A few years ago, cell phone manufacturers like Oppo and Vivo were relatively small players in the field of smartphones. They didn’t even feature among the top 5 names in the market. Apple was leading, going head to head with Samsung. The audience watched on to see who would come up with the most innovative features and, more importantly, the better smartphone. Many would agree that Apple was a clear winner since they had the best smartphone money could buy.
Fast forward to current times and the same is not true anymore. In China’s smartphone market, companies like Oppo and Vivo have overtaken Apple. The secret to their success is empowering local businesses and entrepreneurs. They offer cheaper cell phone to shops who get a commission on every handset they sell. For businessmen, this means more sales and more money. For Oppo and Vivo, it means that more of their smartphones are sold.
Furthermore, these brands concentrated on less wealthy cities and avoided bigger ones like Beijing. People in smaller cities preferred to buy smartphones by Oppo or Vivo, since they offered almost identical specs to an iPhone, but for a fraction of the cost. This, coupled with the marketing done by the store owners themselves, pushed Oppo and Vivo up the ladder.
Apple, on the other hand, felt it was too risky to offer the same kind of service to local businesses. Instead, they stuck with their own marketing and advertisements which, unfortunately, didn’t do wonders for them. They fell behind in sales and lost their lead at the top.
The future doesn’t look very promising for them either. Many are predicting that Oppo and Vivo will fly further ahead as the years go by. If Apple wants to regain their position, they will have to try something more than remove the headphone jack from their phones.
Apple had tried to enter the mid-range market with the colorful 5c, but people decided to go in for Oppo phones instead. They fell in the same price bracket but had much better specs. Apple also released the iPhone SE recently – basically a 6s packed inside the body of a 5s. However, it didn’t catch on with the locals and sales continued to fall.
It is clear that Apple needs to make drastic changes to their marketing strategies, policies, products, and especially pricing if they are to compete with the new leaders from China. People want Apple to come up with something truly unique and remarkable. That’s the only way they’re going to recover sales. Hopes are pinned on the iPhone 8, releasing on Apple’s 10th anniversary, but only time will tell if Apple will be able to work their magic once again in China in the coming year.