This time, Xiaomi’s gun is aimed at Polaroid

On July 19, Xiaomi held a new product launch conference in Beijing. At the meeting, Lei Jun not only talked about his journey of building a car, but also brought Xiaomi MIX Flip, Xiaomi MIX Fold4, Xiaomi Mi Band 9, Redmi K70 Extreme Edition and many other blockbuster new products.

In Xiaolei’s expectation, Xiaomi MIX Flip, as Xiaomi’s first small folding screen phone, is a high-probability event that attracts a lot of attention. Unexpectedly, the first thing to become popular was the accessory that debuted at the same time as the MIX Flip - the MIX Flip portable camera set, which has a sense of "reversing the sky".

Recently, social platforms have been filled with a large number of Xiaomi Polaroid-related posts. If you don’t follow the digital circle, you may be wondering: When did Xiaomi start making Polaroids?

Photo source: Xiaohongshu

Yes, after cars, Xiaomi is eyeing the retro track of polaroids.

The portable photo set unexpectedly became popular, and the e-commerce platform sold out of stock

Just yesterday, a topic #xiaomiphotopaper2yuan became a hot search topic. Xiaolei clicked in and took a look, only to realize that it was the MIX Flip accessory that he had ignored. Among the hot search topics, the newly launched MIX Flip body-worn camera set has been enthusiastically sought after by the majority of girls. Almost all of them are positive reviews, as well as comments urging Xiaomi to restock.

It is understood that the portable photo set is priced at 499 yuan, including Mijia Pocket Photo Printer 1S + interconnecting leather bag (including bag strap) + ZINK photo paper (5 sheets), available in purple and green styles. This set uses ZINK inkless printing technology, which eliminates the need for ribbon ink cartridges. It uses colored dye-based crystals embedded in the paper and can be imaged in one go by heating the print head.

Source: Xiaomi

When the MIX Flip is combined with the body-worn camera kit, you only need to turn on the camera's camera mode, and the pictures captured by the phone can be quickly printed into physical photos for your eyes. Beauty appears immediately.

It is worth noting that in the body-worn shooting mode, by switching the front and rear lenses, you can easily choose multiple photo-taking methods such as touch screen, voice control, gestures, etc., and you can also use many classic functions such as fill light filters. Moreover, users can also perform secondary editing on the pictures taken with the mobile phone. As we all know, who doesn’t want to print a better-looking photo?

Source: JD

More importantly, the photo paper in the portable photo set only costs 2 yuan, which is different from the price of a box of 20 pieces of photo paper from Fuji next door, which easily exceeds 100 yuan. In sharp contrast. From this perspective, it is no wonder that the portable camera set is called the "Xiaomi version of Polaroid" by many netizens. It is simply a proper replacement for Polaroid.

Because the product is too popular, Xiao Lei checked multiple e-commerce platforms and all showed that it was out of stock. On Tmall’s hot search list for photo printers, Mijia pocket photo printer-related products have topped the list. Perhaps even Xiaomi itself could not have imagined that a portable printer, a product that has been around for several years, would become popular again because of its combination with a small foldable mobile phone.

Photo source: Taobao

Xiaomi is once again disrupting the situation. Manufacturers who make money from photo paper are confused

If the body-worn camera set can only be used in combination with a small folding phone, maybe it will be useful The impact of the Polaroid industry is not that great. But the problem is that the Mijia Pocket Photo Printer 1S in the portable photo set can be used alone. Although the exclusive portable photo mode of MIX Flip cannot be used, with the Mijia App, other brands of mobile phones can still unlock other functions such as printing photos. This means Xiaomi's cost-effective photo paper is enough to influence the entire instant imaging camera industry.

According to last year’s financial report data released by Fujifilm, its imaging business relied on strong sales of INSTAX primary imaging cameras to drive sales growth by 14.5% and operating profit by 39.9%, achieving INSTAX’s goal of fiscal year 2025 one year ahead of schedule. Achieved sales target of 150 billion yen. Although the price of entry-level Polaroid products is only three digits, the actual cost of use is the photo paper.

Source: Fujifilm Group

On social platforms, discussions about the high price of instant photo paper have never stopped. At present, the price of basic photo paper through official Polaroid channels is generally more than 4 yuan per sheet, and some color and co-branded photo papers can even cost more than 20 yuan per sheet. For example, 20 sheets of Fujifilm instax mini white-framed photo paper are priced at 119 yuan, and the single price is close to 6 yuan; 8 pieces of Polaroid color white-framed photo paper are priced at 119 yuan, and the single price is close to 15 yuan.

Photo source: Taobao

Since Polaroid photo paper is a long-term investment, if you don’t want the camera to sit aside and collect dust, users will have to accept high-priced photo paper, or even be sold out due to shortage of photo paper. Forced to buy scalpers at high premiums to hoard photo paper.

In this era of consumption downgrading, one side is photo paper priced at 2 yuan a piece, and the other side is high-priced photo paper that is several times or more than ten times more expensive. I believe that most consumers will make decisions that are beneficial to themselves. s Choice.

Xiaomi has rekindled the enthusiasm for Polaroids, but it is difficult to go further

In fact, Polaroids almost became the dust of history under the attack of digital cameras and smartphones. The first instant camera (Instant Camera) was born in 1947 and was hailed as one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century by Time magazine.

In the following decades, the Polaroid industry has experienced several cycles of boom, decline, and boom again. Especially in the 10 years from 2004 to 2014, related products were basically in a state of flameout. It is the global popularity of digital cameras and iPhone. It was not until 2018 that Polaroid gradually became popular again due to people’s nostalgia for retro nostalgia and social needs, and became the new darling of young people in the digital age. Fujifilm, which ranks No. 1 in market share, calls Polaroid’s rise in popularity “resulting from the sudden resurgence of popularity around the world.”

Xiaomi Polaroid’s unexpected appearance has made many people think that “Xiaomi is redefining the industry”. In this regard, Xiaolei's view is that Xiaomi Polaroid may dominate the eyeballs in a short period of time, but the portable shooting mode cannot adapt to the characteristics of other mobile phones, which will eventually become the biggest obstacle to its continued expansion.

Source: Taobao

The reason why Polaroid is so popular among young people is because of its unique beauty; on the other hand, by gently pressing the shutter, When the flash lights up, the photo paper is ejected from the camera body and it is a ritual to wait for a few minutes. MIX Flip restores this sense of ceremony very well through the body-worn shooting set, but if used with other mobile phones, this scene will be replaced by ordinary photo printing.

There are so many channels for photo printing. We don’t even need to buy a photo printer ourselves. Printing a photo on e-commerce platforms only costs a few cents. From a cost perspective, this method can be said to be a replacement for replacement, and the advantages of Xiaomi's cost-effective Polaroid photo paper are completely lost.

Accessories support mobile phone sales, can the MIX Flip mode be reproduced?

Until the problem of body-worn camera adaptation is solved, Xiaomi Polaroid may not be able to subvert the original industry manufacturers. More importantly, the creative mode of the MIX Flip + body-worn camera set can be copied in batches. This is not only the case for other mobile phone brands to imitate and create their own "mobile phone + instant camera" products, but also for reference to the MIX Flip mode to discover more Mobile phone + accessories combination, using accessories to support mobile phone sales.

For example, everyone should have heard of Nothing, the "light factory" in the mobile phone industry. Its sub-brand CMF recently launched a new mobile phone product CMF Phone 1 with accessories as a gimmick. Xiaolei just got it yesterday mobile phone and tried it. The back panel of this phone can be replaced by itself, and accessories such as stands, lanyards, card holders, etc. can be connected at the same time. Although the configuration of CMF Phone 1, priced at 1,396 yuan, is quite mediocre and even a little behind, the sales volume of this phone has exceeded 300,000 within three hours of its launch. One hundred thousand units, it can be seen that a considerable number of consumers still value the playability of accessories.

Photo source: Photographed by Lei Technology

Similarly, the MIX Flip+ portable camera set also hit the pain points of specific groups, and this brought the concept of portable printers back to the forefront. Since the MIX Flip has just been released, Xiaolei cannot judge how much the body-worn camera set has helped the MIX Flip, but what can be confirmed is that the body-worn camera set has successfully brought the MIX Flip to people who do not pay attention to folding screen phones. Xiaomi’s move The publicity effect is huge.

It is foreseeable that in the future, more mobile phone manufacturers will refer to the MIX Flip model and closely connect accessories with mobile phones through customized functions, so that accessories can drive mobile phone sales. In fact, this is also the ecological interconnection that we are familiar with. At a certain level, PCs, smart homes, and cars can all be regarded as mobile phone accessories. They are interconnected and can provide users with more practical and interesting functions.

Written at the end

It is worth mentioning that the MIX Flip body-worn camera set is currently out of stock. Just now, the last device from Xiaomi Home near Xiaolei’s home was also purchased gone. Friends who want to try it out don’t have to worry, and there is no need to increase the price to buy from other channels. The shortage is mainly due to Xiaomi not expecting to be out of the circle, so it is not prepared enough. If you wait patiently for a period of time, I believe there will be sufficient supply of goods at the original price to be added to the shelves.

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