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Mobile phones
手機
The rise of the cheap smartphone
廉價智能手機的崛起
As smartphones reach the masses, a host of vendors are eager to serve them
智能手機普及化，大小手機廠商開始在低端市場兵戎相向
NEXT month Britons will have yet more smartphones to choose from, when devices from Wiko, a two-year-old French company, go on sale. Wiko will be hoping that its phones, which in France start at around 70, prove as popular across the Channel as at home. In 2013 nearly 7% of French first-time smartphone-buyers plumped for a Wiko, says Carolina Milanesi of Kantar Worldpanel, a research firm. In early 2014 the firm claims to have been the second-biggest vendor in France.
下個月，英國人民將有更多的智能手機可供選擇，因為下個月Wiko的產品就要在英國上市銷售了。Wiko是法國的一家成立僅兩年的公司，它的產品在法國的最低售價只有70歐元。Wiko希望能夠在英國可以復制它在本土的成功。據市場調研公司Kantar Worldpanel的卡羅琳娜·米蘭內塞稱，在2013年，在法國首次購買的智能手機的人群中，7%選擇了Wiko。今年年初，Wiko宣稱其已成為法國第二大的手機廠商。
Wiko is not alone. In both rich countries and poor ones, cheaper smartphone brands are making inroads. Demand for pricey phones, mainly in developed economies, is slowing, but that for less expensive devices is booming. People buying their first smartphones today, perhaps to replace a basic handset, care less about the brand and more about price than the richer, keener types of a few years ago.
Wiko并不是個例。無論是在發達國家還是發展中國家，廉價手機品牌正在大舉進軍。對高價位手機的需求正在減緩，而對中低價位手機的需求正在急劇增長。現在才開始購買智能手機的人們，可能原來使用的也只是簡單的功能機，所以比起前幾年富人、極客們關注的品牌，他們更關注的是價格。
They are likely to pay less for a nice new smartphone than they did for their shabby old device, because the cost of making smartphones has tumbled. Vendors can buy standardised processors which chip designers such as America's Qualcomm, the market leader, and competitors such as Taiwan's MediaTek or China's Spreadtrum are scrapping furiously to provide in ever-rising quality at ever-lower prices. They choose cameras, screens and so forth to wrap around the innards, and have phones churned out in Chinese factories. Last year, says Francisco Jeronimo of IDC, another research firm, shipments of smartphones priced below 80 more than quintupled. Devices at under 100 made up one-sixth of the total.
因為制造智能機的成本猛跌的緣故，人們可以以很低的價格買到優秀的新型智能機，甚至比他們那些簡陋的舊手機的價格更低。手機產商可以從芯片制造商那里買到標準化的處理器，現在這一行業的競爭極其激烈，行業老大高通和中國的聯發科和展訊正競相以史無前例的低價格提供高質量的產品。接著，他們再選購攝像頭、屏幕，然后和連同內部零件一起打包給中國的工廠批量生產。 互聯網數據中心的弗朗西斯科·杰洛尼摩稱，去年，價格低于80美元的智能機的出貨量是上一年的五倍還多；100美元以下的手機占總量的六分之一。
At a global level, the market has fragmented: in 2013, says IDC, the share of smartphone shipments by vendors outside the top five was 40%, twice as much as in 2009. In national markets, local names unfamiliar elsewhere, like Wiko, are prominent. Micromax and Karbonn rank second and third in India, according to IDC. Symphony is thought to have more than half the market in Bangladesh; and Walton, an electronics firm, has branched successfully into smartphones, notes Holger Hussmann of Telenor, a Norwegian mobile operator with interests in Asia and eastern Europe.
從全球的角度來看，智能機市場一家獨大的局面正在改變：IDC稱，2013年，排名前五之外的智能手機的出貨量在總量的40%，是2009年的兩倍。而在國內市場，像Wiko這樣在國際上不知名的品牌處于主導地位。 IDC的數據顯示，Micromax和Karbonn*在印度的銷量分居第二、三名。挪威電信的霍爾格·胡斯曼指出，Symphony已占領孟加拉國超過一半的市場；生產電子元器件的Walton也已成功把業務擴展到了職能手機領域。挪威電信是挪威的一家移動運營商，正有意開發亞洲和東歐的市場。
The declining cost of making phones means that buyers are getting more for their money. In 2012, says Mr Jeronimo, 42% of phones priced at less than 80 had a processor faster than 1 gigahertz; by last year 87% did. The proportion of cheap phones with screens more than four inches across went up from less than 8% to 38%. Two years ago the median price of a smartphone was 325. Last year it was 250. This year it may be 200.
智能機成本的降低意味著消費者得到了實惠。據IDC的杰洛尼摩稱，2012年市場上處理器速度高于1G且價格低于80美元的職能機占總數的42%，而去年這一數據達到了87%。屏幕大于四英寸的廉價智能機的比例由8%升到了38%。兩年前，智能手機的中間價為325美元，今年為250美元，今年可能降至200美元。
The cheapest phones will become cheaper still. At Mobile World Congress, an industry jamboree in Barcelona at the end of February, Mozilla, a non-profit company best known for Firefox, its web browser, announced that smartphones running its operating system, Firefox OS, on Spreadtrum chips would go on sale with a target price of only 25. Mr Hussmann reports that the bill of materials is less than that.
這一降價的趨勢還會持續下去。在今年二月末舉行的MWC大會上，因火狐瀏覽器而著稱于世的非營利機構Mozilla宣布將發售定價僅為25美元的手機。該手機搭載展訊的芯片，運行Mozilla自己的系統Firefox OS。胡斯曼稱手機的制造成本并沒有超過25美元。
It is not only at the bottom that competition is intensifying. In China, points out C.K. Lu of Gartner, another research company, OPPO and Vivo, two local brands, both increased their market shares last year despite focusing on phones priced at 2,000 yuan or more. Fancy phones can also polish a brand. Huawei, another Chinese company, has been trying just that; Wiko's top-of-the-range smartphone costs 349.
競爭日趨激烈的地方不僅是低端市場。信息研究公司高德納的C.K.Lu指出，中國的本地品牌OPPO和Vivo去年著重發展價格高于2000元的智能機，其市場份額依然都得到了提升。高端手機可以提高企業的品牌價值。另一家中國公司，華為也做了這方面的嘗試。Wiko最頂級的產品的價格達到了349美元。
All this is great for smartphone-buyers everywhere. It is less good news for the market leaders, Apple and Samsung—the only vendors making much money. Apple may be insulated by its operating system and apparently impregnable brand, although it has lately been selling cheaper iPhones. Samsung, which dominates the market for phones running on Google's Android operating system, may be more vulnerable.
上述一切對于全球的智能機消費者來說都是好消息，但是智能機市場的大佬蘋果和三星——為數不多的會因此發愁。此發也許蘋果可以依靠其獨立的操作系統和固若金湯的品牌來免受影響。但是安卓智能機的主導者三星可能就顯得比較脆弱了。
The South Korean company suffered a decline in profits late last year. Granted, it makes cheaper devices as well as dearer ones, and it can afford some slimming of its margins. People in poor countries also covet global brands: it has taken share from locals in India. But its problem, Mr Jeronimo says, is that it carries lots of costs, in research and development and in marketing, that cheaper rivals do not. “They are able to provide much better devices, in terms of specs, for a much lower price,” he says. “And this is particularly worrying in developed markets.”
去年年底，三星的利潤出現了下降。的確，三星可以同時經營各個價位的智能機，而且也可以承受一定程度的利潤下降。但是三星的真正的問題，正如杰諾尼摩所說的一樣，在于其研發和營銷方面的巨額開支，而它那些提供廉價手機的對手們則沒有這樣的困擾。“它們可以以更低的價格提供—至少在配置方面來說—更好的設備，”他說道，“這個問題發達國家市場尤為使人擔憂。“
Samsung is doubtless wise to this. Hence its attempt to push beyond the smartphone, into smart watches and wristbands, connected domestic appliances and the business market. Mobile-phone brands have been brittle before: ask Ericsson, HTC, Motorola and Nokia. Samsung has spent bucketloads building its name. It will not want to be usurped by the Wikos of the world.
很顯然，三星對此做出了明智的應對。它正試圖把經營范圍從智能手機擴展到智能手表，智能手環和物聯網領域。智能手機市場風雨莫測：愛立信，HTC，摩托羅拉和諾基亞就是前車之鑒。三星費盡心血打造自己的帝國，它可不會讓Wiko這樣的廉價手機品牌輕易地篡位奪權。
