Chinese Economics Thread

Tam

Brigadier
Registered Member
Just as a bit of a segue on this topic, I am rather impressed at how Huawei has managed to reinvent itself in the consumer electronics/smartphone space in the last five or six years.

Back then they were only offering relatively cheap, average quality phones. Average software, uninspiring camera, serviceable design at best.

But since the P8/9 they've really begun to attack the more premium segment and the P10/Mate 10 of last year and the P20/Mate 20 families of this year really do elevate them into the few smartphone companies making high end, premium smart phones with all the bells and whistles and unique designs -- that still manage to sell units.


I think some of Huawei's midrange units still make up a good portion of its overall sales, and that segment simply can't really be ignored for any serious smartphone company apart from possibly Apple or Google's confusing Pixel line. But at this point in time it goes without saying that Huawei is now one of the serious smartphone players with a credible premium punch and some unique features to put it in the same category as S/Note family, Pixel, and iPhones.
This isn't even considering other Chinese smartphone makers that have garnered popularity like Xiaomi/Poco, BBK's groups (Oneplus, Oppo, Vivo), and even ZTE, who have all come out with some more interesting and better phones than the likes of Motorola, LG, Sony, HTC, Asus, Blackberry over the last year or so. The latter just aren't the big players that they once were -- even ignoring that Motorola is a Lenovo subsidiary and Blackberry's phones are made by TCL.


The idea that Chinese smartphone or consumer electronics brands are merely no-name products meant to pad out the low end is something that's like five or six years out of date.


When Huawei did the Nexus 6P for Google ---- one of the best Nexus, if not the best Nexus ever made --- I think that was Huawei's coming out as a smartphone brand. Then Google nixed the Nexus program for the Pixel phones. While the Nexus program allowed the manufacturer to put their own brand name on it, Pixel didn't and Huawei backed out of that. Huawei was willing to do the next Nexus after the 6P. I am very impressed with my own usage of the 6P.

The P9 was another transitional device for Huawei, also establishing the Leica partnership. I still have a P9, which I consider to be among the very best phones ever made just from the build standpoint alone. The Kirin processor was speedy and sips very little juice on standby. The OLED screen though, was mediocre and felt like a last gen Samsung hand down, and I wanted a more proper Google UI experience than the EMO UI. Since then I went to using Pixel phones.

Since then I went to Huawei for tablets, as the high end Android tablet market evaporated leaving only Huawei and Samsung. Samsung still has better screens but feels over saturated; Huawei has a better price point and their batteries don't deteriorate as badly as Samsung's.

Huawei's midrange --- their Honor (Europe branding) and Nova series (Asia branding) --- are all remarkable nowadays --- that you likely do not need any high end phone. This is the effect of the Chinese smartphone wars --- the middle range has escalated in features and quality --- that its a tight NASCAR race to the finish with Oppo, Vivo, Meizu, Xiaomi and ZTE phones. It took me a visit to their stores where I can examine the phones hand by hand and I was flabbergasted at the quality and what they can offer you at decent prices. You really do not need a high end phone, which are now relegated to pure luxury. I am quite convinced that the smartphone industry will be headed to a disruption thanks to the explosive effect of high quality midrange smartphones.

Samsung will weather out the disruption of the midrange surge, because of their excellent and well developed A series, along with their marketing and heavy store front presence. Asus will probably end up as Taiwan's leading smartphone brand after HTC evaporates. Sony and LG needs to find their place in the red hot competition as they are being drowned on it.

Oppo used to be known as the high end for Blue Ray players and Audio Visual. So this is unusual for a Chinese brand to immediately position itself successfully as a high end. But they have closed their AV and BR units to concentrate on their much more lucrative smartphones. In order for them to beat Xiaomi's Internet marketing tactics, they resorted to a marketing strategy that would do Nokia and Samsung proud --- by opening up many store units across Asia and China to reach people that don't have much Internet access. That strategy worked enormously well for them with Vivo following suit, and Xiaomi forced to respond by opening their own network of stores.
 

Blitzo

Lieutenant General
Staff member
Super Moderator
Registered Member
When Huawei did the Nexus 6P for Google ---- one of the best Nexus, if not the best Nexus ever made --- I think that was Huawei's coming out as a smartphone brand. Then Google nixed the Nexus program for the Pixel phones. While the Nexus program allowed the manufacturer to put their own brand name on it, Pixel didn't and Huawei backed out of that. Huawei was willing to do the next Nexus after the 6P. I am very impressed with my own usage of the 6P.

The P9 was another transitional device for Huawei, also establishing the Leica partnership. I still have a P9, which I consider to be among the very best phones ever made just from the build standpoint alone. The Kirin processor was speedy and sips very little juice on standby. The OLED screen though, was mediocre and felt like a last gen Samsung hand down, and I wanted a more proper Google UI experience than the EMO UI. Since then I went to using Pixel phones.

Since then I went to Huawei for tablets, as the high end Android tablet market evaporated leaving only Huawei and Samsung. Samsung still has better screens but feels over saturated; Huawei has a better price point and their batteries don't deteriorate as badly as Samsung's.

Huawei's midrange --- their Honor (Europe branding) and Nova series (Asia branding) --- are all remarkable nowadays --- that you likely do not need any high end phone. This is the effect of the Chinese smartphone wars --- the middle range has escalated in features and quality --- that its a tight NASCAR race to the finish with Oppo, Vivo, Meizu, Xiaomi and ZTE phones. It took me a visit to their stores where I can examine the phones hand by hand and I was flabbergasted at the quality and what they can offer you at decent prices. You really do not need a high end phone, which are now relegated to pure luxury. I am quite convinced that the smartphone industry will be headed to a disruption thanks to the explosive effect of high quality midrange smartphones.

Samsung will weather out the disruption of the midrange surge, because of their excellent and well developed A series, along with their marketing and heavy store front presence. Asus will probably end up as Taiwan's leading smartphone brand after HTC evaporates. Sony and LG needs to find their place in the red hot competition as they are being drowned on it.

Oppo used to be known as the high end for Blue Ray players and Audio Visual. So this is unusual for a Chinese brand to immediately position itself successfully as a high end. But they have closed their AV and BR units to concentrate on their much more lucrative smartphones. In order for them to beat Xiaomi's Internet marketing tactics, they resorted to a marketing strategy that would do Nokia and Samsung proud --- by opening up many store units across Asia and China to reach people that don't have much Internet access. That strategy worked enormously well for them with Vivo following suit, and Xiaomi forced to respond by opening their own network of stores.

I actually owned the Nexus 6P, and it was my first android phone. It was definitely very strong, but a few fatal flaws after a couple of years such as the battery falling off a cliff, led me to replace it. The N6P also had a bit of a bendable frame.
However other family members have had Huawei phones like the P8 which still run well, and the P20P my dad recently bought also runs fantastic and both have very good build quality, so I suspect the issues with the N6P were related to Google's design rather than Huawei's production of it.

Currently I'm using a Oneplus 5T, and like many of the other "midrange" phones (i.e.: midrange price with near flagship specs and build quality) it is quite spectacular.

I just don't see how brands like HTC, Sony, LG, Asus, and Motorola will be able to compete with the combination of flagship and "midrange" products that are offered from the likes of Huawei, BBK's Oppo/Vivo/1+, Xiaomi, ZTE, etc.
The only two existing smartphone players that will continue to be relevant are Samsung and Apple by the looks of it, and even their high end offerings will get squeezed by Chinese high end competitors. Pixel will still exist but to be honest I have no idea what google is trying to do with Pixels considering the volume they're selling is nowhere near the big players.
 

AndrewS

Brigadier
Registered Member
I actually owned the Nexus 6P, and it was my first android phone. It was definitely very strong, but a few fatal flaws after a couple of years such as the battery falling off a cliff, led me to replace it. The N6P also had a bit of a bendable frame.
However other family members have had Huawei phones like the P8 which still run well, and the P20P my dad recently bought also runs fantastic and both have very good build quality, so I suspect the issues with the N6P were related to Google's design rather than Huawei's production of it.

Currently I'm using a Oneplus 5T, and like many of the other "midrange" phones (i.e.: midrange price with near flagship specs and build quality) it is quite spectacular.

I just don't see how brands like HTC, Sony, LG, Asus, and Motorola will be able to compete with the combination of flagship and "midrange" products that are offered from the likes of Huawei, BBK's Oppo/Vivo/1+, Xiaomi, ZTE, etc.
The only two existing smartphone players that will continue to be relevant are Samsung and Apple by the looks of it, and even their high end offerings will get squeezed by Chinese high end competitors. Pixel will still exist but to be honest I have no idea what google is trying to do with Pixels considering the volume they're selling is nowhere near the big players.

Apple are located in the valuable US market, and have entrenched themselves globally as a luxury brand. Think of handbags from Gucci or Prada.

Samsung has a competitive advantage in designing and manufacturing key components of a smartphone. Which means development teams get early access to those key components.

Chinese companies have a competitive advantage in serving the world's largest and most diverse smartphone market. That builds economies of scale and a huge range of differentiated products.

They also are located at the centre of the manufacturing supply chain which has an open source hardware culture. That means rapid development timescales, access to a larger number of nearby cheaper suppliers and a faster capacity to ramp up or ramp down manufacturing.

The best Chinese companies are also designing key hi-tech components of a smartphone like Samsung.

So what competitive advantage do the other smartphone companies have, given the commodification of the industry?
 

Anlsvrthng

Captain
Registered Member
Hey, I think skipped my proof. You needed to prove that:

1. Valve has no or very weak hierarchy. You've failed; you showed a reduction in layering of hierarchy but actual concentration of power among the elite.
2. Valve's performance is TWICE that of its major competitors which you claim use more rigid hierarchy. You have not attempted this; likely because you've realized it's stupid and wrong.
3. Number 1 causes number 2 instead of coinciding with it. You can't begin number 3 until you meet both 1 and 2 so obviously, you cannot attempt this.
.....
If you can't even do 1, 2, 3, I think you should offer a heart-felt concession that your idea of the masses running themselves without leadership to increase performance is a complete figment of your imagination. Trust me, Mr. Low Brand Value, we all know; we just wanna see if you take any responsibility for your own statements.
I am sorry, but this post is not connected to anything prior, and has no internal consistency. The use of word " proof " doesn't make anything logical.

What you want to prove? That the central command economy / hierarchy is more effective than a distributed / hierarchy free one one ?
 

Anlsvrthng

Captain
Registered Member
Brand value... Lol like it said you keep on moving those goal posts. Brand value by some website is meaningless. No one in the world looks at Brand value when they go buy a car or tv. I have recently bought a Volvo, didn't bother looking at their brand value. But what I found was the BMW and Audi that I test drove just didnt feel as good as the Volvo. Ur brand value is like my feelings, if I like it I judge it highly, if not then forget it.

In this forum, you have proven ur arguments (feelings) are worth nothing, because you had not brought any value to this forum. I rank blitzo, and deino much higher simply because what they feel is more valuable. How that for ur brand value to know it is not worth anything?
I agree with you, the brand value is meaningless.

The business organisation has value, the brand is a result of it, not the reason of it.

And the business organisation is a result of the cultural/structural/legal background of a country.
 

Anlsvrthng

Captain
Registered Member
Talking about Brand Value. AndrewS's message brand value is rated 2007/1386 = 1.45 compared to Anlsvrthnk message value of 112/630 = 0.18. Let's move on and not waste any more of our time with low brand value messages.

View attachment 50169
The forum ranking simply showing that how close can get a poster to the mainstream view.

Considering that the value doesn't bring anything valuable it is worthless to seek the advancement of it . Only for the persons who want to conform with the masses : P
 

manqiangrexue

Brigadier
I am sorry, but this post is not connected to anything prior, and has no internal consistency. The use of word " proof " doesn't make anything logical.

What you want to prove? That the central command economy / hierarchy is more effective than a distributed / hierarchy free one one ?
I'm sorry, but you were very confident and invested in the idea that a structure where the masses rule themselves is superior to one where they are governed by a ruling elite. You first said this about countries, but there are obviously no civilized countries that use that model, then you tried to apply it to companies. Then, that fell apart when Valve didn't do what you thought they did. Now that your "point" has completely collapsed, you suddenly try to do the confused-old-man-walkaway as if this whole conversation makes no sense and we should all just drop it because you've got nothing left LOL

Your argument has no internal consistency; we started talking about forms of government and you moved the goalpost so many times we're discussing brand value. Your argument is illogical; you're heralding a form of "government" seen only in war-torn third-world states. To try to defend the indefensible, you've made so many false statements that Donald Trump would look at you like a deer caught in the headlights. Everyone else is just playing along to see what kind of stupid things you would say (and it was not disappointing LOL) before you submitted to a dead end, and now, it looks like we're at the dead end.

You made the claim that the self-ruled masses are more efficient and have double the performance of a society governed by an elite few. You cannot find proof or even supporting evidence. You are wrong. Nobody else has any issues, just you.
 
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pipaster

Junior Member
Registered Member
Interesting article on the percentage of Chinese senior citizens (over 60 years old) using online payment methods now standing around 5% from around 1%:
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Statistics on HIV in the PRC, cases from transmission via drug injection are down 44.5% and pregnancy transmission down 2.2% since 2012:
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Neat statistics from 1978 to 2017 during the opening up period:
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Chengdu, Fujian Province's coastal city of Xiamen, Shandong Province's coastal city of Qingdao, Hubei Province's capital city of Wuhan, and Yunnan Province's capital city of Kunming will implement a 144 hour free visa period from 72 hours now. To be implemented on New Year's Day:
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