Every brand starts locally, even nationally, but wants to eventually go global. Global brands experience better success, have more of the worldwide market to win, and can eventually go on to have some measure of success in the larger market. Meizu is a company that, like most, desires global recognition โ but the company also knows that the US remains a hard market to crack.
Coming off its new Meizu Pro 5 and the phoneโs launch, VP Li Nan was asked about Meizuโs desire to enter the US market. Nan didnโt say that Meizu would enter the US market, nor did he give a date or expected year, but he did say that Meizu is eyeing the US market. The one issue for the company concerns the carrier stronghold on smartphones: Meizu wants to provide a unique experience for its customers by selling direct to them, not by striking deals with carriers.
Of course, Samsung can testify to the difficulties faced with carriers, with the company launching the carrier-exclusive Galaxy S6 Active (AT&T) that many wish would be extended to all carriers, not just AT&T. The same can be said for the Motorola Droid series in the US as well. Sony devices are often launched in carrier exclusives in the US, with T-Mobile having some earlier Sony Xperia devices before the Japanese manufacturer announced its Xperia Z4v for Verizon (the device still hasnโt launched on the network yet).
Gizchina News of the week
These are just a few examples of how carrier-locked phones and carrier exclusives rule in the US. Yes, unlocked smartphones and off-contract plans are taking off, but whether or not a smartphone sale starts with a carrier is irrelevant; eventually, every smartphone buyer has to go to a carrier of some sort to get his or her phone activated (even online buyers), and AT&T and T-Mobile are the GSM (global system for mobile communications) carriers in the US. Many consumers live in areas where AT&T and T-Mobile coverage isnโt that great (rural areas), and CDMA carriers like Verizon and Sprint serve those areas well.
Meizu has excellent goals, but contextualization is key. Sometimes, you have to go into a foreign market with the goal of meeting the needs and expectations of those customers even if it goes against your own desires. The end goal is always to get customers interested, and if selling carrier-locked smartphones is the way to get there, then itโs a small price to pay to meet your long-term goal. LG and Samsung are two Korean manufacturers that have sacrificed a lot, but the success of these two manufacturers in the US show that working with carriers may not be such a bad deal after all.
Thing is, the US market will not be interested in what Meizu has to offer. At least not currently.
I’d be interested, and I’m in the US. Never used a Meizu product though
The US market wouldn’t be interested in a flagship quality phone for $300? That’s funny because one of the fastest growing phone company in the US is Blu, which sells unlocked Chinese phones. Not to mention phones like the One Plus One were very successful in the US market. If Meizu builds a phone with the US in mind it will sell.
not to mention that the new Moto X priced at 399$ is selling like crazy that they can’t even keep with the demand.
but the guy above pointed something we don’t know yet, which is how Mediatek phones are going to sell in the US.
the Exynos variant is going to sell ok, but what about Mediatek?
Maybe on a cheap device but i doubt on flagship.
Mediatek phones are already being sold in the US without issue. The average consumer doesn’t know the difference between SD and MTK, they care more about phone design and features.
agree, but on cheap devices.
im not sure it’s the same on flagships
In the US flagship sales are all about the brand name more than the specs.
looks like we have a different opinion here.
i agree with what just said and that’s the main rule.
but the way i see it the market is divided in 3 segments:
the bigger one, where people buy the phone with a contract and its all about flagships or “last-year-flagship” for those that don’t want to pay 199$ upfront.
the 2nd, much much smaller, with unlocked cheap devices usually sold with an alternative carrier without contact.
in this segment we see mediatek, and people don’t even know about it since it’s not even mentioned in the specs (all you can find is something like 1.2 ghz quad core ARM…)
and finally the last one, the newest.
phones off contract, mostly flagships bought from people looking for best deal/specs.
i don’t see any mediatek here mostly because people use to resell these phones on ebay 6months or 1year later.
We have to agree to disagree. Everyone I know that buys flagship phones (friends, family, associates) have little clue about the specs they buy it because it is a status symbol. Most could never even tell you what SoC stands for, let alone which SoC is used. That’s not to say there aren’t plenty of people like us in the US, but from my experience the majority are not.
Got to agree with that, people around me only care about design, mpx, sometimes screen size, brand and cool features (*cough*3dtouch*cough*). And when you try to explain it to them they are like “yeah ok, ok, you know what? Imma jus gonna buy an iPhone”
IMO at least in Europe
Same here in the United States for me. I actually performed a little experiment the other day and asked all my colleagues, friends and family who have either an Iphone 6, Galaxy S6 or LG G4. I asked each of them if they could name the top processors from Qualcomm or Mediatek. Out of about 35 people, 3 of them were able to name The X10 and SD810.
People (heck even my family) around me only care about design, mpx, sometimes screen size, brand and cool features (*cough*3dtouch*cough*). And when you try to explain it to them they are like “yeah ok, ok, you know what? Imma jus gonna buy an iPhone”
IMO at least in Europe
That’s Why I buy the phone’s for my family
That’s what I meant in my comment. Their current products with their current support are not good enough in my opinion.
So far they’ve shown that they care little about customer satisfaction and their desires.
IF they make a product with the US in mind, and IF they’ll keep the market in mind throughout, they might succeed.
I would disagree with customer satisfaction, I’ve had two issues with my MX5 and they went above and beyond to help me. Even got a follow up call after few days.
Meizu has been “eyeing the US market” with the same concerns for many years. They’re not going to find a partner to assume some -or most- of the risks as they have in other countries, so look at how Oppo and OnePlus did it (minus the invite system) and start spending some of Alibaba’s cash. And hire an engineer or two who knows how to program a modem with more than FDD 1,3,7. And some marketing people who think using Stanley Kubrick’s “Full Metal Jacket” or someone else’s product (*cough* GoPro *cough*) to announce a new product are bad ideas, not good ones. And unlocking the Flyme bootloader isn’t necessary, but making sure Google Services work seamlessly and troubleshooting the system to ensure compatibility with apps no one in China uses is totally, 100% critical. Welcome to the USA.
Oh, and your design language has gone stale. Might want to look into that, too.
The modem has nothing to do with hiring an engineer. Every modem used in phones is already programmed to pick up certain bands. Most newer ones used in conjunction with 64 bit SoC’s are programmed to pick up every band. The reason some phones don’t is because they don’t have the required antennae to pick those bands up. There is no incentive for Meizu to include the bands for USA if they only sell a hundred phones there, the costs would never be justified. If they enter the US market they will use the required antennae.
The biggest problem for Meizu isn’t bands, design language or anything else mentioned below. The biggest issue is Flyme itself. If you don’t read Chinese a good chunk of Flyme is inaccessible to you. Flyme is an excellent UI but it needs a serious language overhaul.
Plus the fact all of their extra services/features are illegal here.
What is illegal??
music app
video app
Majority of their themes/icons are taken straight from play store.
The music app is actually Baidu Music, the content is all licensed and perfectly legal in the US. They have a contract with Universal, Sony and Warner.