With the gradual disappearance of the incremental market, mobile phone manufacturers began to game the stock market, the advantages of head manufacturers were further highlighted in the industry reshuffle, the living space of small and medium-sized manufacturers was shrinking day by day, and the survival pressure was increasing.
Meizu, once known as the "originator" of Internet mobile phones, has now reached a new crossroads.
Recently, some media reported that Geely Group's mobile phone company is negotiating with Meizu for acquisition and is currently in the due diligence stage.
In this regard, Meizu did not make a substantive response; Geely did not comment on the rumors, but said that its mobile phone company Xingji era's high-end mobile phone research and development business is being carried out in an orderly manner, hoping to create an open and integrated ecological partnership.
According to Caijing, Xingji Times is in contact with Meizu to negotiate the acquisition and is currently in the due diligence stage.
Meizu struggled to survive
As smart phones enter the 5G era, head manufacturers occupy an overwhelming advantage, while the market share of small and medium-sized manufacturers such as Meizu is constantly squeezed, and it has gradually become a niche brand in China.
▲ The picture is from Meizu Technology
According to data released by market research agency BCI, in January 2021, Meizu's market share was only 0.1%. Compared with the sales of more than 20 million units at the peak, the annual sales volume is only about 2 million units, which is less than a fraction of the head manufacturers.
Meizu has also sought to break through high-end products, but the high-end road is not smooth. Since the beginning of Meizu 17 series, Meizu has abandoned the low-end market and fully moved towards the high-end market, but the demand of the entire market has begun to be more segmented, and functional differentiation has become an important consideration for manufacturers' product positioning, especially after entering the popularization of 5G, the high-end market has become a contest of technical "hard" strength, and Meizu simply relies on supply chain integration to break through the "ceiling" of head manufacturers.
Meizu also hopes to cater to the market through differentiation, and the Meizu 18 series launched last year played the slogan of "three zero mobile phones" (zero advertising, zero push, zero pre-installation), but the reality gave Meizu a slap, and the three zero mobile phones did not become the highlights that impressed consumers.
After only half a year, Meizu finally canceled this measure because of too much competitive pressure and returned to the old road of making money from advertising.
In the high-end market failed to meet expectations, Meizu almost no longer insisted on betting on high-end play, and returned to the low-end market.
Launched in January this year, the Charm Blue 10 series, priced at 699-899 yuan, uses Unigroup Zhanrui's Tiger Ben chip, which is defined as a "smart phone basic model".
However, the low-end market is basically occupied by the sub-brands of head manufacturers, redmi, realme, iQOO and other brands are hot, and there are several products in each price segment, leaving almost no room for other brands.
In addition, there are product technical advantages, product iteration speed and other issues, which are the problems to be faced by the return of charm blue.
In addition, Meizu's personnel changes have also attracted considerable attention from the outside world.
In 2018, Meizu's senior management changed blood, Yang Yan, Bai Yongxiang and Li Nan and other executives have left, and Meizu's senior management team has rarely seen the figure outside the family. At the beginning of 2021, Huang Zhang also gave the position of CEO of Meizu to his brother Huang Zhipan.
In today's solid mobile phone market, the chances of Meizu being able to break through are becoming more and more slim.
Geely intends to negotiate the purchase of Meizu, intending to interconnect the car and machine?
Although the mobile phone market has peaked, as an important entrance for people to enter the digital world, mobile phones still have a lot of room for development, especially with the advent of the 5G era, new technologies and new means have also begun to rise, and the interaction experience between people and mobile phones and car machines has become more and more concerned by consumers.
▲ The picture is from Geely Automobile
According to the data, the Star Era, founded by Li Shufu, was established last year, and the project headquarters settled in wuhan economic and technological development zone, positioning high-end smart phones, integrating global technology and resources, and serving the global market.
"The mobile phone business is of great significance to the entire Geely automobile industry. The better development of mobile phones can bring better development of vehicles and machines, and the better development of vehicles and machines can promote the continuous improvement of the level of intelligent cockpits, which can help the competitiveness of intelligent electric vehicles to continuously improve. For making mobile phones, Li Shufu said publicly last year.
In the eyes of the outside world, Geely's acquisition of Meizu is paving the way for the interconnection of cars and machines.
The evolution history of the car is very similar to the mobile phone, from the beginning of the basic mechanical structure, the development to the focus on intelligent hardware, and then to the combination of hardware and software, and now it is gradually evolving into a large mobile terminal with a sense of technology, the car began to become like a mobile phone, interactive functions are more and more abundant, such as touch interaction with the screen, voiceprint recognition, fingerprint recognition, facial recognition inside the car, etc.
Since Meizu manufactured smartphones in 2009, its software system called Flyme OS has been recognized by many users in terms of design and use experience, helping Geely create a better vehicle-machine collaboration experience.
For Meizu, who is still struggling to survive, being acquired by a big factory seems to be the best destination, which can better release its brand value. I believe that the future dynamics of Meizu will be revealed soon, let's wait and see.
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