There is no doubt in my mind that Chinese phone brands will rule the international phone market in a few years, but before they have dominated there are a few things they need to work on
5 things I hope Chinese phone brands will stop doing!
While I love Chinese phones and really admire the way Chinese phone brands are growing in, there are still a few things I would like for them to improve or stop doing such as:
5. Leaking their products prematurely
All companies, regardless of where they are from, are guilty of leaking spy photos, components or specifications of their latest and greatest product, however unlike foreign companies Chinese phone brands tend to get their timing all wrong!
Apple, Samsung and now Amazon and Google all like to keep a spark of interest alive with a bit of buzz about on iPhone 5 cover, or iPad mini , which is fine because we usually have an idea of when those products will launch.
Chinese phone companies however tend to leak their designs with no idea of when they will hit the market leaving us to sit around waiting. This is no good for the customer or the brand!
4. Write the wrong specification.
Writing the wrong specification or changing it as a phone heads to production is common practice in the Chinese phone market.
What once was a quad-core, 5 inch screen, 2GB RAM super phone when originally ‘leaked’ might end up being a single core, badly made knock off of a well-known phone. Admittedly this practice is becoming more rare, but it still happens.
Another problem we have is with the supported frequencies which are quoted on manufacturers sites. These sometimes seem to be copied and pasted from another phone’s specification meaning you might end up buying a phone that won’t work with your operator or in your country!
3. Have an out of date English homepage
Some of the larger phone companies in China such as Oppo and Meizu and even some of the lesser known brands like Zenithink have their websites available in both Chinese and English.
While this is a great gesture, considering that most of these companies aren’t manufacturing for an international audience, the English sites are often out of date and poorly written!
Broken links, bad spelling and wrong information don’t show a company in the best light, which can be particularly damning for a company who eventually decides they do want to go international.
2. Manufacture less knock-offs and more original phones.
I understand why smaller Chinese phone makers make fake phones such as GooPhone's i5 iPhone 5 clone and the numerous Samsung Galaxy S3 clones. They did it because they don’t have to worry about marketing! The phones will market themselves on the backs of the real things.
The GooPhone i5 only got as famous as it did because it’s a clone, and unfortunately that’s what most buyers will see it as. A cheap, poor quality knock off!
But if you look at the specification of the GooPhone i5 which boasts a Tergra 3 Quad-core CPU, high-resolution 4 inch screen and 8 mega-pixel rear camera, you can see that this is actually one amazing phone in it’s own right with our without the iPhone 5 body.
Chinese manufacturers such as Oppo, Meizu, Xiaomi, ZTE, Zopo, Huawei have proven that Chinese phones can become popular with out being knock off’s and we need to see more Chinese phone brands following suit!
1. Selling their phones in pre-order or lotteries.
Of all the points listed here this is the one which really bugs me and many of you. There is nothing worse than to wait for months for a phone such as the Xiaomi M1s or M2 to finally launch only to find out that you can only order it online.... AND there will only be X number available!
When it happens once it’s bad enough but when it keeps happening (the Xiaomi M1s has just had it’s 3rd preorder online sale!) it begins to get very frustrating even for me in China! I can only imagine how it feels to want one of these preorder phones when you're in another country and not entirely sure of what is going on.
Before you start I love the Chinese phone industry but...
For a final note I just want to confirm with you all I’m not trying to bash Chinese phone brands, I have a lot of respect for what they are doing and can totally understand why they have to make the choices they do.
However, if Chinese phone brands eventually want to compete on the international market against the likes of Apple, Samsung, LG, HTC and others, then they have a few kinks to work out.
What do you guys think? I’m not being to harsh am I?
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