Why doesn't Apple set up a low-end sub-brand like Huawei?

Domestic mobile phones are difficult to be high-end, and Apple mobile phones are even more difficult to be low-end. There has always been a slightly interesting rumor in the industry: if one day Apple puts down its posture and starts to play cost-effective, it means that Apple will repeat the mistakes of Nokia.

Although this sentence seems a bit meaningless, it does make sense when you think about it.

For a company like Apple, he certainly hopes to gain the service income of hardware-based systems and software by expanding the possession of his own hardware products, because the gross profit margin of service income is horrible and lucrative. Once the new format is formed, lying down to make money is far more relaxed and comfortable than being a hardware manufacturer, and it also helps to improve your P/E ratio.

Apple is indeed doing this at present. According to Apple's revenue in the first quarter of 20021,its service product revenue reached a record high, reaching $654.38+05.8 billion (equivalent to RMB 654.38+00.33 billion), and the service business has become the pillar industry of Apple's mobile phone. So for Apple, it certainly hopes that its products can penetrate into all price segments.

At that time, Apple tried to launch cheap mobile phones more than once to expand the audience of products, such as iPhone5C, iPhone, iPhone 2 and so on. However, among these models, except for the iPhone 2, several other cheap models failed without exception, especially the iPhone 5C, which became a black spot in the history of the iPhone.

From this point, we can also see that it is not easy for domestic mobile phones to move from low-end to high-end, and it is not easy for Apple to move from high-end to low-end. As for the reasons, there are nothing more than three aspects: the limitation of brand tonality, the lack of product strength, and the inherent requirement for profit rate.

When it comes to high-end mobile phones, Apple is definitely the first brand that most consumers think of. It has become a * * * knowledge to equate iPhone with high-end mobile phones, just like referring to Rolls Royce, which is known as a luxury car. So in this case, if Apple puts down its attitude to engage in low-end products, it will break such a brand tonality that has been hard to shape, thus hurting the foundation of Apple's mobile phone. Such a stupid operation is really impossible for most people.

Secondly, the problem of product strength. What is the most unique product feature of Apple's mobile phone? To put it bluntly, it is the IOS system and the ecosystem built around this system. As for other hardware, iPhone has been unable to open a big gap with Android phones, and even has been overtaken in some aspects.

Then please think about a problem. Suppose Apple wants to release a low-end model (or low-end brand), will it use the IOS system? If you use it, then there will be an embarrassing situation. A low-priced product and a high-end product line have similar product characteristics, so in this case, it will definitely have an impact on its high-end product line. But on the other hand, if Apple's low-end line doesn't use IOS, which system can it use? It is basically impossible to recreate a brand-new system, because the cost of successful ecological construction is very high, even in the current status of iPhone, it can not be completed in a short time, and the chances of success are quite slim. Isn't WP a lesson from the past?

So I can only use Android, but this will only lose the original function of iPhone, so there are two ways to go before Apple. The first is to compete with other Android phone manufacturers. I really don't believe that iPhone, as a new player, can beat this old Android phone brand that has been immersed in the Android circle for many years. The second way is to play with faith like Sony, but don't you know what Sony mobile phone is doing now?

The second is the internal control of profit rate. The reason why Apple can maintain such a high market value is directly related to its extremely high profit margin.

Generally speaking, if Apple's mobile phone is now a low-end product line, it is not easy to create its own brand or low-end products. If it is not good, it will affect its own foundation. Therefore, unless it is the day when the iPhone cannot be sold, it is basically impossible to expect the iPhone to launch a low-end mobile phone.

First of all, you need to know, under what circumstances did these domestic sub-brands of mobile phones come into being?

If you want to use a word to describe it, that is:

1. Xiaomi's Internet gameplay, which was forced by Xiaomi at first, was once a legend, and even a book devoted to it.

Of course, this is just one of the books.

2. Name a few sub-brands established by each mobile phone. The first is the glory of Huawei.

There is also the charm blue of Meizu and Nubian of ZTE.

The first generation of Redmi was 2065438+July 2002.

Let's see when glory was established. 20 13 12 months.

Most people will think that glory is against Redmi, but it is not. Glory is Xiaomi's Internet brand. ...

Although it seems incredible, it is true.

You see, Xiaomi is an Internet brand, and so is glory. There is nothing wrong (escape

So, when was Xiaomi established?

April 20 10

Then, Xiaomi should feel uncomfortable and just come out as an independent brand in Redmi.

So if you think about the cause and effect of this matter, you will find it very interesting.

3. There is absolutely no need for Apple to have a sub-brand, so when it comes to this, Huawei's glory was originally born because of Xiaomi, and Xiaomi later separated Redmi from it.

Love each other ...

Apple, the mobile phone iPhone he sells now is divided into five grades.

5MT, old iron ...

With the invincible software of iOS, the software and hardware+software store is all in hand. The previous generation, the previous generation and the fourth generation of mobile phones live under the same roof (SE is just a new lever in the old bottle of the previous generation). In this case, what sub-brands does it need?

Then Apple has always been the leader in the mobile phone industry. That year, an iPhone had washed away 92% of the profits in the industry.

Now four generations of mobile phones are on sale under one roof at the same time, which is actually equivalent to having a sub-brand (equivalent to 1 1/XR/SE), and no additional operation is needed. Isn't it beautiful?

Besides, if you understand what I said above, glory is equivalent to copying homework. Have you ever seen the first in the class who needs to copy the last? Not obvious yet ~

So this is my answer, and finally thank you for reading.

Apple naturally has no sub-brands. Because Apple is a sub-brand. The founder of his parent company is a fat man named Luo. (Laughter)

First, sub-brand strategy

"Sub-brand" is an independent brand, an independent team and an independent operation. However, its planning and development are restricted by parent brand. Before its glory, it took the route of youth, high cost performance, low-end and internet. This just makes up for the vacancy of "parent brand" Huawei mobile phone. The time to market of glory's new machine is limited by Huawei's mobile phone: for example, the latest Kirin chip will be launched in Huawei's mobile phone, and it will be released to glory later.

Although the development of sub-brands is restricted by parent brand, it also benefits from parent brand. For example, you can enjoy parent brand's supply chain and R&D achievements. Before, most of HONOR's technology came from Huawei's "decentralization". With the support of parent brand, these sub-brands can be described as "sweeping" in their respective markets. Often a group of second-tier brands can be swept in the market as soon as they are born.

Take the familiar second-tier brands Meizu, Lenovo and Nut as an example. Facing the sub-brands such as Glory, Redmi, iQOO and realme, they seem to have no "strength to fight back". All the first-line manufacturers of "Huami OV" have the meaning of "I can't do it myself, I can send a younger brother to turn you over".

Second, the origin of sub-brands

Although there are many sub-brands on the market now, you will find them after careful observation. Redmi of Xiaomi, realme of OPPO, iQOO of vivo. In fact, they are all sub-brands established after 19. Prior to this, these first-line brands did not have their own sub-brands. Only glory was founded on 20 13, which is considered as an "older sub-brand".

So where did the sub-brands come from? According to the information I found, you may be surprised. In the domestic smart phone industry, ZTE is the first to be a sub-brand.

On 2012101October 3 1 day, Nubia, a subsidiary of ZTE, was established. This is the first sub-brand of domestic manufacturers in the era of smart phones.

After 20 13 12 16, Huawei founded the glory brand, which is also a step in the footsteps of ZTE Nubia.

On May 28th, 20 15, Lenovo mobile phone sub-brand ZUK was born.

Little friends who know history may have seen it. Before "Huami OV", the domestic first-line smartphone manufacturers were "China Kulian" (ZTE, Huawei, Coolpad, Lenovo). The initial sales model of these four companies is to cooperate with operators to sell machines.

At that time, the smartphone retail market also began to rise. The operation mode of the retail market is very different from the sales mode of operators, so four companies have established offline "sub-brands". The main idea is to quickly establish its own retail machine market, which is different from the operator market.

After that, everyone will be more clear. ZTE, Coolpad and Lenovo lost in the fierce market competition. Only Huawei cooperated with the two brands of Glory and took the lead in the subsequent smartphone war. Later, Xiaomi, vivo and OPPO followed Huawei's example and established sub-brands to match their overall strategy. So it has developed into the pattern of smart phones today.

3. Why doesn't Apple have its own brand?

Since 2007, Apple has only one brand of smartphone, iPhone. No other sub-brands.

From the perspective of sales channels, Apple has both contract machines bundled by operators in various countries and retail versions sold online and in stores. From the price range, at present, Apple has not only 3,000 models such as iPhone SE 2, but also models with a price of over 10,000 such as iPhone 12 Pro Max. Last year and the year before last, there were also sales at reduced prices in flagship machine to supplement various price points.

So why doesn't Apple learn from Huawei to diversify its sub-brands and dig deep into the market?

Apples don't need it. According to the latest estimate of Counterpint Research, the total profit of global smartphone industry in 20 19 is about 1000 billion US dollars, with iPhone accounting for 66%. This proportion was as high as more than 80% in previous years.

Although the iPhone sells less than 200 million units a year, most of them are high-end machines. The profit is more than the entire Android camp combined.

If Apple can't do it, it needs to establish two sets of design, development, inventory and after-sales systems and establish sub-brands. It is necessary to allocate resources and coordinate relations, so as not to fight between "parent brand". This requires a lot of communication and coordination, and it is basically impossible for handsome guys like Zhao Ming and Redmi Lu Weibing to complete it without glory. The scale of a multinational company like Apple is estimated to be difficult to coordinate and control a sub-brand.

Due to various differences. Multinational companies such as Samsung and Apple have no experience in making sub-brands, and there is no need to open the market with sub-brands. So they don't have to create sub-brands.

Summary: Sub-brand is a kind of gameplay explored by domestic manufacturers in the fierce market competition. The sales channels and models in the domestic mobile phone market are very different, in order to avoid the conflict between the models in the new market and the independent brands. So simply build a sub-brand to "go into battle lightly".

The success of Huawei and Glory has also made other manufacturers imitate it. So China has a unique "sub-brand".

However, multinational companies like Apple did not dig deep into the demand of China market. (Even if Cook wants to dig deep into the China market, it is hard for him to beat domestic manufacturers), so naturally there will be no sub-brands.

When it comes to Apple mobile phones, everyone's first reaction is expensive, so why doesn't Apple come up with a low-end brand? This can open up the market and get more consumers.

In fact, no manufacturer wants to make low-end products (in the case of high-end sales), especially Apple, which is time-consuming and laborious, with low profits and a lot of after-sales problems. Maybe it's easy to break the word of mouth. Therefore, domestic mobile phone manufacturers like Huawei will set up a new sub-brand in order to divide the boundaries.

First, Apple's mobile phone regards profit as more important than sales. Apple's mobile phone sales have shown a downward trend in the last two years, but the stock market has hit record highs. This shows that although Apple sells fewer and fewer mobile phones, it makes more and more money in China.

Apple's mobile phones have never been cheap, and now there are more than 10,000 in flagship machine, so Apple has enough profits to support the R&D and update iteration of the whole product, and the whole company runs very healthily and sustainably. There is no urgent need and motivation to increase sales, so Apple's research direction is how to improve the competitiveness of products, not how to sell more products and how to increase market share.

Second, Apple's low-end models are not successful. As early as the iPhone5C era, Apple wanted to use low-price strategy to open up the market and cultivate more mid-range users, but the result was embarrassing. IPhone5C became the worst-selling product in Apple's history (mainly because iPhone5C was castrated a little bit, which was related to the profit of Article 1).

In the later period, the sales volume of iPhoneSE as a clearance stock was not ideal, and it could only be said that it was average. After the iPhone exploded, Apple directly produced more than 8,000 iPhones XS and iPhoneXsMax, but I didn't expect the iPhone to drain all potential users. The two high-priced products of this generation are very embarrassing and have to straighten the iPhoneXr that was not optimistic at first. The appearance of iPhone 1 1 also implies that Apple's bottom line is here.

Third, several generations of Apple products are sold at the same time, which also forms a price difference and does not require low-end products. Apple doesn't really have cheap mobile phones, and this year's iPhone is an exception. However, the sales cycle of Apple's mobile phone is extremely long. After iPhone 12 came out this year, iPhoneXr is still in normal sales. You should know that this mobile phone was released the year before last.

Therefore, by extending the sales cycle and enriching the product line, Apple reduced the price in disguise. The current iPhoneXr is more than 3,000. Compared with the Apple camp, this is the mid-range machine. So Apple also has its own business. By lengthening the sales cycle, the price can be reduced, the mid-range can be expanded and the cost can be saved. Why should we innovate our own brands and engage in new mid-range machines?

Fourth, the establishment of sub-brands not only affects Android, but also affects the establishment of Apple sub-brands. The starting point of opening up the market is very simple, that is, to seize more markets, but also to cultivate more potential high-end users and form brand stickiness.

However, we can see that more than half of iPhone users are very sensitive to the price, and very few really don't care about the price (just look at the Pro and ProMax users of new products every year), so it is still difficult to cultivate a large number of high-quality users (after all, the wealth ratio of the whole society is like this). So Apple is going downhill, trying to grab both Android users and some mid-range users of iPhone.

Simply put, if Apple produces a mid-range mobile phone with a price of 3,000 yuan, it will probably take away some iPhone users with a price of 5,000 yuan or 6,000 yuan. Therefore, Apple's mid-range mobile phone is a double-edged sword. With the front and back of the iPhone5C and iPhone, Apple tends to use the product time difference to make the difference.

Generally speaking, Apple has not explored the needs of low-end users, nor has it the motivation, and there are still many uncertainties, which are inconsistent with Apple's entire planning philosophy.

Apple won't do that.

First of all, this is not in line with Apple's high-end strategy. Second, Apple has no advantage as a low-end company. Third, Apple is now very successful and does not need expansion and transformation.

1, the low-end and Apple's high-end strategy are not in line with Apple's high-end strategy. If it is low-end and does not conform to Apple's development strategy, it may cause great problems for Apple's development.

Now Apple concentrates on making high-end products, which can make high-end products very fine and may retain a large number of high-end customers. And if Apple starts to make low-end products, it may distract Apple's management and lead to a decline in the competitiveness of high-end products.

So Apple won't go to the low end.

2. Apple has no advantage at the low end. Apple has always taken the high-end route and has no advantage in the low-end field. From a competitive point of view, if Apple is a low-end company, it can be said that it has almost no advantage over many domestic manufacturers.

Under such circumstances, Apple will not venture to set up a low-end brand and become a low-end market. Perhaps it will fall into a loss-making mud pond and cannot explain to Apple's board of directors.

Therefore, Apple has no advantage in doing low-end and will not do it.

3. Apple is very successful now, and there is no need for transformation. Apple's current high-end strategy should be said to be very successful, and there is no urgent need for transformation. Now, although Apple's products are high-end, the annual sales volume is very large, the sales volume is even larger, and it has also created huge profits for Apple, which is obviously very successful.

Now Apple's high-end strategy is very successful, and there is no need for transformation at all. The high-end market is very detailed, enough for Apple to earn a lot of money. Apple has no motivation and will not risk making low-end products.

4. Conclusion To sum up, Apple will not do this. First of all, this is not in line with Apple's high-end strategy. Second, Apple has no advantage as a low-end company. Third, Apple is now very successful and does not need expansion and transformation.

If Apple had done this years ago, there wouldn't be an Android phone. If Apple launches an iPhone below 3K before 20 15, will domestic manufacturers have a chance to break through the high-end besides Samsung? It can be said that domestic brands of Android phones will basically be pressed below 3K, in this case, the profits of manufacturers will be greatly affected, which in turn will affect the progress in R&D and marketing, and naturally there will be no great development.

In that case, why doesn't Apple do this? On the contrary, the price is higher when using iPhone X, which gives Android a certain opportunity. This may be related to Apple's relative closure, because it is closed, its iOS system ecology is much better than Android, and then it has its own moat, which can make high profits. In this case, Apple has no incentive to push low-end products, which will affect its own profits and brand style, and consumers may not buy it. IPhone 5C is an example.

And the real outbreak of mobile Internet should be after 20 15. Before that, mobile phone manufacturers thought it was enough to make money by selling hardware. In fact, Apple has not deviated from this idea. Later, Apple found that it was also good to make money on software by using system ecology, so when iPhone 1 1, it turned its head and began to pay attention to software ecology. At the developer conference that year,

First, Apple does not have this demand. According to the statistics of Apple's individual sales and profit rate from 20 19 to 2020, it can be found that Apple's sales in the third quarter fluctuated smoothly between 40 billion and 70 billion dollars, and the profit rate was also at a high level of 30%. The profit earned by a company is already the sum of other smartphone manufacturers. When we have achieved the absolute dominance, what we need is continuous innovation so that pursuers can never catch up, instead of engaging in so-called sub-brands.

Second, it does not meet Apple's positioning. The positioning of Apple products is the top level in the industry in terms of mobile phones, computers and accessories. It's impossible to lower the B-box, which was finally upgraded, in order to earn some bits and pieces of brass and cymbals. Once the positioning of a brand is lowered, it is almost impossible to go up. When it comes to the national brand Xiaomi, the biggest enemy Xiaomi wants to be high-end is not Apple, not Huawei, but Xiaomi himself. Because of the early positioning of the low-end, even the product manager said that users are diaosi, can the price be affordable?

Therefore, it is not worth the loss for Apple to self-destruct its brand and figure out the low-end sub-brands. Apple can't make this mistake.

Third, the world is not Apple's own. The world is diverse, even if Apple is excellent, it needs other brands. If Apple gets a low-end sub-brand and kills all other manufacturers, it will be the end of Apple. In the United States, the European Union and other countries and regions, the anti-monopoly law is not TXT, but a living exe. Apple, Google, Microsoft and other technology giants were punished for calling dad.

As long as Apple dares to harvest the world market with low-end brands, the ticket will be posted all over Apple headquarters on the first day.

Having said that, it is impossible for Apple to launch low-end sub-brands to harvest at this stage, and it is impossible to launch them in the short term. So I still try to move bricks and buy whatever I want. Expensive is not apple's fault, but mine-poverty.

The first thing to be clear is that Huawei has no low-end sub-brands. Glory is also a normal brand with high-end products. For example, this year's glory 30 Pro+ also sold at a price of 4,000 yuan, which is obviously not a low-end brand.

Secondly, the birth of glory mainly benefited from the rise of Internet mobile phone brands headed by Xiaomi. Since the initial Internet mobile phones were basically sold online and there were no offline stores, they had great advantages in cost, compared with no need to pay rent, no shopping guides or even traditional advertisements. Therefore, under the same hardware configuration, the price of Internet mobile phones such as Xiaomi is much cheaper than traditional mobile phones such as Huawei, OPPO, vivo and Lenovo, which brings great pressure to traditional mobile phone brands. Therefore, Huawei has become a sub-brand of glory, positioning itself in Internet mobile phones and competing with Xiaomi.

Huawei's approach has also achieved results. Before 20 14 years ago, the leading mobile phone market in China was "China Kulian", but after 20 17 years, Huawei was the only traditional manufacturer. Although Huawei's brand is very strong now, Huawei's mobile phone business may not continue without the glory of selling at low-end prices.

Later, the Internet mobile phone was also growing, and Xiaomi began to attack the offline from the online and had his own sub-brand Redmi. Glory is also exploring high-end prices. After the success of several consecutive mobile phones in Glory V series, its product line also covered the price range of 1000 yuan to 3,000 yuan, and then this year's Glory 30 series stood at the price of 4,000 yuan.

In other words, although Huawei was originally established to compete with Xiaomi in the low-end market, with the continuous changes in the mobile phone market, the autonomy of the glory brand has become stronger and stronger. Therefore, although glory left Huawei this year due to external pressure, it will leave Huawei and become an independent mobile phone brand sooner or later if it is given more time.

So, why doesn't Apple set up a sub-brand and explore the low-end price? Because it's not necessary.

First, Apple doesn't have a low-end mobile phone. When you open Apple official website, you will find that the iPhone XR of the previous two years is still on sale, while old models such as iPhone 8 Plus and even iPhone 7 Plus can still be bought in third-party channels. The prices of these old iPhones are also much cheaper than when they were first listed. Basically, you can buy all kinds of old iPhones from 2500 yuan to 4000 yuan. And these old iPhone are all low-end product lines of Apple.

Moreover, when you open an e-commerce platform such as Dong or Cat, you will find that the sales of old Apple mobile phones such as iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone 7 Plus are still very good, even better than some new Android mobile phones. This year's iPhone SE 2 was also modified with the mold of iPhone 8. In addition to SoC, it basically changed its medicine, but it also sold well. In other words, Apple can get enough sales in the low-end market as long as it sells old mobile phones. Why do you want to be a sub-brand?

What's more, a new sub-brand can't have the same products as the iPhone, right? Then we need to redesign sub-brand mobile phones, re-examine the market, formulate marketing strategies, recruit employees, and even open new physical stores under the connection. This will lead to huge costs. How can Apple's sub-brands emulate Huawei? The performance of the mobile phone is similar to that of the main brand, but the price is relatively cheap, so the sub-brand may impact the main brand and even affect the brand value of Apple. After all, Apple has positioned itself as a high-end brand from the beginning, and engaging in a sub-brand is equivalent to self-degradation, which is really thankless.

And many users choose Apple because of its powerful performance and high-end brand. If it is a sub-brand, the product performance is insufficient and the brand awareness is not high, but it may face the embarrassing situation that no one cares.

Most brands have souls.

This is a question of product positioning. Apple hopes to maintain its high market image.