Author | Qin Haiqing
Edited by | Liu Yang
Following the announcement of the impact on the world's first, Lei Jun once again showed ambition.
On the evening of December 28, Xiaomi released the third generation of high-end mobile phones Xiaomi 12, Xiaomi 12 Pro and Xiaomi 12X, along with MIUI 13, Xiaomi Watch S1, Xiaomi True Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones 3 and many other new products.
The most interesting point of this Xiaomi conference is that Lei Jun announced that he "officially benchmarked Apple and learned from Apple".
In 2011, Xiaomi released its first product, Xiaomi 1, in an attempt to break the monopoly of foreign brands such as Nokia, Motorola, and Samsung on the domestic mobile phone market.
Between the stars, Nokia was abandoned by the times, Motorola gradually lost influence, and Samsung lost china. From the perspective of market share, today's domestic mobile phone market is indeed the world of Chinese local brands, but in the high-end market, domestic mobile phones have long lived under the "shadow" of Apple.
Ten years after the release of Xiaomi 1, Lei Jun finally plucked up the courage and made up his mind to "declare war" on Apple. Xiaomi, which started with cost performance, why challenge "Big Brother"?
1. How to benchmark Apple?
In August this year, in xiaomi's 11th anniversary annual speech, Lei Jun shouted "three years, win the world's first". For the goal of millet, there is no shortage of industry insiders who are worried that millet has taken too big a step.
A week before the release of Xiaomi 12, Lei Jun proposed that "Xiaomi's high-end mobile phone officially began to benchmark Apple", and the relevant topic was on Weibo hot search on the same day. The doubts of "winning the world's first" have just subsided, and netizens have begun to comment on "Xiaomi benchmarking Apple".
At the Xiaomi Mi 12 press conference, Lei Jun bluntly said that he was "sneered at by some netizens", but he believed that domestic mobile phones should have the courage to compare with Apple.
In the second quarter of 2021, Xiaomi's global shipments surpassed Apple for the first time and ranked second in the world, although the third quarter was surpassed by Apple, but Xiaomi at least achieved a major stage victory, and more importantly, Xiaomi saw that the Apple empire was not without cracks that could be leveraged.
"If you want to surpass the technology giants, surpassing in sales is the first step", and more importantly, the next step is to surpass in products and experiences. Lei Jun laughed and said, "No, if you don't know, you will feel that the strength of domestic mobile phones is stronger than imagined." ”
The Xiaomi Mi 12 series broke with the past tradition and planned for the first time a large and a small "double size double high-end" specification. Among them, Xiaomi 12Pro is positioned as an "all-round high-end flagship", benchmarking Apple's strongest iPhone 13 Pro Max; Xiaomi 12 is positioned as a "small size high-end flagship", benchmarking Apple's main sales force iPhone 13.
Since the birth of smartphones, the size has become larger and larger, which is especially evident in the Android camp, in contrast, Apple has always maintained smaller sizes and has not even cut the mini version.
In fact, the small size flagship has a huge market demand, according to statistics, nearly 75-80% of the iPhone sales come from the small size of the standard version and Pro model. But in the Android camp, there has been a lack of a competitive small-size high-end flagship to compete with the iPhone, because in such a delicate, thin and light body, it is extremely difficult to achieve an all-round, board-free high-end flagship experience.
Today, the Xiaomi Mi 12 is trying to break the iPhone 13's monopoly position in small-sized high-end flagships. In a gold grip body of less than 7cm wide, the Xiaomi Mi 12 has undergone a comprehensive upgrade in performance, heat dissipation, image, selfie, charging and sound quality compared to the previous generation of Xiaomi Mi 11.
Lei Jun said at the press conference: "I think that being a small flagship requires not only strength and investment, but also the determination and courage to challenge Apple. ”
Look at the Xiaomi Mi 12 Pro, which benchmarks the iPhone 13 Pro Max, which is the top flagship of the year for configuration and experience, and has won a number of "world premieres".
Xiaomi Mi 12 Pro world premiere Snapdragon 8 top flagship platform; the world's first second generation of low-power 2K screen, breaking 15 new records, and for the first time to support the "intelligent dynamic refresh rate" technology; the world's first Sony's latest generation of top camera IMX707, self-developed "CyberFocus everything to chase focus" technology; to achieve the industry's first large-capacity single cell 120W safe fast charging.
Compared with the iPhone 13 series, the Xiaomi Mi 12 series is the "ceiling" of the industry in all aspects of the screen, camera, battery technology and technology.
2, R & D increased, 5 years to invest 100 billion
In 2020, Xiaomi officially began to attack the high-end mobile phone market, successively launching Xiaomi 10, Xiaomi 11, Xiaomi MIX4 and other models, coupled with the release of Xiaomi 12, Xiaomi's high-end road is becoming more and more stable.
Official data from Xiaomi shows that in the first half of 2021, the sales of Xiaomi's high-end mobile phones have exceeded the sum of the whole year of 2020. However, such achievements still did not meet the expectations of Xiaomi users, and with Lei Jun's announcement of benchmarking Apple, it raised everyone's appetite.
Benchmarking apples is a big thing, but whenever there is a big thing, Lei Jun will not hesitate to open the way at great expense.
Two years ago, Xiaomi released a five-year research and development plan, saying that it would invest 50 billion yuan in the next five years. In March this year, Xiaomi joined the car-making army, saying that it would invest $10 billion in the next decade.
Now, Xiaomi has upgraded its "five-year research and development plan" and announced that the R& D investment in the next five years will increase to 100 billion yuan, and it will die hardcore technology. 100 billion yuan also exceeds the total profit of Xiaomi in the 11 years since its establishment.
As 2021 draws to a close, Lei Jun said that this year may be the year in which he has been criticized the most by users, "After experiencing these tribulations and pains, I am more convinced of the iron law of Xiaomi - technology-oriented." ”
Up to now, Xiaomi has built a three-stage rocket system for technological innovation: technological innovation and leading experience in the core field of mobile phones; building ecological new connections in the field of "mobile phone × AIoT"; and laying out cutting-edge technology in the field of "new species".
Among them, in terms of self-developed chips that have attracted much attention, Xiaomi 12 has made new progress, and the first self-developed "surging P1" charging management chip has been launched, making Xiaomi the first mobile phone manufacturer with a self-developed 100-watt fast charging chip.
At present, all 120W fast charging on the market is a dual-cell architecture, and the surging P1 fills the technical gap of the industry's 120W single cell, breaking through the technical barrier that large batteries and fast charging above 100 watts cannot be taken into account, and the battery endurance of the same capacity is increased by 1 hour.
2021 is the 11th year of Xiaomi mobile phones and the 5th year of Xiaomi's surging series of chips.
On February 28, 2017, Xiaomi released the first self-developed mobile phone chip, the Surging S1, becoming the fourth company in the world that can develop and design chips and mobile phones at the same time. However, the "high open low walk" of the first SoC (System Level Chip) taught Xiaomi a lesson.
In the following four years, Xiaomi has invested in a number of semiconductor companies, and as of the beginning of 2021, this number has exceeded 40.
The surging core is beating again in the first half of 2021, the surging C1 was born as an independent ISP, it is independent of the motherboard, focusing on the image processing capabilities of mobile phones. There was no setback like the surging S1, the surging C1 market performance gave Xiaomi the confidence to continue to surge, and soon the Xiaomi Mi 12 was equipped with the surging P1.
Users outside the industry may not know that Huawei's self-developed mobile phone chips from K3V1 to Kirin 990 took 10 years to complete the marketization, and Xiaomi has achieved three chips in 4 years, quickly realizing systematic capacity building in soC, imaging, charging and other chip segments.
Core building requires the determination to break the boat. On the eve of the release of the surging P1, Xiaomi spent another 1.5 billion yuan to lay out a new chip company, Shanghai Xuanjing Technology Co., Ltd. Prior to this, Xiaomi had accumulated more than 730 patent applications related to "chips".
3, another meaning of benchmarking apples
Benchmarking Apple is an inherent requirement for Xiaomi to go to the high-end, and from the perspective of the entire industry chain, Xiaomi also has reasons to challenge Apple.
According to a report released by the research agency CINNO, Apple's iPhone sales in October increased by 155% year-on-year, returning to the first place in China after 6 years.
The importance of the Chinese market for Apple is needless to say, but Apple is transferring industrial resources to foreign countries, especially in the high-end market, Apple has eaten most of the share given up by Huawei, along with the Chinese supply chain in the fruit chain.
Apple, which is "full" in the Chinese market, has begun to accelerate the drastic "de-localization", and Chinese suppliers have been kicked out of Apple's supply chain. In addition, Apple has been repeatedly exposed to shifting production lines outside of China.
Entering the "fruit chain" was once considered the glory of Chinese manufacturing enterprises, but this glory is accompanied by risks, and being born to the "fruit" may also be tragically pit by the "fruit".
OFILM, which once ranked first in the world in camera module shipments, has evaporated from a high point of more than 50 billion yuan since being "kicked out" of the supply chain by Apple.
Domestic mobile phone manufacturers are becoming a "safe haven" for domestic supply chains. The domestic mobile phones represented by Xiaomi, VIVO and OPPO are not only more popular in the global market, but also jointly win 34% of the global market share, but also become the support for the domestic supply chain to resist the transfer of industrial resources and maintain healthy development.
In a word: strong domestic mobile phones will drive the domestic supply chain.
Taking the localization of core devices as an example, the screen of xiaomi mi 12 released this time adopts the display Mate A+ screen supplied by Huaxing Optoelectronics, which means that the high-end screen market of mobile phones is no longer Samsung's "independent kingdom".
In the field of intelligent manufacturing, Xiaomi has exported the new materials, new processes and advanced manufacturing technologies of Yizhuang Smart Factory to Lens Technology by establishing a joint research and development center with Lens Technology.
At the same time, Xiaomi supports the introduction of innovative technologies in the form of industrial investment and empowers advanced manufacturing. Since its establishment in 2017, Hubei Xiaomi Yangtze River Industry Fund has focused on domestic alternatives in recent years, investing in and building upstream industrial chains such as 5G-related RF devices, artificial intelligence, third-generation compound semiconductors, and advanced manufacturing equipment.
For example, Xiaomi's first-generation high-end mobile phone Xiaomi 10 series has three industries and related enterprises with a gallium nitride charger, graphene thermal conductive film, and WiFi6 chip. GaN charger is not well known before, Xiaomi through industrial investment, became the first gallium nitride charger separate retail enterprises, so that gallium nitride related enterprises into the 1 billion level of consumer market.
Up to now, Xiaomi has invested in 100 domestic enterprises, covering 100% of the core components of mobile phones, and 54% of which have been imported for cooperation. Xiaomi has continuously improved the localization rate of its products in its own mobile phones and AIoT products. According to statistics, there are nearly 60 domestic supply chain partners in the Xiaomi 12 series.
"Benchmarking Apple", including "impacting the world's first", is a Chinese technology company founded only 11 years ago, to a certain extent, also carries the mission of driving the domestic supply chain, and in front of Xiaomi is Apple and Samsung, two super rivals, although the task is long, but the future can be expected.