawei's production a lot. As far as I know 3 countries currently produces glass that is suitable for using in smartphones : USA, Japan, Korea.

For the Camera part, companies generally don't outsource and produce their own cameras for their smartphones. It's very subjective, but I believe Samsung dominates the industry on this one and Sony is making a good inroad.

Yes, Samsung refused to provide TFT-LCD to Huawei, but that happened 2yrs ago on Ascend using the first generation Huawei Hisilicon Q-core CPU, not Kirin. Nowadays the situation has changed a lot. China has at least 3 major manufacturers including BOE, producing LCD/AMOLED for TV, smartphone, and tablet, occupying around 1/4 global market share if i am not wrong, next to S. korea and Taiwan, and will replace Taiwan's position in 2yrs on market share. BOE is pretty active on R&D on AMOLED and other display tech reflected by their huge patent filings recently.

boe

BTW, I think camera is also largely outsourced, Chinese vendors are also very aggressive these days.

 

[cirr]

Understanding China’s way

Dec 24,2014

Minister of Science, ICT and Future Planning Choi Yang-hee visited Beijing last month hoping to find common ground between the Park Geun-hye administration’s “creative economy” and Xi Jinping’s “innovative economy.” Seoul and Beijing use different terms, but both essentially have the same goal: sustainable growth through innovation. Did Choi find a way to work with the creative economy in China? To find out, we need to look at two meetings he had while there. The first was a meeting with Korean entrepreneurs in China at Zhongguancun, China’s Silicon Valley, on Dec. 19.

Choi said he had asked the Chinese authorities to give special attention to Korean start-ups. Tecreate CEO Ahn Seung-hae said that China’s Internet technology has already surpassed Korea’s level in 2008. “My IT knowledge has already become obsolete, but many Koreans still don’t understand the discrepancy,” he said.

“Why do you think China’s Internet technology is more advanced?” asked Minister Choi. SnO Investment CEO Oh Byung-un replied, “China is a big country with old distribution systems, so it needed to develop the Internet. Korea should pursue the Internet-oriented way soon.”

Later in the afternoon, Minister Choi met with Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun.

Choi asked what Korean venture companies needed to do to enter the Chinese market. Lei Jun said that “Internet thinking” is the hot issue.

Robin Li, the founder of China’s biggest Internet portal Baidu, used the term “Internet thinking” when he predicted changes in the ecosystem of the Internet industry in 2011. Today, his idea is considered the innovative bible of Chinese corporate management. The modern world is in a commercial democratic era where producers and consumers are connected through the Internet in an open, collaborative relationship, and businesses need to adapt to the environment.

Lei Jun said that Baidu is organized horizontally with a CEO, team leaders and team members. The company hires employees that it can trust, and does not hold them back. Employees at Baidu are allowed to work flexible hours and dress freely.

China’s young entrepreneurs already proposed the way of “Internet thinking,” and are responding to the changing environment and innovative economy. But Korea is still not aware of the changes. Jack Ma of Alibaba has become the richest man in Asia, and Lei Jun’s Xiaomi has the largest market share in China. The “creative economy” is said to be a pace-setting paradigm shift toward imagination. But it is the economy of concept that we have been hearing for decades. And Minister Choi knows it, too.

The author is the Beijing bureau chief of the JoongAng Ilbo. JoongAng Ilbo, Dec. 23, Page 38

by CHOI HYUNG-KYU

Understanding China’s way-INSIDE Korea JoongAng Daily

 

[Beast]

I have been using the Mi products for a while now, very impressed with the build quality and lives upto to the expectation.
How it differs from other market gaints? Camera quality, Processor, heating problems(now rectified) ,
Any day I will go for Xiomi compared to samsung (Mind u i was fan of samsung 2 years back).
To Chinese members here, DRAY has a point,unless the Chinese brand comes up with something innovative I will myself will look for some other brand ,of course at affordable price( Nationality doesnt matter).
Congrats to Xiomi though- they exposed the stands of Samsung , nokia and HTC......

China will continue play the under cut price war, Samsung use this trick to kill the Japanese and western smartphone maker but they are not going to easily beat the Chinese one as our throat cutting price will be even more deadly. In long run, I forsee, China will win the price war and push samsung into the corner.

 

[zeronet]

The Chinese smart phone are running on Taiwanese MTK chipset while most of the world are running on Qualcomm.

Huawei is an exception, they use their own CPU developed by Huawei Hisilicon, which is comparable to Qualcomm's snapdragon on performance. Hisilicon is now working with TSMC on 16nm technology for their latest CPU, also is the first customer for TSMC's 16nm process. I believe if Hisilicon spins off from Huawei, it will beat MTK easily. MTK only occupies low end market, for high-end market, smartphone manufacturers always choose Qualcomm over MTK.

 

[TaiShang]

Robin Li, the founder of China’s biggest Internet portal Baidu, used the term “Internet thinking” when he predicted changes in the ecosystem of the Internet industry in 2011. Today, his idea is considered the innovative bible of Chinese corporate management. The modern world is in a commercial democratic era where producers and consumers are connected through the Internet in an open, collaborative relationship, and businesses need to adapt to the environment.

Very impressive. Koreans are apparently very adaptive to the changing environment, observing changes keenly. Good to see that.

 

[Providence]

There's only so much u can achieve by copying and imitating. Brand on the other hand cannot be imitated. US brands will continue to lead the pack in innovation for years to come.

 

[TaiShang]

Chinese brands innovate and, through innovation (of marketing, pricing, design, build quality etc) will continue to capture further global market and profit share.

Graphics: Global Times

 

[Beast]

There's only so much u can achieve by copying and imitating. Brand on the other hand cannot be imitated. US brands will continue to lead the pack in innovation for years to come.

There's also limit to hardware innovation. Whats important is good business module and continue business innovation and not everything day chunk out new hardware.

When comes to business innovation, I think the success of alibaba and Xiaomi will place China in one of the forerun with the American.

Chinese brands innovate and, through innovation (of marketing, pricing, design, build quality etc) will continue to capture further global market and profit share.

Graphics: Global Times

Precisely, business innovation is even more important than hardware innovation. Creative technology come out with a music jukebox years ago before ipod but terrible businees module and non innovative practice result this product remain anonymous same as Nokia idea of ipad years before Apple rise which lies idle in prototype stage that never made it into market.