Author 丨 Cui Liwen
Responsible editor 丨 Cui Liwen
Edit 丨 Chic
Unexpected, but also reasonable.
2022 may be the most saturated year of task volume since the establishment of NIO.
Visible to the naked eye, there are et7, ET5, ES7 three products test drive, delivery, the cumulative 200,000th new car off the production milestone, NAD automatic driving system landing and experience, the cumulative completion of 1300 substations, and the continued expansion of overseas markets, especially into Germany...
If it is said that in the past 2021, this new force car manufacturing is always plagued by the relative lack of marketing, then what is about to face is how to make the above matters, the communication effect is optimal, and then derived from the happiness troubles.
"Don't worry we don't have news, this year will dazzle the outside world."
Obviously, such a sentence can be used as the most appropriate description of the current state of mind.
And after surviving the darkest moment of hard work and unforgettable, after obtaining the help of the "white knight", it grasped the hard-won opportunity, and as the accumulated resources became more and more abundant, it had the courage to "toss" to achieve greater goals.
As everyone knows, this time, there was a sudden news that "Weilai wants to build a mobile phone". After hearing about it, the biggest feeling that came out of nowhere was: unexpected, but also reasonable.
01
No negation = affirmation in disguise?
In fact, the Weibo netizen who first broke the news was named "Logue Scout".
In his description, "Weilai mobile phone sector has recently moved frequently, and funds continue to increase investment, and the number of new offers has reached more than 100 years later." It is expected to add more than 200 R&D jobs in Shenzhen, both high and low, working in Qianhai Excellence Building. ”
Subsequently, he continued to add, "The relevant research and development team, in addition to mobile phone BSP, also has VR-related positions and is recruiting people. ”
Soon, it attracted another Weibo netizen "meat daddy than ev" the next reply, the overall outline of the rumors, but also became more perfect.
"Sources revealed that at present, Weilai's mobile phone business is determined to be done, and the project is currently in the initial stage of research."
"Basically excluding the possibility of OEM, the high probability is to do their own mobile phone, the mobile phone will have a lot of interactive functions with Weilai car, such as mobile phone & car machine file mutual transmission, AR, VR resource projection, NOMI voice assistant mobile phone version, etc."
At the end of the tweet, he also threw out two questions in succession, "If Weilai really has a mobile phone, what kind of price can you accept?" ”
"Will Weilai's first mobile phone be a straight board, a curved screen or a folding screen?"
At this point, combined with the information given by the two, it seems that there are already evidence of multiple dimensions, pointing to the new force building cars ready to enter the mobile phone business.
At the first time, after asking Ma Lin, senior director of corporate communications at WEILAI, the reply was: "There is no information to disclose at present, and further information will be communicated with you." ”
It does not directly deny the rumors. From this, I can't help but retort, can such an attitude be regarded as a disguised affirmation?
After all, combined with the current environment of the entire new energy market, "intelligence" has already had a situation that goes hand in hand with "electrification".
Looking further into the future, the former is even very likely to surpass the status of the latter and become the key to whether or not to buy a vehicle for the right and left end consumers.
For each car company, who can take the lead in providing the "closed-loop ecology" required for intelligence, who can occupy a large first-mover advantage. It just so happens that the smartphone is located in it, like a decisive "key".
It makes sense that Weilai's decision to lay out in advance makes sense.
As everyone knows, as the rumors continue to ferment, from the further news of 36Kr, Weilai wants to build mobile phones, there is indeed a thing, the former Meitu mobile phone president Yin Shuijun has joined, taking the lead in responsible for related business.
At this point, it can be said that the hammer is added.
However, the response given by Weilai officially is still very subtle, "There is no information to disclose at present, and further information will be communicated with you." ”
02
There are lessons from the past
During the Spring Festival holiday just past, I drove a NIO ES8 for a long time, departing from Shanghai to Wuxi, Nanjing and other cities.
The most gratifying thing is that in the extremely difficult winter in the south, every morning through the mobile phone APP, remotely turn on the air conditioner in the car in advance and adjust the temperature to 26 degrees Celsius.
Occasionally, if you forget to carry the physical key, you can also unlock the vehicle directly through the Bluetooth function of the mobile phone APP.
Each time, before you get ready for your next destination, you can navigate through your phone, search directly for the location of the power station along the way, and then send it to the vehicle.
Three simple scenarios can already reflect the increasingly close interconnection between smart phones and smart electric vehicles.
Even if at some times, when using some functions of weilai's official APP to control vehicles, there will still be certain flaws and even bugs, but compared with the corresponding experience that most car companies on the market can currently provide, it has been much better.
Such a performance brings its own users a greater imagination space. At the same time, it also requires Weilai to continue to develop in depth, so that between smart phones and smart electric vehicles, more gameplay and novelty will be derived.
With this as a background, looking behind Weilai's decision to enter the mobile phone business, I always feel that the so-called "making mobile phone" in the rumor is more like a cover on the surface.
What I really want to explore is: the internet of everything between people, cars and lives, and mobile phones are the best bridge to connect each other.
At present, taking Huawei Hongmeng as an example, it has undoubtedly formed its own ecological closed loop.
After the arrival of the new model M5, it can be regarded as a good model only in terms of the connection between its car screen and Huawei mobile phones and watches.
Earlier, Geely also officially announced that it had officially entered the field of mobile phones, positioning high-end smart phones, integrating global technologies and resources, and serving the global market.
In Li Shufu's cognition, "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 cars, 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 moat of enterprises has become a major trend, mobile phones can access 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."
His deeper thinking about the mobile phone business mainly focuses on three aspects:
First, the essence of making mobile phones is to form a mutual empowerment of the automobile business and form a synergy effect;
Second, in order to open up the interaction between the mobile phone terminal and the car terminal software technology and application ecology;
Third, and the most critical point, it tries to create a user ecology and form a corporate moat.
For reference, with Geely's previous experience, even if no news has been announced, the underlying logic of Weilai's mobile phone business seems to be similar.
In the end, in order to get the "initiative" of the interconnection of all things between people, cars and lives.
03
Making money is not the goal
At the beginning of this paragraph, I first want to share the current situation of the smartphone sector. To sum up, it is: a red sea + more and more inner volume.
Since 2007, when Jobs, standing in the spotlight, released the first generation of iPhones, the "war" in this section has continued for more than a decade.
By last year, apple, Huawei, Samsung, millet, OPPO, vivo and other head echelon members were basically formed, and they continued to fight fiercely with each other, and weak brands were hindered by the lack of labels and resource depletion, and gradually disappeared from the solidification of the stage.
What is more severe is that the data shows that after the peak of smart phone shipments in 2017, it showed a continuous downward trend, and the annual shipment decline in 2020 was 8.8%. With this, there are also most manufacturers, and the double decline in turnover and profit margins.
In other words, the days of comfort and money are gone.
Because of this, when the dividend gradually dissipates, the bottleneck of the smart phone sector becomes more and more obvious, and the new business growth point cannot appear for a long time, for the above-mentioned enterprises, it is urgent to switch tracks and find new outlets.
Soon, smart electric vehicles, which are still in the sunrise stage, have become their common choice. What followed was a vigorous "new car-making movement".
And this is more like a forced attack made by mobile phone manufacturers.
In contrast, taking Weilai and Geely as an example, choosing to enter the smartphone business is more like an active defense.
Especially in view of the current environment of the entire market, automakers invest certain manpower, material resources and financial resources to quickly make money and achieve profits, which is certainly not the main purpose and cannot be achieved.
Therefore, at present, in order to open up the interconnection with the main business, or even feed back, so that consumers have a better car experience.
As for whether to choose to cooperate with mature mobile phone manufacturers for joint development, or to personally master the entire supply chain for the whole machine manufacturing, you need to weigh the pros and cons.
However, it is certain that no matter what choice is made, after Weilai and Geely, more car companies will announce the entry into the smartphone business.
This exploration and game of a new ecological model will have huge variables and surprises before the typical model appears.
At the end of the article, I still want to say that I clearly remember that Qin Lihong made a very firm promise in an interview at the end of December last year: "Next, no matter what Weilai does, it must change the electricity, and it is not Weilai that does not change the electricity." ”
Of course, as a witness to the scene, I know that the target he refers to is a smart electric vehicle.
But at this moment, I can't help but make an interesting assumption, if there is really a smart phone printed with the "NIO" logo on the market in the future, will it adopt a retro model of "changing electricity" in order to maintain the inheritance of Weilai?
Another question is focused on whether someone will really give up Apple and Huawei, which are very accustomed to using the current "NIO" brand mobile phone?
It must be admitted that standing at this point in the moment, no one can give an answer. And making mobile phones, is it another "not doing business" in Weilai?
You can only say, "Don't worry, wait and see, leave it to time to judge." ”
Cui Liwen
Love the car as fate,
More love electric cars
Editor a ~
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