Dear Smartphone Manufacturers,
Stop making so many new phones every year and please focus on improving and supporting your existing devices. This message is especially for manufacturers releasing Android phones. As we enter 2021, in the last year Xiaomi released 55 phones, Vivo released 52 phones, Oppo released 45 phones, Samsung released 45 phones, Huawei released 38 Phones, LG released 26 phones, and Nokia (HMD Global) released 15 phones. Compare this with a company like Apple that released merely 5 phones. Or for a fair shot at a Android competitor, Google release only 3!
Why would numerous models be considered a bad thing? Because companies seem to be struggling to consistently offer more than 2 years of software support. Outside of Google's Pixel line and Apple's iPhone, software longevity is abysmal. Companies need to stop making phones that are abandoned after a year or 2 of updates, and support phones for longer durations. Imagine, if only companies would start doing this. It is shocking that companies do not even care to take serious the kinds of added-value that good support and service brings.
There are reasons why people are paying stupid prices for iPhones and they are happy. This has everything to do with software support and after sales service. Phones are not just the hardware package alone. They are also the software package and support, the customer service package, the ecosystem, and the device integration environment. There is almost a doubling in value that comes from supporting phones for longer. Because you get to enhance the entire experience around the phone. Also, less models in a given year might possible reduce e-waste because people could depend on holding onto phones for even longer, rather than swimming through a market flooded with phones.
It's also a losing strategy. It may work for large companies, like for Xiaomi or Samsung, but for smaller companies that try to replicate this strategy, they are only catapulting themselves towards their own demise. For example, HMD Global Nokia continues this trend of spamming the market with more than 5 phones per year. With this strategy they will continue to suffer and lose.
On the other hand, OnePlus for example has been one of the most successful smartphone startups, regardless of the fact that they were backed by BBK/Oppo parent company. They were successful in global markets because they had focus. Few models per year, allowed them to focus on the hardware and the experience. In the beginning, they focused on one phone and great 3-years of service. Of course over time, we have seen this expand to 6 new models in 2019 and 2020 respectively, but they had time to build themselves up.
Given that HMD is not even in the 10 top of manufacturers ranked by units shipped, there is no reason for HMD to be releasing so many phones. A company like HMD needs to make less models and focus on making models that are amazing. Once, they zero-in on making what people want to buy, only then can they consider spamming the market with a flood of new models every year.
HMD Global Nokia is only good for one thing right now, and that is creating tragic PR and marketing for the AndroidOne program. Thanks to HMD Global, people will likely start thinking of the AndroidOne program as subpar junk. Slow, late, and buggy updates, plopped onto hardware that seem like afterthoughts. It is literally like the Nokia execs learned nothing from the Microsoft era. The Microsoft era recalls a time when Nokia was spamming the markets with numerous hardware instead of nailing the software-hardware package. We'd all almost wish HMD Global would just nail the overall package. We'd wish that all manufacturers nail this software-hardware balance.
Creating the most smartphone models is different from creating the most smartphone units. Furthermore, creating the most models does not guarantee the sales and shipments of the most units, despite the fact that many of the top manufacturers are also making the most numerous different models. Some top manufacturers like, Apple, still create the some of the most units produced and shipped per year, despite creating very few models. For Apple, we can count the amount of different units they produce on our hands. In 2020 alone that was just 5 new models as mentioned before. This is one of the reasons that Apple is able to provide leading software support for its devices for much longer time periods than its Android competitors. Apple doesn't have to manage a portfolio of a million different devices. The fact that they are a top 5 manufacturer is proof that a winning strategy may very well be to focus on quality instead of quality.
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