Samsung will be down? People are still alive.

Wen/Yangqingshan recently sung a lot of people, the decline of the theory, crash theory dizzying. But who remembers that the Galaxy S4 was released in early 2013, with Samsung electronically recording a record 9 billion dollar net profit, while Apple shares fell below $400 and the market share continued to slide sharply, a gloomy outlook. I have been unable to understand that some people have never understood what happened in the past and how they can predict the future. Time is back five years ago. Who can foresee that Moto is about to be sold, Nokia will be bought, HTC has experienced ups and downs. Early start by a variety of ridicule, the humble doubt, not good-looking millet, light in the first half of this year sold 27 million mobile phones, and has reached the international market tentacles. If you can't understand the rapid decline of traditional giants, the lack of basic millet experience rocket-like growth, and Apple's monopoly of most of the industry's profits, how can it be known that Samsung will soon follow the footsteps of traditional manufacturers? Smart phone from the blowout stage into maturity, is a product of the process of homogenization: Industrial design standardization, the appearance of materials standardization, standardization of components, and even marketing practices tend to standardize. The difference is behind the emergence of the core supply chain manufacturers, smartphones this product form from a high degree of integration, closure, high threshold, to open and low threshold evolution. For the most obvious example, the PC era has a standardized CPU vendor INTEL/AMD, smartphones after years of tidal waves, the mainstream market now has Qualcomm and MediaTek, their highly integrated SOC in performance, cost, program development difficulty to achieve the most perfect balance. The Android camp, which has experienced constant product trial and error, is being neutralized by the market. After all, the test of the design, materials, components are the most suitable, if you make a point of differentiation, the result is the overall competitiveness does not rise and fall. Together with the quality of the market will inevitably fall into the Red Sea state, profit margins plummeted, while the competition point will become marketing and cost control. Traditional hardware giants Moto, Nokia, HTC, let them fight marketing, product cost control, spell who can endure lower profit margins, of course, but domestic manufacturers, fall or decline of course inevitable. So, now the question is, how can we avoid homogeneous competition and ensure profit margin? Differentiation, of course. The difference is that there are different things, and this difference gives you beyond the market homogeneity of the product competitiveness, you dare to pursue alienation. There are several differences, simple hardware differentiation, such as Samsung, software differentiation, such as millet mobile phone miui, or hardware and software at the same time differentiated, such as Apple. They are the best in the market. Samsung was able to potence Apple in the high-end market because of three points. First, it has closed its own supply chain, reducing the cost of the product; second, Apple has not launched the iphone kv Plus, the initiative to give up the big screen market; third, Samsung Electronics decades of accumulation, the whole industry integration brought hardware differentiation. The 3rd is the fundamental。 Why should the supply chain be closed, and the hardware should be vertically integrated, arranging everything from parts supply to assembly production? The designation of product model, the allocation of production capacity, bring about the meticulous inventory management; arranging parts and components supply, bringing the cost of reasonable transfer; have the strength to control the production, you can guarantee quality control, to ensure that the fleeting market to seize the short-lived large-scale listing. Refined inventory management, leading parts pricing, new products in a timely manner, the results of the combined effect is to reduce the cost of high-end smart phones. On the contrary, domestic manufacturers can not control the supply chain, the core components are relying on others to supply, no pricing power, can not obtain timely delivery, the cost of course, will not fall. Hardware differentiation, Samsung Electronics industry for decades of accumulation, screen, flash, ARM processor, camera CMOS sensor chip, lithium-ion batteries, and even plastic development and processing, each is the industry's first-class level, individual components such as screen, product standards and even the world's first. It is because of this that Samsung dares to make hardware differentiation, to dare not use Qualcomm's processor, JDI screen, Sony's camera sensor chip, because vertically integrate their own things, the Galaxy flagship hardware competitiveness is not low, the cost is lower. Samsung's premium, in contrast to the high profit margins of domestic manufacturers, is actually the way to go. Software differentiation, this is Samsung's largest short board. Millet Miui a good Android shell, it has given its products a certain degree of competitiveness. The impact of Apple's independent iOS ecosystem on the iphone is even harder to quantify: when others rolled out a 5-inch 1080P phone, Apple's 4-inch-old iphone last year continued to sell, with the same configuration switched to the Android camp, For example, the most beautiful Android phone HTC One, which was recognized last year, is unthinkable. Of course, Apple's software differentiation can go deep into the ecosystem hierarchy, most fundamentally, or because iOS is currently experiencing the best mobile operating system. When Samsung launched its Galaxy S4 to its all-time peak last year, it was a great risk to me when it was a hymn to the world. Because, whether Samsung can continue to prosper, basically depend on complement whole system and software ecology difference. Samsung itself knows that. However, from the earliest Bada, to the creation of Tizen with Intel, and Galaxy S3 began to develop a series of functional software suitable for their own machines, these attempts without exception to the improvement. Can hard not soft, not ahead of other vendors of the differential software and system ecology, of course, like Apple in the high-end market well-organized sit high profits. Samsung is now going through the process of returning to normal market position, behind the Apple iphone has finally covered the mainstream of the big screen market, as well as hardware technology is difficult to break through, before the impact of the hardware differential greatly compromised. But with poor sales and a drop in market share, people are predicting that Samsung handsets will go with Nokia,Like Motorola's demise. Do these people forget that Samsung's current hardware vertical integration to reduce the cost of the effect is still, profitability and guarantee, will not be low forced to a level with domestic manufacturers. If it actively reduce profits, set off a price war to expand market share, domestic manufacturers are afraid will soon be back to the original. Samsung mobile phones, and then the poor is also transformed into the upstream supply chain manufacturers, it is currently part of the operating profit from this, whether it is ARM processor IC design, advanced chip process technology, flash, screen, camera sensor chip, lithium-ion battery, can guarantee its future. Samsung only walks down the altar rather than into the abyss. (Disclaimer: This article only represents the author's opinion, does not represent Sina's position.) ）