Xiaomi has once again pulled out its trump card by launching the "high-specification," "ultra-low price" Redmi phone, which quickly became a hot topic. The company's move naturally draws attention to another much-watched domestic smartphone manufacturer—Meizu...
Huang Zhang "timely" appeared on the Meizu community forum and posted a thread titled "To Students Who Like Discussing Sister Feng, Sister Furong, Redmi, and Xiaomi on the Forum":
"Perhaps being more shameless garners more attention; perhaps having no bottom line makes one stand out more. Success often requires any means necessary. But this is not my pursuit. If you like strong flavors, please note that this is the Meizu forum. Please do not buzz around here like flies, because I want to swat you."
This post quickly ignited the Meizu community. Huang Zhang's tone remains as sharp as ever. From his grouping of "Redmi Xiaomi" with "Sister Feng and Sister Furong," as well as phrases such as "more shameless," "no bottom line," and "any means necessary," it can be seen that the appearance of the Redmi phone has thoroughly enraged the leader of Meizu.
Essentially, both Xiaomi and Meizu are commercial companies. Profit-seeking is their nature, but their methods differ. Readers can judge for themselves the personal or corporate values involved.
The greatest impact of the Redmi phone's launch on Meizu lies in brand compression.
Xiaomi and Meizu are two relatively special domestic smartphone manufacturers that are often compared. The reasons for this are twofold: first, their main smartphone products have similar positioning and target users; second, both have amassed a large number of loyal fans, evident from the sporadic fan wars over the years.
At a price of 799 yuan, the Redmi phone targets the low-end market, primarily focusing on third- and fourth-tier cities, or even regions with less developed economies. Almost all competitors at this level are counterfeit phones, and only a few low-specification models from well-known domestic brands like Huawei and Lenovo can compete. These products likely cannot match the Redmi phone.
With the brand influence Xiaomi has accumulated so far, combined with the "high-specifications" and "ultra-low price" of the Redmi phone, it could potentially capture a vast number of users with lower purchasing power.
If the Redmi phone sells as well as expected in the market, then Xiaomi's brand influence will further penetrate third- and fourth-tier cities, reaching an even broader user base, while also enhancing the brand influence of Xiaomi's flagship phone. As one rises, the other falls, and Meizu, whose main product targets a similar user base, may see its brand influence weakened.
Essentially, Xiaomi is an internet company, with its ultimate profit focus lying in internet services, using hardware to drive its internet business. Therefore, the company has the condition to sacrifice hardware profits to accumulate more users. In contrast, Meizu is fundamentally a hardware company, where its mobile phone business is its primary source of profit. Simply competing on phone prices, Meizu probably does not have a significant advantage.
Meizu, which is not particularly enthusiastic about internet marketing, has always focused on refining its products, hoping to win over consumers with excellent products, which is precisely the core competitiveness of this company.
So, how will consumers make their choice?