Development history of Chinese OEM headphone factory

The balance of fate will  tilt, but only for those who have the ability.

Domestic earphone trilogy.

 

The shangbu industrial zone Shenzhen, under construction in 1983, is a dusty construction site.This piece of virgin land is being cultivated, is the embryonic form of huaqiang north.

 

It is here that the curtain of home-made headphones is slowly drawn.

 

The reform and opening up to the "small fishing village" shenzhen sent the spring breeze, but also let the electronics manufacturing industry smell the budding breath, all kinds of electronic processing plants settled here, its main generation of processed products have earphones.

 

But on behalf of the processing process heavy, less profit.Therefore, many domestic manufacturers who are not willing to only do OEM products began to seek for the reform of their own brands and set off the first wave of innovation upsurge of domestic earphones.

 

The first self-built brands should be the mid - and high-end products led by dn-s01.Founded in 1990, dayinke is one of the largest OEM ODM earphone manufacturers in the world.

The BD005 was the runner-up in sales in Japan in 2017, but it is less well-known in China and has few sales.

 

As it turns out, not all headsets are so lucky, and while dayanke has been growing steadily, most of its brands have been losing ground.

 

The ECCI is nowhere to be seen;The DUNU has always been tepid;Astui, yuyin also like a flash in the pan...Others rely on copying and reinventing other brands to survive.

 

Due to the lack of core supply chain, research and development strength is difficult to achieve, most manufacturers are stopped because of the new generation, gradually fade out of people's view, nothing.

 

In this way, the first way of processing to build their own brand is firmly blocked.

 

It wasn't until 2010 that jobs redefined the mobile phone for the fourth year.

 

In a year when the iPhone 4's blockbuster release upended many of the traditional Settings of older phones and established itself as a smartphone pioneer, it was notable at the event that the phone was also being sold alongside the iPhone 4's accompanying headphones.

 

It is also because of it, domestic headphone market once again regain a ray of light.

 

At that time, domestic mobile phone manufacturers were still in the stage of imitation, but they still joined the headphone market without hesitation. Xiaomi, meizu and huawei launched headphone matching with their own phones.

 

At that time, a large number of domestic earphones appeared in the domestic market.

 

The piston earphone made by xiaomi and 1MORE also created a new mode of domestic earphone in a sense. Assisted by the xiaomi ecological chain led by liu DE, the piston earphone made a sales record of 40 million in 4 years.

In the time of frequent success of millet earphone, domestic earphone still has a force suddenly rise - FIIL

FIIL is a brand founded by famous musician wang feng in 2015, and its CEO is peng jinzhou, former vice President of huawei glory.Peng jinzhou, who witnessed the transformation of glorious mobile phone in three years, did not choose to enjoy the fruits of success at ease. He resigned at the age of 45 and joined FIIL to become the CEO of the startup company.

 

The combination of star power and the title of doer made FIIL famous.

 

FIIL positioning in the high-end headphones, the target audience for purchasing power and the pursuit of high-quality enthusiasts, but with the corresponding development expenditure is tens of millions of yuan a year, for the domestic market, the headset is not enough to make people pay for premium cost, although headphone enthusiasts a lot, but in the face of thousands of yuan headphones, most fans also can deter, total sales of more than 100000 units to date.

 

A review of the early development history of domestic headphones can be summarized into three development stages: OEM to self-built brand, expansion of traditional hardware manufacturers, music industry big V crossover.

 

After all, individuals want to get a glimpse of a corner of good opportunities in the past era, but it is not the end of everyone, groping forward, the collision between individuals and The Times.

 

two

Home - made headphones where to lose?

 

China has the largest number of consumer population, but the earphone market has been occupied by foreign brands for a long time, and the middle and high end of the earphone market is basically guarded by German, American and Japanese brands, such as AKG, sennheisel, iron triangle, SONY, Beats and so on. Domestic manufacturers can only grab a share in the middle and low end of the market.

 

The reason, technology and price is its essence problem.

 

1. Technical barriers are difficult to break through

 

The domestic headphone core technology is still slightly behind the foreign brands. The reputation of "world factory" has not brought high profits after all, which to some extent restricts the expansion and development of domestic brands.

 

Foreign earphone brands started early with high professional degree, leaving a lasting brand imprint in the minds of users.Sennheisel, iron triangle, AKG, KOSS, baiya power, etc., have had their own flagship series of products more than a decade ago, and have been mass-produced and harvested many loyal enthusiasts.

 

2. Price wars kill brands

 

Foreign earphone brand product positioning is high, the price is a few thousand at every turn tens of thousands.Most of the domestic brands are rising in recent years, in order to occupy the user market, the product positioning travel to the low-end region, the price in hundreds to thousands of.

 

"The product of 200 yuan has the level of 80% of the product of 2000 yuan", the domestic earphone without the brand advantage often USES the cost performance ratio as its own advantage.Market share is increased, but the corresponding loss of brand tone.

 

Brand positioning caused the domestic earphone failed to be recognized by the people, and the lack of marketing is to the original low visibility of the domestic earphone to add insult to injury.

 

"We had a higher expectation, hoping to sell more than 100,000 units in half a year, because we are confident in the performance of the product itself, compared with foreign brands of the same specification of products, also have a price advantage of more than 30%.But we underestimated how difficult it would be to spread the word and didn't deliver the features effectively."Peng jinzhou has lamented the injustice of the market.

 

3. The original sin of industry

 

The niche of the earphone industry determines the narrow market, which also means that the market pattern changes little.

 

As far as the earphone industry is concerned, senhai, Bose and other internationally famous earphone manufacturers, although after years of accumulation, but compared with other hardware industry is still far behind.

 

The earphone industry has a low threshold and low gross margin, so most earphone brands do not only rely on earphone revenue, but SONY also USES diversified layout to reach its current position.

 

Objectively speaking, the domestic earphone brand with a late start and insufficient development is still very difficult to compete with foreign brands from the traditional perspective in a favorable market atmosphere.

 

three

It should be a future

 

But in the third wave of technology, home-made headphones seem to be heading in a new direction.

 

At CES in 2018, Google, AKG, Sony and other companies have launched their own smart earphones, and domestic manufacturers such as ask out, Migu and iflytek have also launched wireless smart earphones.

 

According to the report "analysis of China's smart headphone market" released by GFK market consulting (China) co., LTD., the retail volume of smart headphone will reach 500,000 in 2020, and the smart headphone is expected to grow in scale.

 

The future direction of earphones is wireless, intelligent and scene-based. Since the invention of earphones more than a hundred years ago, the main functions of earphones as playing devices have not changed much. Under the condition of prior art, earphones can be endowed with more intelligent and interactive functions and more convenient access to audio.

 

With the continuous extension of artificial intelligence, cloud computing and big data technology, hardware intelligence has become an irreversible trend of digital products.Apple watch has set off a wave of smart wearable devices. Although it experienced a brief lull last year, this year's smart wearable device market may be reignited.

 

After smart speakers and smartwatches, smart headphones are seen as the next hot spot for smart wearable devices.

 

The 3.5mm headset jack design has been removed, symbolizing the advent of wireless headphones.With the development of bluetooth technology upgrading, diversified chip solutions, mobile phone structure changes, system support and other technologies, the TWS (True Wireless Stereo) headset ecosystem is becoming more mature and the application scenarios of headphones are becoming more diversified.

 

Bluetooth + noise reduction + communication + intelligence will be the development direction of domestic earphones in the future. In the headphone fragmentation war in the new era, if domestic earphones can grasp the technical pain point, first launch smart new products, or will realize overtaking on the curve.

 

Now, that seems like the best time.

 

 

An era, a farewell song.

 

Countless collision, countless groping, countless innovation, together constitute the domestic earphone agitate ileum for 20 years.

 

It is precisely because of these people who adorn The Times that home-made headphones will continue to burst out of new possibilities.

 

The past, the present, the future.Look forward to the next twenty years