Demand for advanced cellphone urges industry to catch up on tech

Although the sales of smartphones have declined globally for eight consecutive quarters as of the second quarter of this year, and China's sales growth has also slowed down, its high-end mobile phones have seen a rise in sales. The market share of mobile phones priced at more than $600 reached 23.1 percent in the second quarter, an increase of 3.1 percentage points compared with the same period in 2022.

The upward sales of high-end mobile phones conforms to the trend of household consumption upgrading in recent years. In 2022, China's per capita GDP reached $12,700, exceeding the world average. Residents' consumption structure, too, is upgrading from "for survival" to "for development and enjoyment".

Continuous technological innovation has provided strong support for the sales growth of high-end mobile phones in China. China is not only the manufacturing hub of smartphones, but also the highland of technological innovation. According to incomplete statistics, the types of new flagship mobile phones launched in China in 2022 exceeded 40, and the application and popularization of folding screens, fast charging, image algorithm and other technologies have brought differentiated application, content and operating experiences to users while offering diversified products.

It is precisely the application of cutting-edge technologies that has stimulated consumers' desire to buy high-end smartphones. The perfect industrial ecology has also helped boost the sales of high-end mobile phones. Relying on its large-scale market and booming digital economy, China has built the world's largest and most advanced broadband network infrastructure, and offered consumers such new consumption scenarios as e-commerce, livestreaming, instant messaging, online entertainment, distance education, and smart wearable devices. All of these are encouraging consumers to buy and use high-end mobile phones with greater functions.

After years of development and popularization, the current penetration rate of smartphones in China has reached 85 percent, with the number of mobile phone netizens exceeding 1 billion. But it should be noted that in terms of some core technologies and key components, domestic mobile phone manufacturers still need to make greater efforts to realize new technological breakthroughs. In particular, they should strengthen research in key core technologies such as chips and operating systems to free them from dependence on others.

- ECONOMIC DAILY