Text/Ball Review/Zi Yang Proofreader/ZhiQiu
The problem of global core shortage has been continuing since the end of 2020, and now, there is still no sign of improvement, especially in the automotive industry, many car companies have alleviated the pressure of core shortage by reducing production.
In contrast, in 2021, the lack of core does not seem to have much impact on the mobile phone industry, mobile phone manufacturers have launched their own products as scheduled, and the supply of mobile phone products is also very timely.
The lack of cores is worse than expected
Originally thought that the mobile phone industry in this lack of core environment can survive safely, but in fact, the global lack of core spread is far more serious than imagined, the two well-known mobile phone giants Samsung and Apple have not been spared.
Specifically, on December 22, the fast technology news, the well-known person @ mobile phone chip master said that the iPhone 14 series released in 2022 will only use the latest A16 processor, other versions or continue to use A15 processor.
According to the whistleblowers, the reason why the iPhone14 series uses a hybrid core solution is mainly because the new generation of A16 processors is understocked, compared with only one-third of the A15.
On the Samsung side, @Jon Prosser, a well-known whistleblower, said that due to supply chain problems, the release time of the new generation of Samsung S22 series will be postponed to the end of February.
In fact, due to the lack of cores, the Samsung S21 FE had to be postponed many times. If there is no accident, the release of the Samsung S22 series has been delayed, most likely because of the impact of chip shortages.
How should domestic manufacturers respond?
From the above point of view, because of the impact of lack of core, Apple and Samsung have caused different degrees of impact, especially Apple, the impact is not small.
You know, Apple's A series processors launched by each generation have attracted much attention, and it is also one of the main reasons why consumers buy iPhone products, and now, because of the impact of lack of cores, A16 processors are understocked, and the iPhone14 series can only use mixed cores, which is bound to affect the overall sales of iPhone14.
For domestic mobile phone manufacturers, Samsung and Apple have been affected by the lack of cores, and naturally it is impossible to be alone. You know, Samsung and Apple's layout in the chip industry chain are extremely perfect, such as Samsung has the ability to produce chips, Apple has TSMC's preferential treatment, has an exclusive Apple chip production line, they still failed to avoid the impact of lack of cores.
So, how should domestic mobile phone manufacturers deal with the impact of lack of cores?
As we all know, in addition to Huawei, in terms of the core chips of mobile phones, Xiaomi, OV, and Honor do not have the ability to develop themselves, and can only rely on third-party chip manufacturers.
In other words, whether domestic mobile phone manufacturers will be affected by the lack of cores, mainly depends on whether the third-party chip manufacturers supply in a timely manner, and the initiative is not in the hands of domestic mobile phone manufacturers.
Therefore, in order to avoid the impact of lack of cores, the best solution for domestic mobile phone manufacturers is to hoard chips in advance for unforeseen needs.
Fortunately, domestic mobile phone manufacturers have more choices in chip procurement, and the risk of missing cores is reduced a lot. In the past, the chips purchased by domestic mobile phone manufacturers mainly came from Qualcomm.
Nowadays, in the mobile phone chip market, there are two more domestic chip giants, MediaTek and Tsinghua Unigroup, among which MediaTek's strength can already keep pace with Qualcomm.
For domestic mobile phone manufacturers, chips can be purchased from MediaTek, Tsinghua Unigroup, and Qualcomm, and the supply pressure of these chip manufacturers will also be alleviated.
Supply chain autonomy is king
In fact, in the face of the problem of lack of cores, relying on third parties is not a long-term solution, for domestic mobile phone manufacturers, there are too many uncertain factors, such as chip prices, once the third-party chip manufacturers in the absence of cores to raise the price of chips, domestic mobile phone manufacturers will not have any bargaining power, can only silently accept.
Therefore, domestic mobile phone manufacturers want to go further, chip autonomy is particularly important, no matter what situation is encountered, as long as the chip autonomy rights in their own hands, the risk can be minimized.
For example, Samsung, although affected by the lack of cores, the high-end flagship was postponed, but Samsung has the ability to design chips and the ability to produce chips, this lack of cores will soon ease, and the risk control capabilities are far from Apple and Xiaomi OV can be compared.
At present, domestic mobile phone manufacturers have consciously laid out the chip industry, such as Xiaomi, vivo developed an imaging chip ISP, OPPO also launched a self-developed NPU chip, and it is still built by the 6nm process.
If there is no accident, Xiaomi and OV will further extend in terms of self-developed chips and develop the most core system chips, so as to realize the truly autonomous and controllable chips.
Write to the end
All in all, the independent controllability of the industrial chain is a problem that domestic manufacturers must solve, only in this way can they gain a firm foothold in the fiercely competitive mobile phone market.
It is believed that in 2022, domestic mobile phone manufacturers can successfully solve the problem of lack of cores, and look forward to their excellent performance.