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Original title: Apple’s routine is deep
Author: Liu Baicheng
Source: Chinese Business Strategy
On October 4, 2022, the European Parliament overwhelmingly passed a bill that, starting from the end of 2024, requires all new portable smart devices such as mobile phones and tablet computers to use USB Type-C charging interfaces.
Everyone is equal before the bill, but among the smart device manufacturers that do not use this interface, the biggest one is Apple.
In September 2021, a proposal for the generalization of Type-C was proposed. This proposal touched the interests of Apple, and a war of words broke out instantly.
Apple’s first reason to move out is environmental protection. The company claims that about 1 billion Apple products in the world are equipped with Lightning interfaces. Once Type-C is forced to be used, it may cause huge waste and pollution.
The European Commission’s response is well-founded, “This is an attempt to reduce e-waste and facilitate consumers.” Because this move will reduce 11,000 tons of e-waste every year and save consumers in Europe 250 million per year. Euro (about 1.75 billion RMB).
Apple’s second reason is free market economic theory. The government’s mandatory orders will destroy the diverse charging interfaces, disrupt the market, and hinder innovation.
The European Commission did not respond to such a theoretical high ground. But at a meeting of the European Parliament on June 7, Maltese MP Alex Saliba suddenly raised his right hand, a white Type-C charging cable in his hand was particularly conspicuous, he then said: “Today, we Use this instead of a bunch of chargers.”
A simple slogan will completely pull consumers who are troubled by complicated charging cables to the same front as the EU. Even a poll on Weibo shows that 90% of Chinese netizens support the EU. Apple’s interface “defense war” is over.
But in this “interface battle”, the EU has been at a disadvantage for the first 90% of the game.
In 2007, the Micro-USB interface (the so-called Android interface) was born. The European Telecommunications Commission has successively found Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, Apple and other well-known mobile phone manufacturers to negotiate.
In 2009, all major mobile phone manufacturers reached an agreement with the EU, and agreed to use the standardized Micro-USB interface uniformly throughout the EU in 2010. At that time, various mobile phone chargers began to be unified.
However, the Micro-USB interface, which is designed to be wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, has many defects, and even a vulgar metaphor such as “the butt of the mobile phone is loosely inserted” appeared. Therefore, although a large number of Android phones use the Micro-USB interface, consumers are not satisfied with this interface. There are a lot of complaints about the interface.
In 2012, the iPhone 5 was released, and at the same time, the Lightning interface used by Apple mobile phones was unified. This interface design, which can be blindly inserted regardless of pros and cons, instantly detonated the market.
At that time, the EU’s Micro-USB interface unified agreement was more like a gentleman’s agreement. Even if Apple deliberately fails to comply, the EU cannot punish Apple. What’s more, Lightning crushes the Micro-USB interface in design, which has obvious advantages in durability and transmission speed. With the support of consumers, Apple has won the market and won the hearts and minds.
However, it may be that Apple itself felt that this approach was too offensive to the EU, so when it sold the iPhone 5, it included a Micro-USB to Lightning adapter, which was considered to maintain a superficial harmony with the EU.
▲The Micro-USB converter is priced at RMB 145In 2014, Type-C came out, and the turning point came.
Compared with the Lightning interface, Type-C can also be blindly inserted regardless of whether it is positive or negative, and it can also provide faster charging speed and transmission speed. In addition, the devices in the interface recognize each other chip, so that the same Type-C interface can both The output can also be input – more powerful than the Lightning connector.
▲Lightning and Type-C comparison
With Type-C in hand, the EU finally got a powerful weapon. Major mobile phone manufacturers other than Apple also quickly followed suit. They replaced the Type-C interface one after another, and based on this, the charging speed of the mobile phone was increased, which completely changed Apple’s The charging speed of the phone is far behind.
The rapid increase in charging speed of Android has naturally led to Apple users’ dissatisfaction with Apple, and Apple has gradually lost consumers’ interest in the interface.
In view of the powerful advantages of the Type-C interface, attitudes around the world towards the unified charging interface have suddenly become positive.
In China, NetEase CEO Ding Lei submitted a proposal for a “unified charging interface” at the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference in 2022, and received a positive response from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. At the same time, a number of companies including Huawei, Xiaomi, OPPO, and vivo have also established the “Guangdong Fast Charging Industry Association”.
In June 2022, the U.S. Senate and Comrade Ding Lei thought of it together, and made the same appeal to the U.S. Department of Commerce, and proposed a “comprehensive strategy” to formulate a unified interface.
Even Apple itself had to admit the advantages of Type-C. At the iPad Air4 conference in 2020, Type-C was directly used as one of the selling points. “We have brought a much-anticipated feature to the iPad Air.” USB Type-C’, which can increase data transfer speeds to 5 gigabits per second, ten times faster than the previous-generation Air.”
However, even so, Apple’s mobile phone still insists on opposing the unified interface. Although environmental protection is one of their reasons, I am afraid that the licensing revenue of as high as tens of billions is what they really can’t let go.
Today’s charging interface has two systems.
One is Apple’s MFi system. If those manufacturers who want to accompany Apple’s mobile phones want to produce Lightning interfaces, they need to purchase chips from Avnet, Apple’s designated distributor. According to various sources, the purchase price of each chip is about 2 to 4 US dollars (about 15 to 28 yuan). Considering that the price of Xiaomi’s Type-C charging cable is only 19.9 yuan, the cost of the chip alone has exceeded the data. the line itself.
The other is USB-IF, the USB standardization organization in the United States. If a manufacturer wants to produce a Type-C interface, it only needs to pay an annual membership fee of $4,000 to USB-IF.
Obviously, compared to the Lightning interface, the cost of producing Type-C is like a drop in the bucket, and behind the high cost is the profit-seeking Apple company.
According to relevant data, Apple’s annual profit through MFi authorization may exceed 10 billion yuan.
At the same time, in order to maintain the tens of billions of dollars in profits, Apple has also added an identification program to the authorized chips. Once a manufacturer bypasses the MFi system to produce a cheap Lightning cable and sell it to consumers, the Apple phone will stop charging and display ” The accessories do not fit”, consumers can only try multiple times, and whether it can be charged is completely dependent on their lives.
This move has forced a large number of third-party manufacturers to cooperate with Apple. Relevant data shows that in 2013, there were only more than 60 MFi certified manufacturers. By 2016, there were more than 900 manufacturers, of which 700 were from China.
This is just the profit from Apple’s MFi licensing. If you add accessories to the sale, the profit will only be higher. However, Apple has never announced the relevant revenue, coupled with the numerous third-party manufacturers, it is difficult to accurately estimate what kind of revenue Apple has obtained, but from the perspective of the overall market size, the benefits brought by the Lightning interface Not to be underestimated.
For a long time, Apple’s best-selling products were all kinds of interface converters.
According to a statistic from August 2018, 6 of the top 10 selling products are converters, 5 of which are Lightning-related. The gross profit of these accessories was as high as 90%, far exceeding Apple’s average product profit of 40%, and more than the company’s net profit margin of around 26%.
There used to be a rule in the electronics industry that if you drink some soup with an apple, you can finally save up a lot of fat.
In 2020, Apple replaced the USB-Lightning cable with a Type-C-Lightning cable for the first time. Domestic Anker Innovation (SZ.300866) seized the opportunity and became the first manufacturer in the world to obtain the MFi certification of this data cable. Sold on Apple’s official website.
With its low price and good relationship with Apple, Anker Innovation’s iPhone data cable and charging head sales in North America are second only to Apple, and the company’s market value has soared to a peak of 60 billion yuan.
According to Anker Innovations financial report, in 2021, the company will achieve a total revenue of 6.341 billion yuan in North America, and its charging business will contribute 44% of the revenue, most of which are related products authorized by Apple Mfi. Only relying on the business of Apple-related products, Encore Innovation has obtained about 2 billion yuan in revenue.
This is just a three-party company, and the interests behind Apple’s Lightning interface are evident.
In the face of such huge interests, it is difficult to say how many of Apple’s environmental reasons for opposing the “unified interface” are excuses and how many are true.
On September 8, 2016, in the video title of the iPhone 7 launch event, the famous host James Corden drove a car and said to Apple CEO Tim Cook, who was sitting next to him: “You are changing Apple every day. “
James Corden’s words are quite pertinent. Apple under the leadership of Tim Cook has led the development of the mobile phone industry, and every innovation can win praise from consumers.
But James Corden probably still could not have imagined that on that day, a small change in Apple brought a new revenue industry to the entire mobile phone industry.
At the press conference, the speaker suddenly announced that the design of the iPhone 7 canceled the headphone jack, and at the same time gave the following reasons.
“It’s been around for far too long, and everyone knows the technology was invented a hundred years ago.” “The boldness to push the technology, to make changes.” “Save phone space, make phones thinner.”
Most people ridiculed after watching the press conference – if users use old wired headphones, they need to add adapters; if they use Lightning interface headphones, they will not be able to use the headphones while charging. Everyone thinks that canceling the headphone jack is absolutely unwise. choose.
Obviously, the major mobile phone manufacturers at that time were also confused. As early as 2014, OPPO tried to cancel the headphone jack, but the feedback was not very good, so the major mobile phone manufacturers did not keep up with Apple’s cancellation of the headphone jack. pace of.
Consumers and mobile phone manufacturers Android mobile phone manufacturers failed to realize the mystery as soon as possible. The iPhone 7 press conference followed the “cancellation of the headphone jack”, which was a sentence that was very difficult to see – “Welcome to Apple’s new products, AirPods”.
In 2018, when Xiaomi, Huawei, etc. canceled the headphone jack, Apple’s AirPods have been on a par, driving the development of the entire wireless headphone industry. From 2018 to 2020, the sales of Apple’s wireless headphones were about 35 million units. , 60 million and 150 million, becoming Apple’s new profit growth point.
According to the data of the second quarter of 2022, in the global true wireless Bluetooth headset market, Apple occupies the first place with a market share of 27.8%, and Samsung and Xiaomi occupy the second and third place with only 9.3% and 9.3% respectively. 5.3% share.
And Xiaomi can gain a market share of 5.3%, but also benefit from its cheap price of several hundred yuan. You must know that the price of AirPods is more than a thousand yuan.
In October 2020, at the launch of the new iPhone 12, Apple again made a subtraction and canceled the standard charger and earphones. The reason is still the consistent “everything is for environmental protection”.
This behavior once again attracted group ridicule from consumers, but unlike consumers, Android manufacturers have understood this time, and there is another way.
Subsequently, Samsung, Xiaomi and Meizu quickly followed, but the difference is that Xiaomi has launched two versions with and without a fast charging charger, and the price is the same.
Android makers still underestimate Apple. With the cancellation of Apple’s charging head, the charging cable that came with the iPhone 12 has also been replaced, from the previous USB-Lightning cable to a Type-C-Lightning cable. Obviously, the charging head that consumers can use to plug into the USB socket will be completely replaced. Throw it in the trash can only buy Apple’s new charging head that can be plugged into Type-C.
It is this change that has created the rise of companies like Anker Innovations.
But if you only bring goods for the charging head, you may still underestimate Apple’s routine. In October 2020, it was released with the iPhone 12, and there is a wireless fast charging MagSafe priced at 329 yuan.
This 329 yuan MagSafe is actually just a castrated version. If you want to charge the iPhone and Apple Watch at the same time, you must also buy the 1049 yuan MagSafe.
This is not the end. In order to realize the function of wireless fast charging, the iPhone 12 has a charging magnet on the back, but this charging magnet has a problem – it is easy to demagnetize some cards.
Later, the vice president of iPhone 12 marketing said in an interview that to solve the problem of degaussing, you can choose the absorbent leather card case that Apple has shielded.
▲ MagSafe leather card case for iPhoneThis leather card case also costs money: 479 yuan.
These controversial “innovations”, regardless of consumer feedback, can always attract a large number of Android manufacturers to follow.
Behind this is Apple’s ability to define industry standards that has been shaped in its early years.
In 2007, when people at that time talked about mobile phones, it was still Nokia that “could smash walnuts”, and the entire mobile phone industry was rolling in on a more sturdy road.
On January 9, 2007, Apple released the original iPhone that changed the world and became the first person to eat crabs.
People tend to have the greatest respect and tolerance for the first person to eat crabs. After all, in the eyes of most people, the entire smartphone market today was born on the basis of the original iPhone.
The iPhone 4s released on October 4, 2011 brought consumers iCould, which can synchronize data wirelessly, Siri, an artificial intelligence voice assistant, and an 8-megapixel camera that led to a sharp drop in digital camera sales.
These innovations once again allowed Apple to get the evaluation of “changing the world”, and the iPhone4s was also hailed as a “classic”.
For every innovation, Apple will always encounter a lot of complaints and criticism, but Apple’s attitude is very Buddhist – he is strong, the wind blows the hills, and consumers will ultimately vote with money anyway.
Consumers who have spent money, thus slowly developing a Stockholm Syndrome-like consensus that Apple must be right.
Even the major mobile phone manufacturers have reached the same consensus. After the headphone jack, charger, and Qi Liuhai of the iPhone have been criticized a lot, the designers of Android manufacturers have chosen to “use it”.
Now it seems that after the incident of canceling the charger, consumers’ tolerance for Apple seems to be decreasing, and there is even a remark such as “the most PUA consumer mobile phone”.
On September 8, 2022, the iPhone 14 will be released. That night, the iPhone 14 swept the top search lists, but in addition to the praises of the fruit fans for “Smart Island”, there were many voices of doubt. For example, Luo Yonghao, a former practitioner in the mobile phone industry, posted a circle of friends, thinking that Apple’s There is a huge gap between hardware design and the Android camp.
After the experience of the first batch of iPhone 14 users, it is generally believed that the interactive experience between most third-party software and Smart Island is poor, and there are more software that are not adapted to Smart Island at all.
The evaluation of “Smart Island” has begun to slowly reverse. Zhihu searched for “iPhone 14 Smart Island”. The first few questions and answers were all complaints about Smart Island. One of the questions even asked “Can Smart Island be closed?”
The daughter of former Apple CEO Steve Jobs is even more blunt; “The iPhone 14 has no new ideas, it’s just that the iPhone 13 has been replaced with a vest.”
In the reversal of the evaluation of Smart Island, consumers’ dissatisfaction with Apple gradually showed, and the issue of charging speed was also mentioned.
Apple’s performance on various things has begun to reduce consumers’ tolerance for them.
Looking back at the current “interface battle” between the EU and Apple, although the EU’s attitude has been very tough, Apple has few choices. But don’t be too surprised if you see an iPhone without a charging port someday in the future.
After all, according to Apple’s consistent thinking – if someone thinks that there is a problem with the interface, then simply canceling it is also not a violation of the new EU regulations.
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