After two days of shopping in the fake mobile phone market, I am very angry now

Recently, the Mate40 and 10 Extreme versions on Weibo suddenly became popular.

Wait, it's not the Huawei Mate40 and Xiaomi 10 Extreme Edition you thought, but the ivvi Mate40 and Xiaojiao 10 Extreme Edition (currently renamed Xiaojiao X11 Pro).

Yes, you have no dizziness. From the appearance point of view, the design language on the back of the ivvi Mate40 and Huawei Mate40, Xiaojiao X11 Pro and Xiaomi Mi 10 Extreme Edition is almost the same, quite the taste of real and fake Li Kui.

The knockoff market is resurrected?

For some readers, the last time I saw this kind of copycat machine, it may have been years ago.

Lei Jun publicly stated last year that "with the participation and promotion of Xiaomi, China's copycats have been completely wiped out."

But if you search on Pinduoduo and Taobao, you will find that Xiaomi has redefined "eliminate" . Copycats are still rampant everywhere, regardless of product name or appearance, the degree of plagiarism is not the most excessive, only more excessive.

What's interesting is that in January of this year, Xiaoyan Wang, the founder of Xiaojiao, officially announced that he had joined the Xiaomi Group, and said that "one dollar will return to the beginning, and the future will be forever." On the other hand, Xiaojiao also extended his copycat hand to Xiaomi.

After visiting Pinduoduo and Taobao, I found that Xiaojiao’s copycat phones are not only rich in models, but also surprisingly high in sales.

For example, the Pepper X50 Pro, which looks exactly like the vivo X50 series, shows that Pinduoduo has sold 40,000 pieces. Vivo has to speak directly to the insiders.

The small pepper R40 Pro, which is very similar to Reno 4 on the back, is priced at 579 yuan. Pinduoduo shows that more than 10,000 pieces have been assembled.

Another example is the small pepper Mate30 Max that resembles Huawei's Mate30 series from the appearance to the UI. The price is 467 yuan and nearly 5,000 pieces have been sold.

The best selling one is not the Pepper X11 Pro which resembles the Mi 10 Extreme Edition, but the Pepper X9 priced at 369 yuan. This phone seems to have some unique designs created by Xiaojiao, or a product formed by stitching together the features of other models. Pinduoduo shows that its total sales volume has exceeded 100,000.

Let's take a look at the ivvi M40, which is known as the "thousand-yuan system", priced at 558 yuan, with a total sales volume of 13,000 pieces. This back cover design is almost carved out of the same mold as the Huawei Mate40 series. Even the advertising slogans have to be copied. "The flagship of performance is extraordinary."

There are also more than ten models on sale in ivvi's flagship store. The best-selling ivvi X12, the name and back cover design may be to copy iPhone 12 work. The price is 524 yuan, and Pinduoduo shows that 17,000 pieces have been assembled.

Little pepper and ivvi are just the tip of the iceberg in the knockoff market. As long as you search for keywords such as "student phone" and "multi-core phone" in Pinduoduo or Taobao, you can see many familiar models, but they are VOVG, viipoo, ZTE Shoubao, Weimi, Milan, etc. Brands used.

There are also some familiar brands, such as Gionee, Dove, Coupe, etc. These brands that have dominated a party in the era of functional machines have also become OEMs for copycat machines.

The advertisement of the copycat machine is really ridiculous

In addition to the appearance and name of the copycat, after two days of shopping in the copycat market, I summarized several common features of the copycat.

• Do not mention the chip model, only emphasize the x core
• Only one rear camera can work, the others are charging
• High-definition screen is not high-definition, generally 720P
• It claims to be fast charging, but it is actually 5V1A
• The front face is basically a “water drop screen''
• Suspected of false propaganda

First of all, in terms of chips, copycat mobile phones generally emphasize that they are eight-core, true eight-core, and even call themselves ten-core processors. Brands that converge a little bit will claim "multi-core processors", trying to make people "unclear" with vague introductions.

I haven't seen it yet, there is a copycat machine (about 500 yuan) with the specific model of the processor. Some brands will only mark MediaTek/MTK in the parameter table, but the model is unknown. Some knockoffs with a price of nearly 1,000 yuan may use the Snapdragon 855 processor released in 2018, which is its biggest selling point.

What makes me angry is that many brands of counterfeit cameras have marked pixels or focal lengths for each camera on the product details page. But actually only one camera can work.

If you ask the customer service, the customer service will first tell you that the camera is real. If asked, they would lie that "one main camera is used to assist or supplement the light." It really made me laugh. Those who do not understand electronic products can easily be misled and deceived.

Few customer service will tell you straightforwardly that only one camera can work, and the rest are decorative.

In most cases, the counterfeit machine will blur the description of the camera on the product details page. For example, the small pepper P40, in the product introduction, marked "AI wide-angle three-shot appearance plan" in a very small font, and the word "appearance" is very spiritual.

In addition to the camera, the screen is also "the hardest hit area." The so-called high-definition screens, ultra-clear screens, and eye protection screens are not actually high-definition. If you look closely at the parameter bar, you will find that the screens are basically 720P. With a size of 6-7 inches at every turn, this resolution cannot be called high-definition.

"High-definition screen" is not high-definition, and "fast charge" is not fast. Often the extremely fast charging and fast charging claimed by the copycat machine are fake. Some manufacturers will mark the charging power at the bottom of the parameter column, and all that can be seen are 5V1A.

Returning to the appearance, no matter how the back cover of the copycat machine changes, the front face is a "water drop screen" that is "unchanging for thousands of years". This is because the cost of the digging screen is relatively high, and the water drop screen can lower the cost of the copycat.

After reading the introduction of a large circle of counterfeit phones, I found that false propaganda has become a standard feature of counterfeit phones . For example, when the ivvi M40 introduced the lens, it said that it has a 21-megapixel super-sensing lens, a 13-megapixel ultra-wide-angle lens, an ultra-clear portrait depth-of-field lens, a 4mm macro lens, and OIS optical image stabilization.

Because I haven't actually experienced it, it doesn't matter whether OIS optical image stabilization is real or not. From the explanation of the customer service and the feedback in the comment area, it can be concluded that only one of the five cameras at the back can work, and the remaining four are decorative.

During the live broadcast, the anchor also used a lot of vague expressions or even expressions that violated the advertising law to introduce the product . For example, "This phone has a very strong battery life. The 4000 mAh battery can stand by for three days."; The pixel of the mobile phone is the highest, and the picture is the clearest." etc.

The consequences of suspected false propaganda are to deceive and deceive groups who do not understand electronic products and parameters. For example, the group price of this ivvi M40 is 555 yuan. For high school students, full-time mothers in lower-tier cities, middle-aged and elderly groups, it may be half a month's living expenses. It is really distressing to spend this money on an "e-waste".

Today, as the digital divide is gradually deepening, we cannot consider being deceived as "stupid". For the digital field, it is normal to not understand. In a sense, these consumers are all victims, misled by vague and false propaganda. This phenomenon should attract more people's attention and attention.

It's all in 2020, why are there any knockoffs?

With the continuous development of Redmi, Honor, OV and other brands in the thousand yuan machine market, people also have many "regular forces" to buy when the budget is insufficient. Why is the copycat machine still so rampant?

The reasons can be analyzed from two aspects. One is "there is a market" and the other is "there is money."

Even though the prices of thousands of yuan machines of major brands have been dropping, there are not enough models to choose from in the price range of 300-500 yuan. Mainly under the circumstance of ensuring user experience, this price is currently unable to achieve the characteristics of high-end models such as high refresh rate, curved screen, and fast charging.

On the other hand, these copycat models with a price of less than 600 yuan, all have "18 martial arts", three-camera, four-camera, even five-camera, curved screen, fast charging, eight-core processor and other descriptions. "Value for money".

Those who have insufficient budget and want to buy "cost-effective" models will inevitably be moved by these exaggerated or false product introductions. Especially for people with no income or low income, spending 500 yuan on a mobile phone is already a "luxury" thing, and they want to spend their money on the "knife edge."

In the comment section of Shanzhaiji, there are many farmers' friends, factory workers, full-time mothers, etc. These people have specific needs for mobile phones. Although they may not understand the meaning of specific parameters, they often see words such as large screens and large batteries, and they think that this mobile phone meets their needs and can better follow the drama and shake up. Sound and fast hands.

In addition, the AI ​​high-definition camera and AI multi-camera claimed by the fake machine may make full-time mothers think that they can better record the growth of their children, so we can see many "baby" users in the comment area.

Those who have a limited budget and want to play games also have demand for mobile phone performance. Therefore, when they see the description of the eight-core processor and PC-level heat dissipation of the copycat machine, they are easily induced and attracted.

Of course, there are still some people who choose fake machines out of vanity. After all, for 1/10 of the price, you can buy a mobile phone that looks similar to the flagship phone, which can be described as a "cost-effective choice."

In addition to having a market, making money is the reason for the endless emergence of copycat machines.

Since MediaTek launched the Turnkey Solution "one-stop" solution in 2004, mobile phone companies can directly cooperate with MediaTek to purchase chips, mobile phone software platforms, and third-party software bundles. Mobile phone design companies no longer need to develop their own software and hardware, and the threshold and cycle of mobile phone research and development have dropped drastically, which is equivalent to opening up the two channels of supervision and control to the copycat market.

Even if MediaTek now wants to build its product image in a high-end direction, it is undeniable that the current knockoffs on the market still have a very close relationship with MediaTek, and it is difficult for MediaTek to get rid of the "king of knockoffs" label.

These counterfeit machine companies are like Pin Lego. After purchasing the software and hardware, they can open molds and complete the assembly, and then they can go on sale. This makes many people earn a lot of money.

Except for those little-known brands such as VOVG, viipoo, Weimi, Milan, etc., the knockoffs we currently see are more of the depraved work of traditional brands.

We are no strangers to brands like Gionee and Dove that are now rich in knockoffs. In the era of feature phones, they have also been "outstanding." Little Chili also followed the footsteps of Xiaomi and went on fire for a while.

And it seems that ivvi, which is full of cottage flavors, is also backed by Coolpad. According to Tianyan Check, ivvi is a brand of Coolpad , and Zhao Liying was also invited as the spokesperson.

Why did these brands fall here? The primary reason is the high cost of self-research. Under the premise that market share is squeezed and its own technology is not strong, it is obviously unrealistic to design and develop new mobile phones by itself. With the help of MediaTek's solution, copycat mobile phones can be manufactured at low cost, making money and making a living is not a problem.

Has the cottage opportunity been eliminated?

What is the definition of "cottage"? According to common understanding, Shanzhai refers to the behavior of imitation, copying, plagiarism, and the products derived from it.

In the past, when we mentioned "counterfeit mobile phones," we often referred to digital products initiated by private forces and started through small workshops, quickly imitating, and manufacturing. With the decline of the once major brands, the current copycat phones are not limited to the products of small workshops.

To be honest, the existence of counterfeit machines has promoted the innovation and development of the industry in a sense. For example, the popular dual-card dual-standby, large battery and other features were once regarded as the symbol of counterfeit phones. These characteristics have a strong people's character. The copycats force the "miaotang products" to pay more attention to their own culture and the humanistic care of the products.

But this must not be a reason to allow the flood of copycats. The infringement of intellectual property rights by counterfeit mobile phones and the effect of bad money driving out good money will disrupt the market environment, engage in price wars, and even endanger the innovation of regular brands.

What I am more concerned about is the quality of counterfeit phones , such as whether the safety of the battery can be guaranteed. In addition, many copycat users are students and full-time mothers. When minors come into contact with such inferior screens, will they cause greater damage to their underdeveloped eyes? These questions make me feel uneasy.

In addition, counterfeit machines do not value user privacy as much as regular brands. Whether consumers’ personal information and stored data will be leaked is also a major issue.

In the foreseeable future, can copycats be eliminated? The answer to this question, I think, may be pessimistic. If there is a market and there is money to make, copycat manufacturers are like inexhaustible Xiaoqiang. Consumers who don't understand digital are deceived by exaggerated and false copycat advertisements, but no one sees them and cares about them.

If I were to give an entrance to rectify the chaos in the cottage, the first thing is to regulate advertising. Whether the platform can take the responsibility to review whether the descriptions of these copycat phones are true and whether the live broadcast language is standardized. When copycat mobile phones are exposed and no longer use false advertisements to disguise themselves, some consumers may vote with their feet and embrace regular brands.

What we can do is to inform people around the risks of copying mobile phones as much as possible, and help those who don’t understand digital products keep their eyes open.

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Ai Faner | Original link · View comments · Sina Weibo