Huaqiang North market share has been lost in large quantities, and those famous cottage machines have gone away?

Wen 丨 BT Finance You Li

Now that everyone has a smart phone, it may be difficult for the younger generation to imagine how the mobile phone can be used as a symbol of identity and status in the era of material scarcity. What is even more difficult to imagine is that in order not to lose face when going out, what kind of efforts people would make at that time, how many jokes and paragraphs were made, and the central acid was now enough to feed ten Feng Xiaogang and Xu Zheng.

In order to meet the shy but unwilling to admit poverty of consumers, at that time, in addition to honestly acting as an agent, the mobile phone market was also full of all kinds of unusual and strange ways of playing such as copycats, assembly, and renovation. Parts splicing, with false chaos, marketing first, research and development later, in the chaotic world, there is never a shortage of poor boys to turn over and become big guys, many later mobile phone industry bulls from such a scuffle to kill the blood road, save the initial capital, and then let the thousands of gold scatter.

How common are such stories? There is a glimpse of one or two in the statements of industry insiders. Old Ray, who has long followed the technology industry, said that in that era, "as long as you are not internationally renowned, you are a copycat machine." He listed several representative brands, Bird, Gionee, Nietzsche, Transsion... Maybe not all of them are familiar, but there are always a few that you have vaguely heard.

It is lamentable that they have been in the wind and water in those years, but now the same point is only left to withdraw from the line. At the end of 2021, looking back at these "originators of domestic mobile phones" and asking if you are okay, perhaps it is the last ripple of prestige left over from that year.

One of the top 10 mobile phone brands in the world

For the once-famous predecessor, the most cruel thing is to add a time fix in front of its past honor - the waveguide mobile phone, which is such a predecessor.

To return to the beginning of the waveguide story, we have to start from the 90s of the last century. Xu Lihua, the founder of Waveguide Mobile Phone, was just an ordinary employee at that time, and when he was working in a foreign-funded pager company, he saw a huge gap in the Chinese pager, so he immediately resigned and went it alone, and reached the peak of his business in 1998 with an annual sales of one million units.

At this time, Xu Lihua, who had a keen eye, realized that the imagination of pager products had reached its peak, and betting on the mobile phone industry might solve this dilemma. The grasp of the timing of the transformation allowed Bird to get the mobile phone production license for the first time, seize the market with a "regular army" attitude, sell 700,000 mobile phones in only one year of listing, and then win the title of domestic champion for six consecutive years.

Through the large-scale laying of offline channels and the boldness of 40 million just for the courage of CCTV, a classic line "Waveguide mobile phone, fighter in the mobile phone" resounded throughout the north and south, helping Waveguide to become the first Chinese enterprise to enter the list of the world's top ten mobile phone manufacturers.

Unfortunately, the good times did not last long, and after 2004, the state canceled the restrictions on mobile phone production licenses, and the evil consequences of emphasizing publicity over research and development appeared. It is understood that at that time, the price of pork was only single digits, and the cost of marketing by Waveguide within one year could reach 258 million, and the investment could be imagined. In contrast, Xu Lihua does not attach importance to technical self-research, the core technology is all from foreign countries, and the research and development cost of Waveguide is only more than 58 million.

The defeat of the previous subordinates will make a comeback, the emerging competitors will catch up, and the myth of the waveguide mobile phone will gradually decline, and now it can only be a manufacturer that provides motherboards for other manufacturers. According to the third quarter of 2021 financial report, Bird's operating income as of September 30 was 567 million yuan, although it increased by 40.44% year-on-year, but it was still less than the 10.84 billion annual revenue in the heyday of 2003. The good news is that at this time, Waveguide, finally achieved R & D more than marketing, the reporting period of Waveguide R & D expenditure of 11.69 million, sales expenditure of 3.241 million, although this awakening came a little late, but at least came, there is still hope.

Detachment from Asia to Africa

In 2006, the trend of Waveguide's defeat and retreat has been revealed, and Zhu Zhaojiang, who was the head of the international marketing department of Waveguide mobile phones, left to establish Transsion Technology overseas, focusing on the African and Middle East markets.

Zhu Zhaojiang chose Africa for a simple reason, he conducted field research in 90 countries, and finally found that the penetration rate of mobile phones in Africa is quite low, so the market space is extremely wide. Data show that in 2005, China's mobile phone penetration rate was about 70%, while the relatively underdeveloped east and west of Africa were less than 5%, and south Africa and North Africa and other regions were slightly better, but they were not much higher.

According to people in the technology community, there are very few brands willing to make mobile phones for african people, low profit is only the first hurdle, and complex and limited operators are the problem. Yi said: "At that time, there were more than a dozen operators in Africa, and the scope of each operator was not large, and once the user stepped out of the signal range of this operator, it would incur high costs because of cross-network dialing." ”

In order to solve these problems, TRANSSION replaces smart machines with functional machines, focusing on long standby, bulletproof shells and even four-card four-standby mobile phones to adapt to the market. In order to solve the problem that common algorithms are not suitable for African skin, TRANSSION developed dark skin tone camera technology; in order to solve the problem of circuit failure caused by excessive temperature difference between day and night, TRANSSION developed current control technology for ambient temperature detection; in order to solve the problem of human sweat damage interface in hot weather, TRANSSION developed a sweat-proof USB port. Through various models developed for the African market, TRANSSION has opened up a territory on this cake that is not easy to nibble.

With many efforts, transsion accounted for 3 of the top five african brands in 2017, and the export volume of 120 million was outstanding. There are even rumors that giving a voice-transmitting mobile phone when giving gifts in Africa is no less than a Porsche given away when asking for help at home.

In 2019, Transsion was listed, with an issue price of 35.15 yuan, and the stock price rose rapidly after the opening of the market, which once triggered a temporary stop. As of the close of trading on December 14, the stock price of Transsion Holdings was 153.21 yuan, more than three times the issue price, and the total market value reached 122.827 billion. As Jiang Ying, an observer of the investment industry, said: "Transsion technology is not leading, and the business model cannot be innovative, but it is serious." "And we all know that serious children usually don't live too badly.

The epitome of Huaqiang North

Another name that is closely related to the "cottage machine" is Huaqiang North, that is, the "China Electronics First Street" located in Shenzhen.

After the electronic communication entered China, relying on the speed of Shenzhen, the cottage machine stepped out of a Kangzhuang Avenue in Huaqiang North. According to Lao Lei, "Huaqiang North Cottage Machine, with its strong imitation ability and ghostly research and development capabilities, sells one-third of the price of brand mobile phones, and quickly swept the country, and even exported to backward areas such as Southeast Asia and Africa, and went to the world." ”

The difference between high-end consumption and low-end sources of goods has made many people earn a lot of money, and Chen Jinling, the "originator" of the cottage machine that has now become a broken homeless, is also one of them.

From the 16-year-old stunned to the top celebrity in the cottage machine market, it did not take Chen Jinling much time. When he first arrived in Huaqiang North, he went to work in other people's shops during the day, studied the assembly of parts behind closed doors at night, mastered the technology and chen Jinling pan the next façade, and accumulated the first bucket of gold and priceless connections with small profits and long-sleeved good dances.

The big boss with a first-hand supply appreciates him, and Chen Jinling himself has the ambition and desire to expand his business territory. Under the hit, Chen Jinling directly got the sole agency right, chased the fashionable production cottage machine, in addition to self-operated retail, but also to other stores. In this way, Chen Jinling made a lot of money and had a happy family.

However, with the launch of Smart Phones by Apple, MediaTek, which provides upstream chips for Huaqiang North, has fallen behind, and without core technical support, it is difficult for Qiao Women to cook without rice. Huaqiang North cottage machine market share began to lose at this time, after which telecom companies subsidized the price of smart phones, "China Cool Union" is to further squeeze the living space of cottage machines, Chen Jinling therefore withdrew from the cottage machine market.

Later, Chen Jinling's investment in Apple failed, he was fooled by many projects from unknown sources and took away a large amount of money, his former friends gradually cut off contact, his wife also left him unconsciously, and Chen Jinling, who was difficult to turn over, suddenly became a madman. There are also reports that there are no shortage of friends who sent him for treatment, but he no longer cares after he ran out of the rehabilitation hospital several times. Now Chen Jinling sleeps on the street and is lost near Huaqiang North.

The torrent of the times is rolling, and if some people are proud, some people will be frustrated. Some people think that the waveguide mobile phone is the epitome of the cottage machine, and Chen Jinling is the epitome of Huaqiang North, and their rise and fall reflect the passage of time and also reflect the environmental changes. After watching these stories, I can only say that in a changing world, it may be really difficult for people to find their true selves.

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