Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

Audio Tecno Phantom X2 Pro, picture / digital chat station two "huge" lenses arranged diagonally, coupled with a small lens, the entire lens module is simply placed in the middle of the upper part of the fuselage, while the portrait lens also uses a retractable design to support 2.5x optical zoom.

It can be said that the audio Tecno Phantom X2 Pro brings a "new boat experience" that we have never seen in mainstream smartphones. Not only that, the Phantom X2 Pro also carries a flagship chip, Tianji 9000, which sells for up to 3500 Saudi riyals, or nearly 6500 yuan.

Is this still the voice of the "King of African Mobile phones"?

From entering the African mobile phone market in 2007 to 2017 with annual sales of more than 120 million units, it took ten years to become the largest and most well-known mobile phone manufacturer in Africa, while also relying on the African continent to become the fourth largest mobile phone manufacturer in the world. second only to Samsung, Apple and Huawei. But of the 120 million phones sold, functional phones accounted for 90 million, and even the smartphone business mainly sold from the low-end mobile phone market.

In fact, Chuanyuan released what officials call its first high-end flagship Phantom X last year, but its MediaTek Helio G95 processor and a price of nearly 3000 yuan have failed to attract the attention of domestic consumers and the market.

Phantom X, Picture / Audio from Phantom X to Phantom X2, the "King of Mobile phones in Africa" is also deepening its strategy of "going out of Africa", starting from the South Asian subcontinent and expanding its footsteps to Southeast Asia, Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe and other emerging markets.

However, I can't help but ask: why did the transmission give up its original position, the products began to become high-end, and the market began to focus on outside Africa?. Is the change driven by ambition, or has the sky in Africa changed?

On November 7, TECNO chose to officially launch the Phantom X2 series of flagship phones in Dubai. The difference between Phantom X2 and Phantom X2 Pro is mainly in the lens, the core specifications are Tianji 9000, LPDDR5X running memory and UFS 3.1 storage, the screen also uses 120Hz refresh rate AMOLED screen, equipped with 5160mAh battery and 45W fast charge, equipped with HiOS 12.0 system developed based on Android 12.

In addition to the regular configuration of the flagship computer, the core differentiation competition of the Phantom X2 Pro lies in the current smartphone's most internal volume-- images, only with different "problem-solving ideas". The Phantom X2 Pro features a 5000 megapixel retractable portrait lens (65mm retractable f / 1.49mm JN1 sensor) and supports 2.5x optical zoom as a telephoto lens.

In the audio press release, the launch of this retractable portrait lens is also regarded as the core selling point of the Phantom X2 Pro. Last month, at an online seminar on "going to the High end" held by Counterpoint, a joint market analysis agency, it was believed that image development was behind the trend of high-end smartphones, said Xu Zhimin, deputy director of the TECNO Image Research and Development Center.

(audio) TECNO is catering to the high-end development of the mobile phone industry in all regions of the world, and its core is to extend our products to a higher end and provide our customers with better imaging capabilities. The Phantom X2 flagship machine will be the integration of our imaging technology in recent years, showing a more peak intelligent image performance with excellent night shooting ability.

To sum up, the goal of audio TECNO is high-end, and the path to realization will mainly depend on the image experience of mobile phone products.

Xiaomi 13 Pro, the picture / millet problem is more than the image, other domestic mobile phones are far more internal than audio transmission, and the market of audio transmission is also beginning to coincide with that of domestic mobile phones. Starting from the end of December, the Phantom X2 Pro will be launched first in India, Nigeria, Kenya, Saudi Arabia, Colombia, Turkey and the Philippines, and then in more than 60 markets around the world, which means it will compete directly with domestic phones such as Xiaomi OV in more markets.

But for transmission, whether it is high-end or out of Africa, these two things have to be done.

The success story of the change of weather in Africa and the spread of voices in Asia can be called a legend. At the beginning of its establishment, the company set its sights on the distant African continent, not only bypassing the fierce competition in the domestic mobile phone market, Africa's huge population base and extremely fast-growing mobile phone market also provided a "promised land" with honey and milk.

In terms of products, sound transmission has carried out localization innovation aimed at African users, launching a "tanning" function for a wide range of dark-skinned people in Africa, and aiming at hot weather, unstable power and other problems, a series of technologies and product features have been developed, such as low-cost high-voltage fast charging technology, ultra-long standby, wear and sweat resistance and so on.

In terms of pricing and channels, audio transmission also sees the low consumption level and weak infrastructure of African people, and firmly grasps the minds of African mobile phone consumers through lower pricing and offline sales channels throughout Africa. these also make the transmission take advantage of the east wind of Africa and become an invisible giant in the global mobile phone market.

But a man is not as good as a thousand days, and a flower without a hundred days of red.

On the one hand, the epidemic has led to a serious decline in the income of African people. The United Nations Economic Development report on Africa 2021 pointed out that the epidemic directly led to the loss of 22 million jobs in Africa in 2021 alone. Since the beginning of this year, the life of the African people has been even more difficult, with many difficulties, such as high inflation and the food crisis, seriously weakening consumers' purchasing power and desire to upgrade their consumption.

In addition, mobile phones are more of an entertainment device than a rigid demand for African consumers. Even though 70% of people own mobile phones, only 18% have access to electricity, and the coverage of base stations is even less comprehensive, so that some locals need to raise their own antennas when making phone calls, which is exacerbated by a slowdown in investment in 4G networks by operators under the epidemic.

The decline in consumer demand and the process of network infrastructure have directly suppressed the growth space of the African mobile phone market, and the transmission of voice, as the leader of African mobile phones, has also been affected.

Tu / Emensahgh, a mobile phone store on the streets of Africa, said in its semi-annual report, "due to the adverse effects of the external environment, the company's overall smartphone sales in Africa and South Asia declined to a certain extent in the first half of the year. Smartphone sales account for more than 80% of the total revenue of sound transmission, and Africa and South Asia are also the two largest markets by region.

At the same time, other manufacturers are also seizing the market with low price and performance-to-price ratio. The growth rate of voice transmission in the African smartphone market in 2021 is not as fast as that of Samsung and Xiaomi, with a gap of more than 10 per cent, according to IDC. In the second quarter of this year, the market share of audio transmission has fallen from more than 50% to just over 40%, while Samsung and Xiaomi ranked second and third with 25.8% and 6.6% respectively.

Outside Africa, the South Asian market was laid out as early as 2017, with India as the core, covering Bangladesh and Pakistan. India is also the second largest mobile phone market after Africa, accounting for 11% of overall shipments, according to the semi-annual report.

India is the most populous country in South Asia, with great potential for growth, and it is the Red Sea market that the major mobile phone manufacturers compete for, but the road of communication is not smooth. The overall market share has also fallen from 7.1% last year to 6.9% in 2018-2021, and the smartphone share in India has increased by only 0.3% in the past four years. Samsung, Xiaomi, OPPO, vivo and realme have fully mastered the smartphone competition in India.

There is not much room for sound transmission.

Written in the end, Africa is a depression. Relying on excellent vision and the determination of others, it chose to bet on Africa from the very beginning, and a decade of patient cultivation has also gained a fast-growing market. it helped it become the "king of mobile phones" in Africa with few strong competitors, and once became the third largest mobile phone manufacturer in the world after Samsung and Apple.

However, with the continued weakness of consumer demand in Africa and the addition of competitors such as Samsung and Xiaomi, transmissions have gradually faded away from the era of rapid growth in Africa, and have to focus on emerging markets such as South Asia, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Reduce dependence on African markets.

However, as Xiaomi OV goes deep into the hinterland of transmission and the two meet in emerging markets, transmission has to directly face many domestic competitors with technological advantages. However, the voice that dominates in the low-end market does not have the strength to build its own moat on products and technology. over the past five years, the R & D cost of sound transmission has long been lower than the marketing cost, which will be maintained at about 1 billion yuan, while Xiaomi has gradually increased to 14.2 billion yuan. behind the cumulative number of authorized patents also reached more than 26000.

"the good luck of transmission will end at the end of 2022. "two years ago, founder Zhu Zhaojiang's joking prophecy was able to come true in one fell swoop, not only due to the influence of the general environment, but also because of the fact that sound transmission has long been accustomed to the low-end phone market, but has not been able to practice internal skills for a long time.

This article comes from the official account of Wechat: ID:leitech, author: Lei Tech Digital 3C Group, Editor: winter Jam, typesetting: KT

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