Beijing, January 26 news (reporter Huang Angjin) In response to the news that Geely's mobile phone company will acquire Meizu reported by a number of media in recent days, Geely responded to the reporter of the Central Broadcasting Network: "We do not comment on market rumors, the high-end mobile phone research and development business of the Xingji era is progressing in an orderly manner, and we hope to create an open and integrated ecological partnership." As of press time, Meizu has not replied positively.
Market rumors are not empty, an industry insider close to Meizu revealed to the Central Broadcasting Network reporter that the two sides are currently communicating on the details of the acquisition.
In fact, Geely's determination to lay out the mobile phone market was determined last year. Also in 2021, Meizu launched the "double flagship" and "triple zero system", and recently announced that the charm blue mobile phone is about to return, how to "sell itself" now?
No longer "small and beautiful", Meizu is forced to survive
Before the acquisition rumors, one of Meizu's hot events was the "short-lived" of its "triple zero system".
In March 2021, at Meizu's spring new product release week, the trailer premiere, Flyme 9 operating system, and Meizu 18 series 5G dual flagship were released in three days. Among them, the Flyme 9 operating system is also known as the "triple zero system", that is, "0 advertising 0 push 0 pre-installed".
According to the Central Broadcasting Network, the Flyme9 operating system has four major functions to strengthen privacy protection, including giving users more permission options, AND blocking actively blocking applications to wake each other up.
However, only half a year later, on September 9, 2021, the @Flyme's official Weibo released a "Letter to Meizu Users", clearly stating that "in the face of fierce competition", "Flyme maintains a consistent operating strategy with the industry under the premise of adhering to the premise of giving priority to user experience." ”
Last November, Meizu announced that the Charm Blue mobile phone was about to return. Its official poster reads: "In addition to the bright and beautiful appearance of the high-priced flagship you sing my debut, in the market of thousand-yuan machines and even hundred-dollar machines that are used by more consumers but are not much concerned, the design and experience are obviously talked about, and few people are shouting." Subsequently, the Charm Blue 10 was unveiled at the Meizu Winter New Product Launch Held in mid-January this year, and it only sold for 699 yuan.
It is not difficult to see that in the face of the situation of less than 1% market share in 2020, Meizu has strived to make breakthroughs in the past year, and there is no lack of exploration in development strategies, and it is difficult to resist the pressure of survival after several struggles.
(Figure from CFP)
Industry insiders pointed out that objectively, the current domestic mobile phone market pattern is difficult to be broken; subjectively, Meizu has gradually lost its clear positioning and does not have outstanding advantages in the exploration from "small and beautiful" to "large and beautiful".
Fu Liang, an independent telecom analyst, pointed out in an interview with the Central Broadcasting Network reporter, "As early as two years ago, the domestic mobile phone market has been controlled by the top six mobile phone manufacturers in terms of market share, and the least one of them accounts for about 10%. After this, although the mobile phone manufacturers tried to break the game, they have achieved little at present. ”
According to a report by the consulting firm IDC China, in the third quarter of 2021, the Chinese smartphone market shipped about 80.8 million units, down 4.7% year-on-year. The continuous rise in the average unit price and the lack of product innovation to stimulate the shortening of the consumer replacement cycle have become the main factors in the continuous decline of the market. Compared with the first half of the year, the share gap of head manufacturers continues to narrow, and the market share of the top five manufacturers has exceeded double digits. In the third quarter of 2021, the market share of the top five smartphone manufacturers in China was: vivo 22.1%, OPPO 19.9%, Honor 17.3%, Xiaomi 13.6%, and Apple 13.0%.
"Meizu's target group is still niche consumers, and in the face of the impact of mainstream brands, it is difficult for 'small and beautiful' brands to give niche users the motivation to continue to buy their products." Fu Liang said, "Meizu has gradually lost its tone, its own characteristics have gradually weakened, and the existing differences are not enough for consumers to abandon mainstream brands and choose Meizu." ”
Sun Yanbiao, president of the First Mobile Phone Industry Research Institute, told the Central Broadcasting Network reporter that from the perspective of the development process of Meizu's mobile phone business, Meizu was "small and beautiful", and then tried to be "big and beautiful" without results, and tried to return to the positioning of "small and beautiful" again. "It has experienced a development cycle of domestic smartphones, with the rise of smart phones, there is a possibility of doing small and beautiful, but now that it has entered the post-mobile phone era, the market has left almost no room for small and beautiful."
In addition, in Sun Yanbiao's view, now that the era of smart wear has arrived, mainstream mobile phone manufacturers such as Huawei, Xiaomi, OPPO, vivo and other mainstream mobile phone manufacturers have continuously launched products such as headphones, bracelets, watches, etc., and have driven the development of related smart wearable device business through mobile phone products. In contrast, "Meizu not only failed to drive the development of smart wearable products through mobile phones, but mobile phones have become the burden of smart wear business development." Sun Yanbiao said.
"However, at present, Meizu still has at least a complete mobile phone research and development system and manufacturing system," Sun Yanbiao told reporters, and Meizu will face more pressure over time.
Grabbing the beach mobile phone business, Geely intends to expand the mobile Internet user base
For the buyer of the acquisition rumor, it is difficult to comment whether Meizu is the best choice. However, industry insiders believe that whether it is offensive or aggressive, Geely's entry into the mobile phone field is to understand that "the future car is a smart terminal" and strive to strive for a larger mobile Internet user base.
Li Shufu, chairman of Geely Holding Group, once said: "Mobile phones are rapid iterations of portable mobile terminals, and are application carriers for electronic product market verification and software innovation, which can not only allow users to share innovative achievements as soon as possible, but also transfer a safe and reliable part of the results to the application of automobiles, so as to realize the close interaction between car machines and mobile phone software technology." In the future, cross-border to build a user ecological chain, according to the law to build a corporate moat has become a major trend, mobile phones can link the Internet of Vehicles, satellite Internet, to create a rich consumption scenario, to strengthen the ecosystem, to provide users with a more convenient, more intelligent, Internet of Everything multi-screen interactive life experience. ”
In September 2021, Geely Group established Hubei Xingji Times Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Xingji Times"), and public information shows that the major shareholder of Xingji Times is Geely Group (Ningbo) Co., Ltd., with a shareholding ratio of 32.3077% and the ultimate beneficiary Li Shufu holds 6.1538% of the shares.
Geely said that the mobile phone business positioning high-end smart phones will give full play to the long-term experience accumulated by Geely and volvo ecosystems in the fields of design, research and development, high-end intelligent manufacturing, industrial chain management and the advantages of global layout such as the space-time Daoyu low-orbit satellite network under construction, and at the same time empower each other in terms of automobile intelligence, software capacity building, and technological transformation to achieve super synergy.
In response to this market rumor, Geely also mentioned in its response that "the high-end mobile phone research and development business of the Star Era is progressing in an orderly manner."
Sun Yanbiao pointed out that Geely's cross-border mobile phone field is similar to the logic of Internet technology companies such as Xiaomi. "Based on mobile Internet thinking and profitability, the cross-border of Internet technology companies is not a simple cross-border, but a cross-border with a business model."
"Geely's mobile phone business is to expand its mobile Internet user base." Sun Yanbiao told reporters that from the perspective of annual sales, Geely's current million-level user base is not equal to the mobile phone user base.
According to the "China Mobile Communication Industry Data Observation Report" released by the Daily Economic News and the third-party data agency CINNO Research, in the whole of 2021, the sales of smartphones in the Chinese market will be about 314 million units, an increase of 3% year-on-year. In terms of monthly data, in December 2021, the iPhone 13 won the domestic market single-machine sales champion for the third consecutive month with sales of about 2.04 million units.
In addition, Fu Liang said that in the current mobile phone market pattern is difficult to break, companies that are good at using related resources will have greater opportunities. "Taking Geely as an example, in the automotive industry, the connection between intelligent cars and mobile phones has made some breakthroughs. Whether it is software, hardware or services, the target market users of these related products can form synergies with these products through the purchase of mobile phones is the key. Enterprises that can use these related resources will have greater opportunities to break the current mobile phone market pattern. ”