Lenovo robbed the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen1 starter this thing is actually very strange, this time he can get the start, because the use of Motorola American background, bypassing Qualcomm China, directly from the United States supply channel to take the chip.
At the Qualcomm (QCOM.US) new product launch on December 1, 2021, Lei Jun, founder of Xiaomi (01810.HK), announced that Xiaomi Mi 12 will launch the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip worldwide. But he was quickly punched in the face by Lenovo's mobile phone.
Qualcomm's chip uses ARM's latest v9 architecture, known as the strongest Android processor in history, compared with the previous generation of Snapdragon 888 to achieve a process of 5nm to 4nm, and cpu performance increased by 20%, while reducing power consumption by 30%.
Just when everyone thought that this year's Xiaomi 12 would be the same as last year's xiaomi 11, the world's first snapdragon 888, bringing another stunning conference, no one expected that on December 9, Lenovo mobile phone took the lead in releasing the Motorola edge X30, cutting off the debut of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip. Xiaomi's new machine series conference has been delayed until December 28.
However, it is worth noting that Xiaomi has not modified the statement that "Xiaomi 12 will launch the world's first Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip". At the same time, Chen Jin, head of Lenovo's mobile phone China, declared on Weibo that "the first strike is the real first launch", and repeatedly called the board friends, but Xiaomi did not respond positively.
Missed the first launch, is the upcoming Xiaomi Mi 12 conference still worth looking forward to?
Why did Xiaomi miss its debut?
According to foreign media Digitimes reported, before the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 yield rate by Samsung OEM is low, Qualcomm had to diversify the foundry, the current chip production capacity part of the transfer to TSMC, many technology bloggers believe that this is the reason why Xiaomi missed the first launch, Lu Jiu Finance on this issue with senior chip industry researcher Harry (pseudonym) to communicate.
First of all, Harry said: "This low yield is true, but mainly because of the challenges brought by the new process, Samsung and TSMC are facing the same problem, Snapdragon 8 Gen1 production capacity part of the transfer of TSMC is more like a cooperation between upstream suppliers, but this has nothing to do with the chip launch." ”
"Lenovo grabbed the Snapdragon 8 Gen1 starter this thing is actually very strange, this time he can get the starter, because the use of Motorola's American background, bypassing Qualcomm China, directly from the United States supply channel to take the chip."
Harry also told Lu Jiu Finance that the chip debut is actually a joint marketing between Qualcomm and mobile phone manufacturers, and the chip debut is a publicity point for mobile phone brands, and Qualcomm also hopes to improve its image and industry status through manufacturers.
According to the convention, Qualcomm each generation of chips will cooperate with various manufacturers to develop, in this process who helps Qualcomm more, it is possible to get the first launch, so it seems that Xiaomi's first launch is how to get it, so Lei Jun can announce at the Qualcomm conference on December 1 that Xiaomi 12 will be the world's first Snapdragon 8 Gen 1.
In fact, in addition to Xiaomi, OPPO, vivo, glory, true self and other mobile phone brands are the first batch of manufacturers equipped with new processing through the form of cooperation with Qualcomm, which can be seen from qualcomm China's promotional videos cooperating with various brands and interaction on Weibo. Looking at the whole network, the lenovo of the first Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 actually has no trace of interaction with Qualcomm.
However, why does Xiaomi suffer a loss in public opinion and do not respond?
Harry believes that at least in the Chinese market, Lenovo's Motorola has long been "no one", so there is no need to respond, for xiaomi now, and Lenovo mobile phone competition for the first time will affect the style, and snapdragon chips are not the only publicity point of Xiaomi 12.
According to Canalys statistics, the first three quarters of 2021 Xiaomi mobile phone global shipments of 49 million units, 52.9 million units, 43.9 million units, according to Lenovo Mobile Phone China head Chen Jin December 9 Weibo, Motorola expects 2021 mobile phone shipments of 53 million units, which shows that the two are indeed not in an order of magnitude: Lenovo mobile phone sales in a year, only equivalent to a quarterly sales volume of Xiaomi mobile phones.
Can Motorola revive?
Starting the Snapdragon 8 Gen1 really gave Motorola a taste of sweetness.
On December 15, Moto edge x30 was launched for 25 minutes with sales exceeding 100 million, which made Motorola, which had been silent for a long time, gain a long-lost voice, and grabbed the limelight of Xiaomi, which was a rare publicity point. On December 24, Chen Jin, general manager of Lenovo Group's Mobile Phone Business Department in China, said on Weibo: "Although it is out of stock, a shopping link of our Edge X30 in JD.com won the first place in the 3000-3999 mobile phone hot list.
But how long can this short-lived heat last? If you want to stay in the center of the stage, it is not enough to rely on the Snapdragon 8 Gen1, and lenovo mobile phones still face many problems.
Harry believes that the mobile phone is now an oligarch market, leaving little space for Motorola, this time edge x30 in addition to the Snapdragon 8 Gen1 has no highlights, which is why it is so eager to start the reason, and other friends are different, Motorola is in the life and death of the time, had to rely on the brush presence to survive.
First of all, there are many competitors in China's mobile phone industry, which brings about the problem of serious product homogenization and low profit margins. Therefore, Motorola had to lower the pricing of new products and attract consumers with the ultimate cost performance of 2999 yuan, as if imitating the route of "making a friend" of friends. However, such a low price may form an anchoring effect, making subsequent price increases a problem.
In addition, in terms of Motorola's current position, the brand has no bargaining power for downstream consumers and upstream suppliers. On the one hand, for consumers, Lenovo mobile phones can be substituted too much, Millet, OPPO, Vivo, Glory is also synonymous with cost performance; on the other hand, for Lenovo Qualcomm chips are too irreplaceable, and Qualcomm can choose too many mobile phone manufacturers, everyone's performance ceiling is locked by this SoC (System-on-a-Chip), can only rely on stacking and cost control competition.
Coupled with the public's deep-seated impression of Motorola, its brand tone seems to be difficult to keep up with the trend. Even if Motorola reproduces the tactics of friends, such as giving the ultimate cost performance, such as asking traffic stars to endorse, such as paying attention to the publicity of social platforms, but it is divorced from the time and place, these are just imitations of techniques, not the way to survive.
When can friends not grab Qualcomm?
Qualcomm chips are sometimes an option without options.
Intel does not give power, Apple Samsung does not give outside, Huawei is stuck in the neck of the American. The high-end road of domestic chips is still very long, and MediaTek, which is almost the only positive opponent, gives people the impression of low-end.
This is the problem facing all domestic Android mobile phone manufacturers. So far, there is no better solution.
After more than ten years of development, China's smartphone shipments have risen year after year, but the high-end road of domestic brands is not smooth, especially in the chip piece, domestic mobile phone brands are facing the dilemma of being stuck in the neck, Qualcomm is the mountain that cannot be bypassed. The Unicorn chip that may break the game has been suppressed under international pressure, and it has also made Huawei lose the mobile phone, and this year's Huawei mobile phone Q3 only remains 8%, down 22% year-on-year.
Among the world's top ten chip companies, Qualcomm's third-quarter revenue is the first, but it is actually very anxious. Although Qualcomm has become the king of the industry in the 3G era, everyone is not satisfied with Qualcomm's status at present.
First, the problem of power consumption. Now the process update of the mobile phone chip industry is very fast, and it is necessary to raise a level every year, such as this year's Snapdragon 8 Gen1 is a product that evolves from 5nm to 4nm, and Qualcomm only took two years from 7nm to 4nm.
However, although the breakthrough of the chip industry process is very large, Qualcomm has not solved the power consumption problem, such as last year's 5nm Snapdragon 888 because of the power consumption problem and the mobile phone heat is serious, and the task of heat dissipation is applied to the mobile phone manufacturers.
At present, brands face the problem of high power dissipation and two solutions, one is to increase the heat dissipation surface through design, and the other is to control energy consumption through technical means such as resolution reduction and frame rate reduction, but the cost of mobile phone manufacturers will increase, and the performance release of the final product will also be discounted.
The second is the problem of external competition. In recent years, MediaTek's step-by-step pressure has also caused pressure on Qualcomm, and this year's 4nm process is not only Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, MediaTek has also launched the same process of Tianji 9000, and the digital circle has listed the two running points PK, pointing out that The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is inferior to the Tianji 9000. According to the C114 communication network, the single-core and dual-core running scores of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 on the GeekBench 5 platform are inferior to the Tianji 9000.
However, Harry also explained that the running score data of the laboratory environment does not explain the advantages and disadvantages of the two, and at present, Tianji 9000 has not been officially commercialized, and the application effect on the product is the standard for measuring high and low. However, MediaTek's lead in low- and mid-range 5G chips has been expanding over the past two quarters. From the overall mobile phone market share, MediaTek has risen from the past 24% to 38%, achieving curve overtaking.
In addition, international trade relations are also a potential risk for Qualcomm. According to Qualcomm's third-quarter financial report, Revenue in China accounted for as much as 67% of Qualcomm's total revenue in 2021, but tensions in Sino-US trade relations have also been included in the risk warning, and there are many uncertainties.
On the one hand, the United States not only wants to "card" China's industrial development, but also can not give up China's huge market; on the other hand, Chinese manufacturers actively take goods from Qualcomm, but at the same time increase chip investment to pose an independent posture. Although objectively speaking, China started late in the chip industry, and it is difficult for domestic chips to surpass Qualcomm in the short term, after the Huawei "card neck" incident, China's resources have been tilted towards chips, and development is bound to accelerate.
Although There is still a lot of homework to be made up for chinese chips, we have never stopped catching up. From lenovo easy to get Qualcomm debut, and other big manufacturers do not deliberately grab this phenomenon, Qualcomm debut this publicity point may not be attractive enough, in the international cooperation and domestic development of the double cycle, looking forward to a future that makes Qualcomm fall into the inner volume.