Where is the main vein of China's smartphone market in 2015?

According to statistics from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, my country's mobile phone shipments in 2015 reached 518 million units, an increase of 14.6% over 2014, achieving a perfect end to my country's mobile phone market in 2015.

The huge market demand and stable growth have made my country's mobile phone market the most important part of the global mobile phone market. To a large extent, the trend of my country's mobile phone market will directly affect the subsequent development of the global mobile phone market. Mobile phones are technology-intensive consumer products. Grasping the development trend of my country's commercial mobile phone technology is to grasp the main vein of my country's mobile phone market development, and then grasp the main vein of the global mobile phone market development. Compared with 2014, the development of my country's commercial mobile phones in 2015 showed some new features, especially in terms of technology.

4G technology is rapidly gaining popularity, and voice solutions and standards are attracting much attention

The most obvious technical feature of my country's commercial mobile phone market in 2015 was the rapid popularization of 4G technology. According to statistics from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, among the newly launched mobile phone products in my country in 2015, 4G mobile phone models accounted for 75.8%, 3G mobile phone models accounted for 5.1%, and 2G mobile phone models accounted for 19.1%; in terms of shipments, 4G mobile phones accounted for 85%, 3G mobile phones accounted for 3.9%, and 2G mobile phones accounted for 11.1%. Whether in terms of the number of newly launched models or shipments, my country's mobile phone market has basically completed the transition from 3G to 4G.

In terms of 4G mobile phone voice solutions, CSFB solutions have gradually become the main voice solutions for 4G mobile phones in my country. Among the newly launched 4G mobile phone products in my country in 2015, the models supporting CSFB voice solutions accounted for 97.8%. In addition, as some operators announced the commercialization of VoLTE, the models of 4G mobile phones supporting VoLTE solutions are also gradually increasing.

In terms of 4G mobile phone wireless access standards, although some of my country's operators promoted "all-network-capable" 4G mobile phones in a high-profile manner in early December 2015, the mobile phone market's enthusiasm for response was not high, and the number of newly launched "all-network-capable" 4G mobile phone models did not show rapid growth. In December, the proportion of newly launched 4G mobile phones in my country accounted for only 26%, which was not much different from the previous period.

The core chip is multi-core and high-frequency, and the process upgrade will take some time

In terms of mobile phone chips, the core processor chip is an important module that affects the processing power of mobile phones. Therefore, the various indicators of the core processor chip have naturally become the main focus of mobile phone chip manufacturers and mobile phone manufacturers in their research and development strength competition, and are also the focus of their product promotion. 4G mobile phones are the mainstream of my country's mobile phone market, and the development of their core processor chip technology can largely reflect the current status of my country's mobile phone chip technology development.

The number of cores is one of the most important indicators of core processor chips. Since the core processors of mobile phones entered the "dual-core era" in 2010, the trend of multi-core development of core processor chips has continued to this day. From 2 cores, 4 cores, 6 cores to 8 cores, chasing more has become a fashion for mobile core processor chips. In 2015, the core processor chips of 4G mobile phones newly launched in my country had the largest number of cores of 8 cores, accounting for 32.3% of the models. Although the proportion of 8-core architecture chips has increased, the core processor chips of 4G mobile phones in my country are still dominated by 4-core architecture. In 2015, the models of 4G mobile phones newly launched in my country still accounted for 64.9%, while 2-core and 6-core processor architectures are rarely used.

The main frequency refers to the working clock frequency of the core processing chip core, which directly affects the processing speed of the chip core. With the gradual improvement of data processing requirements and chip technology, the main frequency of the core processing chip of my country's 4G mobile phones has increased rapidly. Among the newly launched 4G mobile phones in my country in 2015, the highest main frequency of the core processor has reached 2.7GHz, which is basically comparable to PC processors. However, chips with a main frequency higher than 2.0GHz are still a niche in the market, accounting for only 11.2% of the models, mainly used in some flagship models. The main frequency of the core processors of my country's 4G mobile phones is mainly concentrated in 1.5GHz~2.0GHz, accounting for 66.43% of the models.

The increase in the core processor frequency depends largely on the semiconductor manufacturing process used by the chip. At present, the core processor chips of mobile phones are almost all based on CMOS technology for the convenience of large-scale production, and different feature sizes are used according to the market positioning and demand of the chip. Among the 4G mobile phones launched in my country in 2015, the feature size of the core processor chip is still mainly 28nm, accounting for 94.1% of the models. Of course, some manufacturers have begun to try the 14nm process, but there are still very few, accounting for only 0.8% of the models, and it has not yet formed a scale. It will take some time for the core chips of mobile phones to transition from 28nm to 14nm.

Android still has market advantages, and the major version cycle is getting shorter

Compared with the overall mobile phone market, my country's smartphone market has grown more rapidly. In 2015, my country's smartphone shipments reached 457 million units, up 17.7% from 2014, 3 percentage points higher than the 14.6% growth rate of the overall mobile phone market.

As an important component of smartphones, smart operating systems have always attracted much attention from the industry. At present, the mainstream smart operating systems for smartphones in my country mainly include Android, iOS, YunOS and Windows. Among them, Android is the most widely used smart operating system for smartphones in my country. In 2015, a total of 1,077 Android smartphones were launched in my country, accounting for 92.2% of the smartphone models launched; the shipment volume of Android smartphones was 388 million units, accounting for 84.9% of the total shipment volume of smartphones.

In terms of Android operating system versions, Android 5 was the mainstream version of Android smartphones in my country in 2015. The monthly model share of Android 5 among newly launched Android smartphones increased from 12.3% at the beginning of the year to 85.54%, and the annual model share was 62.13%. It took only 14 months from the release of Android 5 by Google in October 2014 to its monthly model share reaching 85.54%. The overall time interval between the release of Android versions and their popularization is further shortened. With the official release of Android 6 by Google in September 2015, Android 6 smartphones have begun to be launched one after another. It is believed that with the introduction of various new hardware and the diversified development of mobile Internet applications, the version life cycle of Android smartphones will gradually shorten, and the replacement frequency will further accelerate.

Positioning capability becomes standard, 4G development promotes Beidou application promotion

As my country's urbanization process and the frequency of people's migration continue to accelerate, people's demand for positioning functions in life is becoming stronger and stronger. Positioning applications such as mobile maps, mobile navigation and nearby discovery are constantly entering people's daily lives. As the basic carrier of these applications, mobile phone positioning capabilities have gradually become a standard feature of mobile phones. In 2015, 76.0% of mobile phones launched in my country had positioning functions, and the proportion of 4G mobile phones with positioning functions was even higher, reaching 95.7%.

At the same time, my country's Beidou positioning technology with independent intellectual property rights has gradually grown in the field of positioning, relying on the Chinese mobile phone market, especially the 4G mobile phone market. Among the 4G mobile phones launched in my country in 2015, the proportion of mobile phones supporting Beidou positioning technology has exceeded 25%, an increase of 6 percentage points compared with 2014. It is believed that as the number of Beidou navigation system satellites continues to increase, Beidou positioning will be more widely used in mobile phones, and more mobile phones will support Beidou positioning technology.

The trend towards larger screens and higher resolutions remains unchanged, and the screen-to-body ratio is gaining attention

The screen is an important interface for mobile phones to interact with users, and its configuration and characteristics directly affect the user experience. Large screens and high definition are the general trends in the development of mobile phone screens in recent years. In 2015, the general trend of large screens and high definition in my country's mobile phone market has not changed.

Size is the first obvious characteristic of the screen, which directly determines the first impression of users. The development of large-screen mobile phones has an important impact on users' usage methods and habits. In 2015, large-screen mobile phones (screen size greater than or equal to 5 inches) accounted for 66.7% of the mobile phones used in my country, of which 4G mobile phones accounted for as high as 87.0%. 5 inches has basically become the basic configuration of 4G mobile phones, and the trend of large screens is very obvious.

At the same time, screen resolution is also an important indicator of mobile phones. High definition directly helps improve the user's visual experience. Among the mobile phones launched in my country in 2015, high-definition mobile phones (resolution equal to or higher than HD720) accounted for 58.2%, of which 4G high-definition mobile phones accounted for as high as 75.9%. With the significant increase in data transmission rate brought by 4G technology, the promotion of various high-definition video services will further promote the high-definition development of my country's mobile phone market.

In addition to the characteristics of large screens and high definition, the trend of high screen-to-body ratio in my country's mobile phone market in 2015 was also very obvious. Some mobile phone manufacturers began to use borderless design as a gimmick for publicity. Among the mobile phones launched in my country in 2015, the proportion of models with screen-to-body ratio higher than 65% was 63.9%, and the proportion of models with screen-to-body ratio higher than 75% was 5%. Among them, the proportion of models with screen-to-body ratio higher than 65% of 4G mobile phones was 84.2%, and the proportion of models with screen-to-body ratio higher than 75% was 6.7%. Although the high screen-to-body ratio is not very helpful for the use of mobile phones except affecting the visual appearance, and sometimes even causes accidental touches of the mobile phone, it will still be a publicity highlight for mobile phone manufacturers to show their R&D and technical strength for a period of time.

4G mobile phone camera configuration is high-end, while 3G mobile phone configuration is gradually declining

As an important entry point for mobile phone multimedia input, the camera's configuration and parameter indicators have also attracted much attention from mobile phone manufacturers and users. The camera configuration and parameter indicators can directly reflect the application scenarios and multimedia capabilities of mobile phones. As the mainstream model in my country's mobile phone market, 4G mobile phones are the main carrier for users to use mobile Internet multimedia services. Their front and rear camera configuration rates and parameter indicators are generally higher than those of 2G and 3G mobile phones. Among the 4G mobile phones launched in my country in 2015, the proportion of models with rear cameras was 99.73%, and the proportion of models with front cameras was 96.2%; while the proportion of models with rear cameras of 2G mobile phones in the same period was 81.4%, and the proportion of models with front cameras was only 3.3%. At the same time, as the mainstream position of 3G mobile phones was replaced by 4G mobile phones, their camera configurations have gradually declined. In the same period, the proportion of 3G mobile phones with front cameras was only 65.1%, which was 30 percentage points lower than that of 4G mobile phones.

In terms of camera pixels, the high-pixel trend of front and rear cameras of 4G mobile phones is very obvious. Among the 4G mobile phones launched in my country in 2015, the models with rear camera pixels greater than or equal to 5 million accounted for 93.5%, and the models with front camera pixels greater than or equal to 5 million accounted for as high as 54.4%. The high-pixel front and rear cameras of 4G mobile phones, combined with large-screen and high-definition display screens, will bring users a higher-quality multimedia service experience.

2015 was a year in which my country's commercial mobile phone market resumed growth, and the development of 4G mobile phones exceeded expectations.

In the coming year, the penetration rate of 4G mobile phones in my country will continue to increase, and the growth rate is expected to slow down. The industry and cost advantages of "all-network" mobile phones have not yet emerged, and the possibility of rapid growth is small. The core chips of 4G mobile phones will gradually move towards 14nm technology, and the number of cores will remain at 4-core and 8-core levels in the short term. Smartphone operating systems will be relatively stable for a certain period of time, and the market share of Android operating systems will decline, but it will still be the mainstream of the market. The trend of large-screen and high-definition mobile phone displays and high-pixel cameras remains unchanged, but the demand for continued increase in display size is insufficient. With the vigorous promotion of my country, Beidou positioning technology will be further popularized in the mobile phone market.

Source: People's Post and Telecommunications