Table of Contents
In a short line
Best-selling smartphones in QXNUMX
Counterpoint on Friday pleased with new data, allowing you to understand how things are done in the smartphone market. Published a ranking of the best-selling smartphones in terms of money and volume.
Judging by the pictures, Apple smartphones in terms of revenue collect 38% of the top 10, taking only 14% in volume.
The best-selling Android smartphone in the money is the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra. In general, Samsung takes 6% in money and 3-3.5% in terms of volume.
The situation is favorable for Samsung, according to Counterpoint, the main volumes were made thanks to markets such as the Middle East / Africa, India and Latin America. And at the moment, these are the most important markets for Samsung, since it is there that there is an opportunity to sell smartphones of the middle price segment, which is the basis of the brand’s sales, well and a lot.
Well, the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra was successfully sold in the US and Europe thanks to a reduced price compared to the previous generation, as well as additional deep discounts and promotions launched almost at the start of sales.
Nobody goes to Barcelona, IFA canceled
Barcelona is still aiming to host the Mobile World Congress in June. But, apparently, it will be a sad event. Samsung, Lenovo, Nokia, Sony and others have officially announced that they will be limiting their participation to a virtual presence as much as possible. Xiaomi is just silent and watching for now.
A month ago, IFA organizers said they would hold a full-scale Berlin exhibition. But last week there was a notice of total cancellation. The organizers said they are seeing an increase in the number of cases of COVID-19.
But in general, the fact is that no one is willing to take risks. Companies do not want to spend money, given that everything can be canceled at any time. And does it make sense? The past year has shown that the lack of exhibitions can be more than replaced by virtual events. And it turns out more clearly, and in terms of money it is not so expensive.
Let’s see what happens next year.
Honor returns
Recently, there was a semi-official leak that the Honor brand received a license to use Google services. The German unit happily posted a tweet, which was immediately deleted. Perhaps not to jinx it.
The return of Honor is good news. Let’s be honest, it’s boring on the market without Honor, since the main players are Samsung and Xiaomi, and realme waltzed. Somehow there is not enough space, do you agree? Did you miss Honor?
Realme and more brands
BBK Electronics, the brand owner (OnePlus, Oppo, Vivo, realme, IQOO) and the new leader in the smartphone market, continues its aggressive development. Realme is without a doubt one of the company’s most successful endeavors. Favorable price-quality ratio allows the brand to actively develop all over the world. To forge the iron while it is hot, on the basis of realme they decided to launch an additional ecosystem brand DIZO (read “diso”).
So far, DIZO is an Indian story. There are no specific products. What happened is funny from the point of view that a sub-brand is launching its own sub-brand.
Marathon “New knowledge” and the world of the future
The All-Russian marathon “New Knowledge” was held the other day. Professionals from different industries spoke on interesting topics in different cities of Russia.
And here came German Oskarovich Gref, who advertised the advancement of Sberbank and along the way told how the world would change in the future. Illustrating the development of artificial intelligence that will replace us all, Mr. Gref showed a video in which, as a result, a smart kettle satisfies a woman better than the man who bought it.
Let us suppose. Everyone has their own life situation and their own fears. In general, Mr. Gref said the right things, including the fact that creativity is becoming a key competence, and 50% of simple tasks will be automated. But the examples were not entirely correct.
Quote from the event:
“When fully adapted, the fifth generation of self-driving cars will be allowed – the cars will be self-driving, 250 million people will lose their jobs. Today, say, ten years before that, people need to announce this. “
Probably, this opinion was due to the fact that “Sberbank” is actively involved in the topic of self-driving cars. In this case, the example is ambiguous.
It is customary to motivate children to learn by telling them that with the development of AI, smart appliances will replace all plumbers, cleaners, drivers, salespeople and janitors. Looking at a robot vacuum cleaner that proudly rolls around the house, it seems to be difficult to disagree with this. But only until the moment when he gets stuck under the sofa and bursts into a hysterical trill.
In fact, things will be somewhat different. And first of all, numerous analysts, forecasters, logisticians, economists, accountants, partly programmers and all other professions, whose work can be algorithmized, will be expended. The point is that digitalization is only possible in a completely standardized world.
After 10 and 20 years, couriers will run along the streets of the city, because the quality of the roads, different entrances, somewhere there is an elevator, somewhere not, different weather conditions. The robot cannot cope with this. And when there is a downpour and a heavy wind outside, no drone will carry you testicles and milk from the store. The application will show that the courier Aslanbek has accepted the order and is moving towards you, and you, looking out the window, will think whether to leave a tip or save some money.
In the same way, for the time being, drivers do not have to worry about their future. And there is not even a question of responsibility for a person knocked down on the track. For robots to drive on the roads, the roads must be of the appropriate quality, as well as the unloading points. Perhaps after 10 years it will be possible to replace taxis, and then only on certain routes in the city center, where artificial intelligence can cope with the markings.
I regularly watch how a truck with groceries arrives at the neighboring Pyaterochka, how it maneuvers in a courtyard crowded with other cars, how it makes its way through puddles and potholes, sometimes he cannot stand at a right angle, he becomes oblique, and then the driver uses an additional support to roll food out of the body. And I understand that no robot can do that. The robot will come, look at all this and leave, as it decides that it will not work out. The same applies to wipers and plumbers. Not a single robot will be able to crawl under the sink, shining with a “piggy bank”, because everyone has different sinks, different racks, different equipment.
With great success, you can replace the metro or railway driver (provided that somewhere near Saransk you do not have to get out of the cab to manually switch the arrow) or a general practitioner, since the examination and diagnosis procedure can be digitized – take a picture here (hello , Google with recognition of moles!), Press there, knock here, listen here, enlighten here.
However, of course, we are moving towards digitalization of everything and everyone. But it will be possible after at least within the framework of one country there are standards – roads, houses, entrances, steps, equipment, laying of wires, pipes, planting of green spaces, etc. When this happens, then the courier Aslanbek, who brought my order yesterday, may start thinking about retraining. In the meantime, it is worth thinking about a new profession for those who sign papers in offices.
About gaming
Over the past few years, they say that the gaming industry is experiencing an unprecedented rise around the world. It is believed that all thanks to Marvel, which made superhero cinema pop culture. Movies and comics first, and then board and digital games, pulled up.
Lyrical digression. And there really is some truth in this. I remember how in 2002, while still in school, I went to the cinema to see the first Spider-Man movie with Tobey Maguire. And I remember that the girls in the class practically did not know what it was. The boys knew, but it was considered creepy to watch this. Today, on the contrary, it is considered fashionable to love Marvel films. Moreover, at all levels, that the children are squealing enthusiastically, that at a recent presentation the director of Motorola in Russia, when it came to films, shared what awaits the Loki series in June.
Honestly, I don’t see anything bad in this. Despite the dubious benefits of these films for the intellect, quite simple and correct things are transmitted through them – friends need to help, sacrifice themselves for the sake of others and for the sake of higher goals, be responsible for their actions, etc.
But back to the games! In fact, the games market is on the verge of a deep crisis, despite the seeming external well-being. Newzoo publishes its forecast for the current year annually. Analysts are forecasting a decline this year. But not for the mobile segment. And this is the secret of the Open Gaming market.
If you look at the chart above, as well as the data for past years, it is easy to see that the PC games and consoles markets are not to say that they are marking time, but are growing sad and slow.
Let’s take one of the major releases of last year, the viking game Assassin’s Creed Valhalla (released on November 20, 2020). The choice is justified by the fact that the studio that created it, Ubisoft, reported on the results of the year a couple of weeks ago. And also the fact that, according to the report, “Vikings” have become the most successful game about the assassins franchise. According to official figures, 141 million unique players have played the game.
So, for the fiscal year (from March 2020 to April 2021), Ubisoft’s revenue was 2.22 billion euros. 1.29 billion is the back catalog, that is, once previously released games. New releases (including, in addition to “Vikings”, Watch Dogs Legion, Immortals Fenyx Rise, etc.) earned 1,61 billion euros.
And here you need to understand that we are not talking about profit, but about revenue. And making AAA games is expensive in every sense. From a trivial payment to programmers to moral torment when creating a well-thought-out virtual world and plot. Here you can recall at least the complaints about Cyberpunk 2077, when all the studios have been reworking for years and in the end they still released a raw game.
For example, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla was developed by 15 hired studios that have been creating unique landscapes and characters for more than 2.5 years.
The cost of developing AAA games is usually $ 100 million or more. In a report, Ubisoft says the development and marketing cost of all products for the fiscal year was $ 656 million. And another 104 million were spent on R&D tasks. Just in case, I repeat that Assassin’s Creed Valhalla has been doing for about 3 years, and the above is just an example of production costs for a year. In this case, one can probably only assume that most of the marketing expenses for the year fell precisely on the promotion of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla as the main release.
As opposed to Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, which embodies advanced games with a deep interesting story and complex mechanics, take Tencent’s mobile PUBG. This is a toy with sad graphics, in my opinion, an extremely crooked and inconvenient interface, as well as inconvenient controls. There is no plot.
For the full year of 2020, players inside the PUBG Mobile game spent $ 2,666 billion. That is, one game earned more than all UBISOFT put together. But PUBG is even more or less something intelligible. Take a look at the list of the most downloaded games for April 2021.
All these games are released according to the freemium model, that is, the player does not pay for the purchase of the game, but only spends on in-game purchases at will. The only decent game on this list is Genshin Impact. There is a picture, and a plot, and we spent the budget on development. Some Candy Crash is among the most profitable games. Since its release in 2012, the game has already earned more than $ 6 billion and continues to generate income of $ 1 billion every year. Development costs are minimal, no graphics, zero plot – 1 billion every year!
I will say more that there are even more ridiculous games that are successful. For example, the game “10 rubles”, which still collects a small profit. The meaning is simple: you pay 10 rubles and you will find out how much 10 rubles was sent to you. It seems that this is nonsense, but people pay.
Accordingly, this situation has a detrimental effect on the gaming industry, as it provokes the creation of cheap freemium products.
A study of the Russian gaming market by Mail.ru says that 85% of all gamers have played on a tablet and smartphone (30% are console players). 51% of “gamers” are men, 49% are women.
And here is the rating of mobile games, according to the survey. The first places are taken by games of the category “three in a row”, puzzles, quizzes. It’s not even a game!
And so people spend on average from 150 to 999 rubles a month. And below is a breakdown by age.
Accordingly, when they say that the gaming industry is booming, we are talking primarily about low-quality products.
I guess no one will deny that games are a form of visual interactive art. But conventional “three in a row” has the same relation to art as frosting to chocolate.
An increase in the consumption of freemium products is a normal situation. And it will never happen that AAA games will come out on top in terms of income. The power of mobile games is that you can walk in for 5-10 minutes, play a game and get back to your business. This doesn’t work with AAA games.
For example, I can say that the first 5-7 hours I was terribly uncomfortable playing Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. Learn the intricacies of control, the structure of the world, get used to graphics, etc. The next 20 hours, the game was rather painful, since my low-level character was often killed, a lot of texts appeared on the screen explaining the structure of the world, new characters were constantly introduced, a bunch of objects, undiscovered locations, etc. So the gameplay required constant mental strain. And only after 40-50 hours I began to enjoy the game. The flow of new information decreased, and my gaming experience began to suffice to progress through the plot without titanic efforts. Now I experience similar emotions trying to immerse myself in Cyberpunk 2077. Accordingly, there are often situations when in the evening I decide that instead of playing, I would rather read and play chess a couple of times, because I was too tired to delve into.
Of course, there will always be top games that will collect a certain cash register, but most of all I fear that in the future AAA games will become the lot of enthusiasts, like books today.
Tell us in the comments what you are playing, how much money you spend on games, if you play only on your smartphone, whether you perceive yourself as a “GAMER”. Also, tell us what real games you have bought lately.
