Why did the contract machine, which couldn't even escape Apple, suddenly cool through?

Tech 2023-10-07 08:17:07 Source: Network

When Black Horse was writing the American version of the iPhone before, he saw a fan asking:Do you also have such "0 yuan purchase" phones in China?Hey, at first glance, this fan is probably born in the 2000s. Because there were quite a few "0 yuan purchase" phones in China back then

When Black Horse was writing the American version of the iPhone before, he saw a fan asking:Do you also have such "0 yuan purchase" phones in China?

Hey, at first glance, this fan is probably born in the 2000s. Because there were quite a few "0 yuan purchase" phones in China back then.

That's right, they are the contract phones that were once popular, killing all directions, and dominating most of the mobile phone market.

Contract machine, what machine is it?

Nowadays, if you want to buy a mobile phone, you should choose either an official channel source or a third-party channel source. However, looking back more than a decade ago, you still have mobile phones from a third source to choose from.

That's right, it's a customized contract machine launched by operators such as China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom.

I believe these sales tactics, such as "charging phone bills to give away mobile phones" and "using broadband to give away mobile phones", still leave an impression on everyone.

That is to say, as long as you charge a certain amount of phone bills and choose to bundle a phone bill package, you can charge in a timely manner every month. So the money you paid for your phone will be refunded in the form of phone bills.

Many people pinch their fingers and calculate that I need to buy my phone anyway, and the phone bill must also be charged. In that case, it would be even more cost-effective after calculation. By the way, the phones at that time were really expensive.

So this' 0 yuan purchase 'phone, which doesn't cost a penny and is more suitable for Chinese babies' physique, quickly became popular due to its cheaper price compared to the official flagship phone (on the surface) and more after-sales support compared to third-party channel providers' phones (seemingly).

The "Glorious Era" of Contract Machines

In 2002, China Mobile launched its contract machine business.The following year, China Mobile's SIM card and mobile phone sales revenue increased from 3.64 billion yuan in 2002 to 5.3 billion yuan in 2003. Good guy, it's up by one-third.

Before the launch of the contract machine, China Mobile could only rely on selling SIM cards and deducting some money from monthly traffic and phone bills. However, the minimum monthly rental package only costs 8 yuan, so the profit margin is relatively small.

However, the emergence of contract machines has driven up package fees and brought stable customers to China Mobile one after another. After all, if you get into this phone bill trap, you won't be able to get out for two or three years, and it will definitely be stable.

Subsequently, following China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom all came out to make contract machines.

ZTE, Huawei, Coolpad, and Lenovo, these four mobile phone manufacturers, decisively seized the wave of contract phones and successfully established the market pattern of "China Coolpad".

There are hardly any mobile phone manufacturers that can rival the popularity of that trend.

Especially Lenovo, which had previously been hacked by dark horses, as of the first quarter of 2014, out of the 15.8 million units shipped by Lenovo, 70% were contract phones owned by operators.

For this reason, Lenovo Mobile has also opened a dedicated production line for contract machines.Any phone model that ends with "t" is a contract phone specifically designed for the carrier.

For example, Lenovo A630t, A390t, S898t

The iPhone 4 was all introduced by China Unicom.

This means that at that time, as long as you wanted to buy an iPhone 4, in most cases, the contract with China Unicom was the first threshold that you couldn't cross.

The gear of fate begins to rotate

However, one day, the day of the contract machine changed.

Firstly,In 2011, Lei Jun achieved a great feat by releasing Xiaomi 1 and using the slogan "1999 yuan, make friends.

In other words,Xiaomi broke the monopoly pattern of "China Cool Alliance" with its own efforts.

The picture shows the Xiaomi 1 press conference

Because at that time, a smartphone could reach the price of 1999 yuan, which was indeed quite low. It is this wave of operation that makes Xiaomi mobile phones harvest a large wave of "Rice noodles". The young people were extremely ecstatic.

However, this also tore apart the advantage of low prices in contract machines.

Subsequently, in 2014, the Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation included the telecommunications industry in the pilot scope of replacing business tax with value-added tax. This means that the portion of your contract machine subsidy also needs to be included in value-added tax.

Good guy, with such an increase and decrease, the operating costs of contract machines are getting higher and higher.

Operators dare not play like this anymore.

Of course, the most important thing is that users also smell the contract from the contract machine.

In the 3G era, the existence of contract machines has bound many loyal users for the three major operators. However, there are some users who use expensive monthly packages, and after calculating, hey, guy, it's even more expensive than just buying a phone.

For example, a 16G standard version of the iPhone 5S was officially priced at 5288 yuan at the time.

In the contract machine version launched by China Unicom, the price of the product package is 5499 yuan, which is not much different from the official website price.

However, if you choose to bundle your iPhone 5S on the internet for 30 months with a monthly phone bill of 386 yuan, you only need to deposit a phone bill of 5499 yuan to win the iPhone 5S at a price of 0 yuan.

By the way, there is also a monthly refund of 183 yuan for phone calls. Does this seem like a good deal?

Although it may be a bit complicated, if we really calculate it, the operator cannot lose, it's all you who lose.

Even if you refund your phone bill every month, you actually,The total phone bill will cost 11580 yuanAlthough mobile phones are free, they still cost 4632 yuan per year. If you insist, the phone bill would have to be used.

Emmm

In 2013, you spent over 4000 yuan on phone bills, so opening a Paramera would be considered a downfall for your family.

So, is it cheaper? No! Is it cost-effective? No!

Before the implementation of the "strictest real name system in history" for mobile phone card numbers in 2015, even those who owed more phone bills could throw their cards, turning contract machines into contract breaking machines. This is like the American version of the locked iPhone that flowed into the mainland, as previously written by the dark horse.

What's even more outrageous is that even if you spend a lot of money to get this iPhone 5S back, it's still a castrated version.

Because it may only be able to use the card of the carrier you are bundling, and it is not all connected to the internet at all.

Lose, lose big.

As a result, it left behind 'a whole field of chicken feathers'

So at this point, everyone has a look. What is the meaning of a contract machine?

Unless you really need to spend hundreds or thousands of phone bills every month, then contract phones are probably not worth it.

In a sense, it still has some similarities with installment loans to buy a mobile phone. It seems that the cost of the phone itself is relatively low, but this discount has already been secretly priced.

In the iterative wave of 3G turning to 4G and 4G turning to 5G, the form of contract machines has gradually been phased out by the market and has become history. Although the current form of borrowing to buy a mobile phone still exists, it can even be purchased for 0 yuan.

But it essentially did not achieve real discounts. Buying a phone in 24 installments, it seems like you didn't spend too much money in the early stages and returned the phone bill, but the hidden consumption accumulated every month has not disappeared.

Even now, people occasionally see operators' "0 yuan purchase" contract machines, but there are not many people who choose them.

Therefore, the "0 yuan purchase" that is more suitable for Chinese babies does not actually exist.

The contract machine is ultimately just a colorful past in the history of Chinese mobile phones.

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