Digital Theory: One small step for OnePlus, one big step for Oujia

OnePlus 8T has been officially released, and compared with the previous OnePlus 8, it is particularly special.

First of all, in terms of price, the price of OnePlus 8T is a surprise compared with OnePlus 8. The former is priced at 3,399 yuan for 8+128GB and 3,699 yuan for 12+256GB. The latter is priced at 3,999 yuan for 8+128GB and 4,599 yuan for 12GB+256GB. A comparison of the prices of the two is surprising, and people exclaim that OnePlus 8T is "really good."

Next is the configuration. Compared with OnePlus 8, OnePlus 8T has upgraded fast charging, battery capacity, camera, screen refresh rate, and mobile phone operating system version. The price has not increased but decreased, and it is very cost-effective.

Finally, regarding the definition of the product, OnePlus product manager @酸数码 believes that compared with the previous OnePlus T series products, they are an upgrade and replacement of the digital series in the first half of the year. Starting from OnePlus 8T, this definition has changed. The OnePlus T series has become a product of performance and power, while the digital series still retains the distinctness of sensory perception and color, and will be in line with Pro.

As for why there is no OnePlus 8T Pro, OnePlus CEO Liu Zuohu said that users who like Pro-level products can continue to choose the OnePlus 8 Pro, the annual flagship. OnePlus's plan for it is defined in the direction of no room for upgrade.

Whether it is the price, configuration or product definition of OnePlus 8T, we can see from OnePlus that it has adjusted its brand positioning. At the OnePlus 8T launch conference, Liu Zuohu's speech released a signal that OnePlus is changing, from the past "small and beautiful" to the future "big and strong".

Liu Zuohu said that in the past seven years, OnePlus has proved its ability to make high-quality products to the outside world. In the future, OnePlus will focus on making product lines, channels, and surrounding ecosystems bigger on the basis of making high-quality products.

The adjustment of OnePlus’ brand is not surprising to me. We have mentioned in the two articles “Digital Theory: From “Only Flagship” to “Only Boutique”, OnePlus cannot resist market changes” and “Digital Theory: The advantage is gone, OnePlus may face a crisis in 2020” that with the increasingly fierce competition in the smartphone market, OnePlus’ original “small and beautiful” “Buddhist” strategy can no longer be maintained, which forced OnePlus to change.

In addition, the competition among mobile phone manufacturers has also escalated. The era when OnePlus relied on smartphones alone to conquer the world is gone forever. Some industry insiders said that the competition among smartphone manufacturers has evolved from a single category of mobile phones to a competition of mobile phones + true wireless TWS headphones + watches, etc. Apple, Samsung, and Huawei have already made their layouts and just need to continue iterating and upgrading. Xiaomi, OPPO, vivo, etc. are desperately making watches and headphones. Now it is not just a matter of losing performance if headphones and watches are not done well, but it will directly affect the sales of mobile phones.

Of course, in addition to external factors, the adjustment of the OnePlus brand is also due to OnePlus’ own reasons.

In 2020, Liu Zuohu, who was the CEO of OnePlus at the time, took on a new position - Chief Product Experience Officer of Ouga. Ouga (full name Guangdong Ouga Holdings Co., Ltd.) holds 100% of OPPO, and also holds shares in OnePlus and realme. In other words, Liu Zuohu's position allows him to coordinate the relevant operations of OPPO, realme and OnePlus.

Ouga currently has two major tasks: grabbing the smartphone market share and building an Internet of Everything ecosystem

The so-called grabbing of smartphone market share is mainly due to Huawei being sanctioned by the United States and facing the embarrassing situation of having no chips available. The mobile phone business is inevitably affected, which gives Ouga a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Ouga also took quick action, placing additional orders for OPPO smartphones, raising the annual sales forecast of mobile phones to 100 million units, adjusting the realme mobile phone product line, and frantically launching new phones. Mobile phones such as the V5/X7 series/Q2 series quickly entered the market.

As a member of Ouga, OnePlus must of course keep up with the pace of OPPO and Realme. Although it did not introduce the Nord series product line into the country, it has made OnePlus's T series products more competitive, posing a huge threat to competitors such as Redmi and iQOO. It is expected that Ouga's market share will increase significantly.

Image source: Zhihu

Ouga is also actively developing the Internet of Everything ecosystem

When OPPO founder Chen Mingyong was interviewed by Qualcomm earlier, he said that there will no longer be pure mobile phone companies in the future, and OPPO is also actively developing multiple smart terminals and Internet services. Since then, OPPO has launched IoT products such as CPE, smart watches, and smart bracelets. On October 19, OPPO will launch smart TVs.

After the realme X7 series launch conference, realme Vice President and Global Marketing President Xu Qi said in an interview with the media that this year realme will complete the layout of the four major traffic entrances of speakers, TVs, headphones, and watches. This year, more than 50 AIoT trendy products will be launched globally, and more than 100 AIoT products are expected to be launched next year.

OnePlus can be said to be the slowest among the three brands of Europe and OnePlus. Including foreign products, OnePlus's ecological products are only OnePlus TV and OnePlus headphones. OnePlus has not yet entered the field of products such as bracelets. At the OnePlus 8T launch conference, Liu Zuohu finally raised the banner of ecology, which means that OnePlus will also launch a "family bucket" of products.

OnePlus, which has been slow to move forward, finally adjusted its brand positioning and began to hold high the banner of ecology. This is a small step for OnePlus, but a big step for Ouga, because OnePlus finally acted in unison with Ouga.