On January 21, according to 36Kr, the automobile company Geely Group is negotiating with mobile phone manufacturer Meizu for acquisitions, and the person responsible for negotiating is Wang Yong, general manager of Interstellar Times Technology Co., Ltd.
Long ago, Li Shufu, chairman of Geely, has determined that he will invest 10 billion yuan to make mobile phones, and established Interstellar Times Technology Co., Ltd., which is expected to launch products in 2023. In recent years, many mobile phone companies have officially announced cross-entry to do cars, such as Huawei, Millet, Apple, Meizu, etc., car companies to do mobile phones, it seems to be very normal, can directly acquire Meizu, is Xiao Lei Wanwan did not expect.
Meizu mobile phones were once a hegemon in the domestic market, but later the competitiveness was getting lower and lower, and it was in a state of loss for a long time. In 2020, with the Meizu 17 series, Meizu successfully achieved profitability and released the smart home brand Lipro at the end of the year. What everyone did not expect at that time was that Meizu cut all low-end models and turned to the high-end in an all-round way.
In the second half of 2021, Meizu finally realized that it was not enough to do only the high-end market, launched the mid-range mobile phone Meizu 18X, and released the 100-yuan machine Meizu Blue 10 some time ago. The problem is that Meizu has lost the low-end market, and the configuration of Meizu 10 is not good enough to obtain consumer recognition.
The head of the mobile phone industry is becoming more and more serious, everyone can see that in addition to Samsung, Apple, Xiaomi, OPPO, vivo, glory, other brands are difficult to achieve high sales. Meizu cut the low-end model and achieved a short-term profit, but it is definitely wrong in the long run.
Interestingly, before creating Xiaomi mobile phones, Lei Jun wanted to join Meizu, but was rejected by Huang Zhang. At the beginning of the establishment of Xiaomi, netizens often compared Xiaomi with Meizu mobile phones, in fact, starting from Xiaomi 1, the annual sales of Meizu mobile phones have never won Xiaomi. Today, Meizu is still the small factory in Zhuhai, but Xiaomi has become the world's top three mobile phone brands, and there are fewer and fewer netizens comparing Meizu with Xiaomi.
Mobile phone sales are getting lower and lower, cutting off low-end mobile phones is to drink and quench thirst, Meizu mobile phones are not low probability of being acquired by Geely. At present, Meizu still has no positive response to this matter, only expressing gratitude for its concern for Meizu, but Xiao Lei believes that being acquired by Geely is the best choice for Meizu. Just as Activision Blizzard was recently acquired by Microsoft, the acquirers are well-funded companies that can invest heavily in technology research and development.
There seems to be no accurate answer as to why Geely wants to make a mobile phone, and Xiao Lei believes that it is to match Geely's car. In recent years, many mobile phone manufacturers have cooperated with car companies to use mobile phones as car keys, such as Xiaomi and Xiaopeng. Geely is a leading domestic independent brand car company, and may not be willing to put down its body to cooperate with mobile phone manufacturers. When he confirmed that he wanted to do mobile phones before, Li Shufu clearly pointed out that the positioning was the high-end market.
Although Meizu's sales are not high, the software and hardware teams are there, and the supply chain control is relatively perfect, which can allow Geely to build a mobile phone as soon as possible. Therefore, this acquisition is a good thing for both Geely and Meizu.
So the question is, after being acquired by Geely, can Meizu still launch a new machine this year? Generally speaking, a mobile phone takes a lot of time from design to mass production to market. According to the release time of last year's Meizu 18 series, the Meizu 19 series is expected to be released at the end of February or March, and it is estimated that it has now been put into mass production.
Regardless of whether it will be acquired by Geely, the Meizu 19 series can be released smoothly, but the Meizu 20 series will probably not have any more, or there is, but it is no longer called Meizu.