Throughout 1999, according to official statistics, there were more than a hundred mobile phone manufacturers in the world, and they had sold more than 600 different models of mobile phones.
Of course, most of the mobile phones were just for show. However, even if only the top ten mobile phone manufacturers were counted, they had released more than 106 different models of mobile phones. On average, each company released ten different models.
Daqian, which was ranked third, did not release a single new mobile phone in 1999, which greatly lowered the average.
Nokia had released the most mobile phones, with 29 different models. Ericsson had released 22 models, and Motorola had released 9 models.
The mobile phones released by these mobile phone manufacturers only had the ability to make calls. Now, they had the ability to play games, text messages, call lists, music, and so on. They had become a super luxurious collection of handheld electronic devices.
The price also increased from $399 all the way to $2,000.
This was probably the fastest change in the mobile phone market in 1999. The price of mobile phones dropped crazily in 1999.
In just one year, the price of mobile phones dropped by almost one-third.
This did not mean that the price of a particular mobile phone would drop as time went by.
It was the price drop of the entire mobile phone industry.
Take Nokia for example. In January, their most expensive flagship mobile phone, the 8310, was priced at 1,999 USD. But in September, the latest flagship model, the Nokia A450, was only priced at US $1,499.
In short, the price of the entire mobile phone industry had been cut by about one-third.
And the result of this crazy price reduction was that there was a wave of hot mobile phones all over the world. Moreover, various financial institutions in Europe and the United States also launched mobile phone loan services so that customers could directly buy the latest mobile phones through loans.
In developed countries such as Europe and the United States, according to surveys, about 10% of the poor had their own mobile phones, and the mobile phone ownership rate was more than 80%.
This was the result of the phone price drop.
After all, the price of the lowest models of Nokia and Motorola had dropped to 399 USD, which was about 3,200 RMB per unit. Even many Hua Xia people could afford such a mobile phone.
In 1999, almost all mobile phone manufacturers were lowering their prices. The only mobile phone manufacturer that went against the trend was Daqian.
This was because Da Qian still insisted on customizing their own mobile phone product line according to their own pricing strategy of dropping across generations.
That was to say, the price of each mobile phone was strictly set according to the generation. First, the Daqian's latest model, for example, was the Daqian 4, which was priced at 999 USD.
Then, the Daqian 4 mini, which was a reduced version of the Daqian 4 in terms of function and size, was priced at 799 USD, which was 200 USD lower.
Then, there was the previous generation of the Daqian 3. With the release of the Daqian 4, the price was directly reduced to 599 USD, and the Daqian 3 mini was reduced to 499 USD.
Then, the Daqian 2 was reduced to 399 USD, which was the lowest price of all Daqian mobile phones currently on sale. As for the Daqian 1, when the Daqian 4 was launched, Daqian announced at the same time that the Daqian 1 would be permanently discontinued. No more versions of the Daqian 1 would be produced. This helped Daqian expand its market. The mobile phone that was once sold at 1,199 USD per unit was no longer produced.
But miraculously, the Daqian 1 mobile phone was still the world's top mobile phone seller in the first half of 1999.
Although the Daqian 1 was announced to be discontinued, there was still a large stock of Daqian 1 mobile phones on the market that needed to be digested.
Therefore, Da Qian announced a new activity, which was to temporarily reduce the price of buying Da Qian 1's mobile phones by another 100 USD. It would only be sold at the price of 299 USD until all of Da Qian 1's stock was sold out.
This was the first mobile phone in the world to be sold at 299 USD, which naturally caused customers around the world to go crazy. A large stock of Daqian 1 mobile phones was sold out in just three days. Some people even directly fought in front of the dealership in order to get the right to buy a Daqian 1.
As a result, all the stock of Daqian 1 was sold out in less than a month, and in this month, the total sales of Daqian 1 reached 5 million units. With one month's sales, it dominated the annual sales list for eight months.
It wasn't until September that Nokia's D170 broke the Daqian 1's sales record with 5.2 million units.
However, at the same time, Daqian 1 also set another record. That was, in the four years from its debut to its cessation of sales, the total sales reached an astonishing 37.26 million units, becoming the world's top mobile phone seller. It was ahead of the second place Daqian 2 by 20 million units.
Although it was still unknown whether there would be a mobile phone in the future that could surpass this sales volume, at least before 2000, it was impossible for a mobile phone to surpass this sales volume.
Although the Daqian 1's sales volume was outstanding, it dominated the mobile phone market in the entire 20th century.
But this couldn't save the Daqian mobile phone market.
At the end of 1997, the Daqian mobile phone had reached the second position in the global mobile phone market, and its total sales volume was second only to Nokia, which was ranked first, and the gap was less than 1 million units.
But in 1998, the Daqian dropped to third place.
In 1999, even with the Daqian 1's savior, the Daqian mobile phone market dropped two places and fell to fifth place.
It was overtaken by the Samsung and Ericsson mobile phones that came later.
This caused the Daqian mobile phone, which was once so powerful that it seemed to be able to overturn the entire mobile phone industry, to fail and become a joke in the mobile phone industry.
"The former dragon slayer is going to be devoured by the giant dragon in the end. The Daqian mobile phone market's peak has passed, and it's hard to say if it can maintain its position in the world's top ten mobile phone market!" Many mobile phone industry practitioners made this judgment.
It wasn't unreasonable for them to say this. After all, the Daqian mobile phone had dropped two places in a row, and it was also overtaken by the newly joined Samsung and Ericsson mobile phones. This was indeed very shocking, and it gave people the feeling that it could die at any time.
It was said that the chairmen of Motorola and Nokia were so happy that they invited all the executives to a meal to celebrate the fall of the Daqian, which was once a powerful and invincible competitor.
After all, the Daqian mobile phone market had put too much pressure on them in the past few years. The Daqian mobile phone market's unprecedented sales volume and technological innovation almost overturned the hegemony that Nokia and Motorola had created for decades when the Daqian mobile phone market was first established.
Now that the d * mn usurper had finally fallen, of course Nokia and Motorola would clap their hands in joy!
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