In the 3G era, the mobile phone industry chain is constantly streamlined: Who is the first to be hurt?

Five years ago, one of almost every 10 TV ads was bound to be a mobile phone advertisement. in that era, mobile phone advertisements were unprecedentedly prosperous. According to CCTV statistics, at that time, mobile phone advertisements ranked first among the three categories in terms of revenue and quantity. Five years later, it may be a luxury for the audience to see mobile phone advertisements on TV. The reason for this is the new changes in the mobile phone industry chain with the arrival of 3G.

Not only will mobile phone advertisements be greatly reduced, but the mobile phone industry chain will also be constantly streamlined. The reason is the gradual development of 3G in China. For the mobile phone industry, the foreign market has always been dominated by operators, while China is a small number of exceptional mobile phone retail markets, however, 3G will inevitably lead to a new trend dominated by China's mobile phone market operators.

Mobile phones and PCs account for more than half of the market share of semiconductor applications. However, the author collects statistics on semiconductor-related advertisements in China, the world's largest mobile phone manufacturer in recent years, it was found that the ads related to mobile phone semiconductors, especially Mobile Phone core chips, only account for about 2% of all ads, including some semiconductor devices compatible with portable device applications. In fact, this directly demonstrates the particularity of mobile phone semiconductor applications, that is, directly facing major customers. In fact, there are many similarities with the PC industry chain, in addition to CPU and GPU, advertisements for PC semiconductor devices are rarely seen.

The biggest difference between the domestic and foreign mobile phone industry chains lies in the sales channels. The basic links of the domestic mobile phone industry chain are: chip manufacturers-design companies-various types of manufacturing plants-brand mobile phone manufacturers-dealers at all levels (operators) -consumers, and for the foreign mobile phone industry chain, chip manufacturers-design companies-various types of manufacturing plants-brand mobile phone manufacturers-operators-consumers. One of the important differences is the role of mobile phone dealers. In the domestic mobile phone market, due to reasons such as insufficient energy of early carriers, rapid popularization of mobile phones, and distribution of interests among various parties, mobile phone dealers occupy an important position in the mobile phone industry chain. However, when domestic operators gradually grow and discover profits in the mobile phone market, they will inevitably strengthen control over the mobile phone sales channels, the biggest influence of a carrier's sales of mobile phone terminals is that mobile phone dealers gradually withdraw from the market. After all, mobile phone dealers cannot compete with a large number of operators in terms of purchase costs and sales prices.

According to the changes in the current mobile phone industry chain at all levels, the mobile phone industry chain in the 3G era will eventually be streamlined to a three-tier stage, namely, chip-manufacturing-operation, chip manufacturers will integrate the functions of more and more design companies to launch solutions that are as convenient and complete as possible. The manufacturing part is relatively complicated, mainly including the integration and production of various software and hardware, this includes the foundry and brand mobile phone manufacturers, which are finally purchased by the operator and target consumers. However, after streamlining the mobile phone industry chain, what will happen to the mobile phone industry?

The mobile phone customization mode is the mobile phone industry chain structure most liked by operators. From the operator's perspective, the shorter the mobile phone industry chain, the better. The mobile phone industry chain will run in a straight line according to the operator's intent, this is a manifestation of the operator's strong dominance and the operator's ability to maximize the effectiveness of the mobile phone industry chain. From the operator's point of view, this simple and clear mobile phone industry chain is the most favorable, but for consumers and several other mobile phone industry chain links, full control of the mobile phone industry chain by mobile phone operators is not an ideal outcome, for consumers, although both the phone bill and the mobile phone price investment are relatively much less, for mobile phone users who are pursuing personality and fashion, operator control of the mobile phone industry chain will inevitably result in a lack of vitality and inconvenience in the mobile phone industry.

First, according to statistics, the current mobile phone replacement speed is about 12 months, and the frequency of customized mobile phone replacement by the operator is more than 18 months. Therefore, if the mobile phone industry chain is completely dominated by operators, it will inevitably lead to a slowdown in the speed of mobile phone replacement, which is not conducive to technological innovation and upgrading of the mobile phone industry, but will also greatly reduce the production capacity of the mobile phone market, this led to the shrinking of the entire industry. We know that the mobile phone industry is more prosperous than any other industry because of its vigorous vitality and constant upgrading. If this speed slows down, this mobile phone industry chain has lost its biggest source of vitality, a precursor to the decline of the mobile phone industry chain.

Secondly, the tendency of operators to customize mobile phones is not conducive to the development of mobile phones in the high-end direction. We know that mobile phones customized by operators are generally dominated by low-cost mobile phones, in this way, we can minimize the BOM cost of mobile phones and make more profits for ourselves. Therefore, high-end mobile phones or relatively high-end mobile phones are as rare as pyramid towers in the customized mobile phone system of operators, as a result, mobile phones are becoming cheaper and more popular. This is, of course, the best way for carriers to popularize mobile apps. The negative impact is the reduction in investment in high-performance Mobile Phone development, this is not conducive to the overall progress of the mobile phone industry.

Third, the operator's customized mobile phone model has brought inconvenience to many consumers. Many foreign friends talk about the biggest headache of changing mobile phones. Operators basically regard mobile phones as a complete service system. The first thing you need to consider when changing mobile phones is that you do not need to change carriers, if you do not need it, It is very convenient. If you want to change the carrier, it will be very troublesome. On the one hand, this shows that foreign carriers are doing well in terms of mobile phone services. On the other hand, it also shows that operators hope to achieve the goal of controlling customers through some customized mobile phone services, think about how many American users are sighing at the iPhone a year and a half ago because they were not on the at&t network. Therefore, the prevalence of mobile phone customization will undoubtedly greatly limit the enthusiasm and frequency of changing mobile phones, further suppressing the vitality of the mobile phone industry.

It is true that mobile phone customization is the most ideal model in the mobile phone industry dominated by carriers. For most consumers, mobile phone customization can bring a lot of discounts and more convenience, it is conducive to the growth of the mobile phone industry and the entire mobile communication industry. However, for the mobile phone industry, mobile phone customization is the biggest obstacle to the vigorous development of the mobile phone industry. Like a curse, mobile phone customization severely limits the valuable creativity and artistic value of the mobile phone industry.