The last two years have not brought spectacular growth in the smartphone market. The number of units actually decreased, putting most mobile phone manufacturers in trouble. The reason? After 10 years of sustained growth, the market has reached maturity. Smartphones offer largely the same features, too the impulse to pass on to a new generation became increasingly rare.
Mobile phone manufacturers have learned to be more efficient, more attractive to customers and much better able to move volumes of phones into stores. Huawei is among the manufacturers that have taken classic smartphone prices by storm, showing that it is possible to deliver a very good portable experience at a much lower price.
This has polarized the way companies seek to make a profit. On the one hand we have manufacturers such as Huawei, Xiaomi and One Plus, on the other we have Samsung, Google and Apple. The former aim to deliver as many units as possible, the latter consider the profit obtained per unit sold. If you look closely, the grouping above is a bit atypical, as the One Plus has the same business model as Google and Apple, based on a small number of models in the range. The difference between the first and last two is the shelf price. The cheapest Apple model it costs $750 or 4000 lei, while OnePlus prices start at €549 or under 3000 lei.
On the other side of the group, Huawei relied on a varied and extremely aggressive range in terms of prices, all to dethrone Samsung's supremacy. Huawei is on the right track, managing to overtake the great Apple. But the road is getting harder and harder, given that, as I said above, the mobile phone market is declining.
What Huawei can do to counter this phenomenon is to focus on mid-range phones. Even if smartphones like the Huawei Mate 10 or Mate 20, P10 or P20 spark the most headlines in publications and social media, it's the cheaper models that attract customer loyalty.
Through a mix of good enough, sometimes even surprising specifications and by applying a price that arouses the impulse to buy, Huawei can seriously aim for the first place in terms of units sold in a year. At the moment, users expect every top of the range to be accompanied by a Lite version. Right now, the Huawei model P20 Lite it revolves around the amount of 800 lei in our stores, making it an extremely attractive option.
Last but not least, in order to seriously trouble Samsung, Huawei must succeed where the current first place could not - develop related services that compliment mobile phones. Apple has Apple Music, the App Store and iCloud, Google has its own advantages when it comes to cloud storage as a Pixel owner. Huawei needs to find its niche to clearly differentiate itself first from Samsung, then from Apple and Google.
