Domestic mobile phone companies are gradually becoming a climate, with brands rising, technology sinking, and ecology gradually expanding, preparing to compete with top global rivals During the battle, the sudden popularity of new energy electric vehicles made people feel a little uncomfortable. When zoomed in, this has almost become a new problem common to all major Chinese technology companies: when will they follow up?
Follow up early, get early card position, gain first-mover advantage, dividends are in sight, uncertainty is in the future, think about it Ten years ago when smart phones were just emerging, hundreds of domestic companies also entered. Now, how many companies have survived the fierce competition? No, new energy electric vehicles are most likely to become the next terminal computing platform that is equivalent to or even larger than mobile phones. To lose this opportunity is to be insulated from the most growing tuyere in the next ten years, and it will become more and more miserable in the process of marginalization. , In the end either stagnated or eliminated by the times.
It’s easy to understand that Baidu and Evergrande announced early The news of making electric cars has been constantly denied the contradictory mentality; besides the spotlight, don’t forget that there are always low-key OPPO and vivo in mobile phone companies. Recall that these two quickly switched from MP3 and DVD to feature phones and smart phones. There may be many possibilities in the future for the case of players that occupy the head of the game.
Analyzed from the technical route, now we should have a new perspective: personal computers, mobile phones, electric cars, and the future of the sky Manned aircraft, etc., are themselves on a long-term track composed of chips, communications, artificial intelligence (algorithms), big data, cloud computing, etc. Products at different stages have little difference in their own basic technical capabilities.
Based on this, a larger topic is in front of everyone. In the past 10 years, Chinese technology companies represented by mobile Internet and smartphone companies have played more and more roles in the global industrial layout. In the next 10, 20, and 50 years, domestic technology companies need to broaden their horizons and continue to Experience and accumulate in the emerging representative fields so as to gain more voice.
Is the electric car arsenic or honey? Putting it into this framework to examine, perhaps there is no need to have so many troubles and gains and losses. The key is that technology companies take the initiative to meet the storms of emerging technology products. They must be able to examine the real track, continue, boldly and firmly invest, balance scientific research and cash flow, straighten out long-term ideals and current tasks, and finally own them slowly. Core competitiveness. This is not a new topic, but a new round of opportunities.
Keep up with the times
After Tesla, China’s new car-making forces Weilai, Ideal and Xiaopeng have quickly followed up and achieved In the fourth quarter of last year, Ideal Auto even achieved a profit of more than 100 million yuan. But, to be honest, this new tuyere competition has just begun. Getting in first doesn’t allow you to sit back and relax.
At the annual meeting, taking advantage of the alcoholic strength, they asked the project leader to take this driven machine to OPPO CEO Chen Mingyong look. Chen Mingyong was surprised when he saw the thin body, “Is this a machine model?” He pressed the power button, and the screen turned on-the usual annual meeting boiled immediately, and it quickly turned into a project decision-making meeting. This product became the first year project Finder in 2012.
Bottom-up, sincerely cooperative small team innovation, has made OPPO a smart phone era Based on the work. Qualcomm employees who come to China from the United States on business trips will buy a few of them and bring them back to American employees when they return to China.
Conversely, when smart phones were just emerging, as a chip manufacturer, there was an urgent need for a chip that could prove itself Capable products, it must take into account power consumption, heat generation and slim body. These, they found it in the Finder. They are just a little surprised. The world’s thinnest mobile phone (6.65mm) is not from Samsung, nor is it the famous “China Cool Alliance” “, but a company called OPPO.
The OPPO company’s management is unremarkable. It is our responsibility to make products that are fascinating. In an era when Apple Jobs was in full swing, people who heard these words at most responded with a polite smile, and no one would take it seriously.
It’s like hearing that Weilai, the ideal founder, said that he wants to build a product comparable to Tesla.
Inject the soul of innovation
In March 2019, Tesla filed a lawsuit in California, stating that a former employee left Tesla and joined the small Peng Motors took away a large amount of Tesla’s confidential information on autonomous driving. Since this employee named Cao joined Xiaopeng Motors, he has been working in the autonomous driving department.
Autonomous driving technology integrates algorithms, computer vision, communication and many other cutting-edge technologies, which is the most advanced The part that is flexible and can best show the strength of science and technology. Tesla has a clear intention in this move, by suppressing its posture to show the outside world its image as a leader in autonomous driving.
Currently, electric vehicles are in the early stage of development, and there are still many areas to be further developed in technology. If the ability to innovate is sufficient, given time, domestic companies may not have the opportunity to overtake after catching up in the early stage. Successful cases can be found in the history of the smartphone industry.
When the 3G mobile phone was converted to 4G, several OPPO executives went to the 8th floor of Building in the US headquarters. This was originally a meeting to increase the friendship between the two parties, and there was no specific business negotiation task. However, as Qualcomm’s headquarter executives introduced the next 4G chips in ChinaWhen distinguishing the quotas, the OPPO executives who had just cleared 3G products from all channels and transferred to 4G mobile phones could not sit still. They found that according to the allocation amount introduced by Qualcomm, OPPO can only get about 1/5 of the required amount.
An OPPO executive expressed that it was unacceptable, which attracted the attention of Qualcomm people, plus the accumulated concerns of previous Finder products With the trust of OPPO’s capabilities, they temporarily changed the amount of 4G chips deployed and tilted their supply to OPPO. OPPO has obtained sufficient supply of 4G chips, and when China Mobile, which has been lagging behind in the 3G era, subsidized 4G cards to grab the market on an unprecedented scale, it has begun to show its strength and has become the number one 4G mobile phone in China.
The ending is happy. Really rational people know in their hearts the truth of doing everything and obeying the destiny. With Qualcomm as a global supply company, chips cannot always be in short supply. If you want to really dominate the audience and drive the rhythm, you have to fight hard.
In 2014, OPPO officially equipped Find 7 with low-voltage and high-current flash charging technology, greatly increasing the charging speed of mobile phones . According to former ATL battery expert Wang Shengwei, this is the first time that Chinese innovation has led the industry since Jobs released a smartphone.
Zhang Jialiang, the OPPO technical leader who invented the flash charger, said that many people questioned his plan at the time. Even some OPPO internal product managers said, “Your solution is good. Why don’t Apple and Samsung use it? Why should we take a risk to use it?” Zhang Jialiang replied so angry that the R&D personnel of these companies are also people, and we are also people. Why? We can’t compare to them? After repeated demonstrations and experiments, the flash charging technology changed from an optional configuration to a standard configuration on Find 7, and it was a great success after being introduced to the market. Zhang Jialiang recalled that if there was a little less attachment and a little less ideal at the time, there might be no flash charging system.
Two years later, this innovative feature is carried on the more affordable R series to help OPPO win In 2016, the sales volume in the Chinese market was the champion and the overall sales volume ranked fourth in the world. It is not difficult to innovate and operate in line with business logic to catch up and even surpass all opponents. These experiences are worthy of the tastes of various Chinese companies fighting in smart cars. The only challenge is to continue to obtain more innovations.
Hold your ideals down the wind
When we open our eyes and look around at those competitors, the bigger problems often come from ourselves. Take OPPO as an example. After the success of Find 7 in 2014, Find 9 was immediately put on the agenda, and management has higher expectations for it: Break the conventions in design, be stable in innovative functions, and continue to high-end positioning. , There must be a good performance in commercial sales.
In simple terms, Find is not only to be stunning, but also to be successful in business. Based on this product, the image area has planned innovative solutions such as a 5x periscope structure and dual cameras. The dual cameras are subdivided into black and white + color, main camera + background blur, and so on.
In order to realize the 5-part periscope structure, OPPO brought together 7 suppliers including Sunny and Sony for joint research and development . I even found Sony specifically and customized the advanced sensor of IMX519 to it.
However, too much and too high expectations suppressed the launch of Find 9, which ran away three product managers. On the one hand, there are too high expectations. On the other hand, R7 and R9 have achieved tens of millions of sales and 30 million sales. The business is very good.
A vice president of supply chain sales who knows OPPO well said, “Forbearance itself is the spirit of Find Kind of, if there are no good things and not explored well, I would rather not come out. In the past few years, OPPO’s performance was the best. Between the spiritual pursuit and the material sides, OPPO was a little inclined to materialism at the time because the profitability was good. Sales are also good, and the position in the industry is also high. That time was delayed.“
The consequences are very serious. Although the customized Sony sensor can be transplanted to R15, it is too late in time; dual cameras , 5x optical periscope structure, these ideas have been broken because they are not carried by Find products. OPPO’s leading position in the imaging field has been surpassed by competitors.
By 2018, after OPPO has a team to make a lifting structure, the front screen no longer has bangs like Apple Screen, insiders agreed that this stunning temperament belongs to Find, named Find X.
Find series restarted. This four-year ups and downs has made OPPO people more aware that it is easier to hold ideals when in adversity, and it is even more difficult for them to still cling to their ideals and not relax when the wind is smooth. If Find’s ten-year ideal journey has experience worthy of scrutiny by domestic technology companies, this is the most important one.
The relationship between the ideal of a great product and the real business. Ideal must come first; pursuing ideals may Unsuccessful, but there will be gains; completely rushing to the business, absolutely impossible to succeed. Must pursue something above profit.
In 2020, OPPO quickly adjusted its strategic structure and focus, clarified the positioning of mid-to-high-end products, Reno 4Reno5 and Reno5 have been launched one after another to stabilize the position; after Find X2 carries high-end breakthrough functions, in March 2021, the ten-year ideal Find X3 will be launched, and efforts will be made from the full link of 1 billion colors that few people pay attention to.
Now, more and more complex competitions are in front of you. Some business observers pointed out that mobile phone manufacturers entering the market to build cars will bring a new climax to the current car-making movement, because mobile phone manufacturers are better at doing user operations. Among the three new auto forces, Weilai surpasses the other two, but is actually moving in the direction of user operations.
From brand-level analysis, brands that have truly shaped high-end images in the personal computer, mobile phone and other industries must To a certain extent, it is conducive to transplanting some successful experiences to new car species. For example, the world’s number one mobile phone company, Apple’s car manufacturing has attracted much attention from the market. The domestic mobile phone company Huawei’s Mate series and OPPO’s Find series, these products come with high-end genes and extraordinary pursuit of temperament, which can well increase users’ love. The advantage of mobile phone companies is that the content ecology surrounding users has matured, and the cost of copying it into new car scenes is relatively low.
At the technical level, companies that truly plan the future will pay more and more attention to the investment in the underlying technology. With the advantages of chip level, communication level, and algorithm field, it will be more free to switch between different product forms in the hardware field. It is not difficult to understand that OPPO began to further lay out some underlying technologies in 2018 and proposed a 3+N+X technology strategy last year. After experimenting with aesthetic design and integration and innovation, this company freed up its hands to lay out the underlying technology in the long run.
The wind direction is favorable for Chinese companies. China is different from the United States in that it has a larger single consumer group, more data, and a more relaxed legal environment for innovation.
Imagine that China is vigorously promoting electric vehicles. After being scaled up, in a relatively complete market, some scale The functionalization is easier to implement. For example, it is possible to require all vehicles on the road to be equipped with the same standard chip, and to set a safe distance through the chip and communication, and automatically brake and lock before the collision is predicted during driving. In this way, we can take the lead in eradicating car-to-car accidents in southern Chinese cities forever.
Who will ring the death knell for traditional car companies? If you think about the real competition, mobile phone companies don’t need to be restless and troublesome. After all, the era of integration of everything forwards, the difference between mobile phones and cars is far smaller than the difference between traditional cars and smart cars.