Over the years, in the science and technology circle, we seem to have seen a lot of "mutual penetration". For example, "car manufacturing", mobile phone companies and even home appliance companies have a strong interest in car manufacturing, mobile phone companies such as Xiaomi directly set up a car department, Lei Jun as the person in charge to build cars; while other companies such as Huawei, Midea, etc., are through the way of capacity supply to join the car production chain, may not build their own cars, but can see their figure in some car products.
In turn, we also find that car companies seem to be very interested in entering other technology fields. As early as 2019, Geely Wang Chuanfu announced its entry into the field of mobile phones, and in early 2022, there was a news of "acquiring Meizu", although the purpose was unknown and later disappeared, but such rumors did bring us more reverie space.
Recently, there has been new news about the "car companies to make mobile phones", and Weilai Automobile seems to have the intention of entering the mobile phone industry. And compared with the "Geely acquisition of Meizu" this kind of anecdotal rumors, Weilai mobile phone seems to have been "imperative", not only released a large number of related positions of recruitment, but also found the former Meitu mobile phone president Yin Shuijun as the person in charge, it seems that weilai launched its first own smart phone will not be too far.
About this news, it is inevitable that there will be a lot of hot discussion, but most of the KOLs in the digital circle with Xiao Lei's observation hold a pessimistic attitude. Judging from the current market environment, smart phones are far from being called "sunrise industry", but a red sea, the industry oligopoly is quite serious, and the degree of "inner volume" is far from being comparable to the new energy vehicle track. Of course, the premise of looking down on Weilai mobile phone is that it is facing the mass commercial market, but the purpose of how Weilai makes mobile phones is not to compete with the "Huami OV", so the conclusion is estimated to be very different.
So, in the matter of Weilai's mobile phone, how much imagination space is there?
Do "Huami OV", or do you do "Gree mobile phone"?
Digital bloggers have looked down on Weilai mobile phone is not unreasonable, in general, the current situation of the smartphone market is obvious to all, in the case of many old players are struggling, it is almost impossible for new players to get a chance to survive.
Not long ago, CounterpointMarket Monitor announced the latest share of the Chinese smartphone market in Q4 2021, Apple won the top spot with a 20% share with the strong performance of the iPhone 13, Honor ranked second with a growth rate of 100%, and then vivo, OPPO and Xiaomi, the "Others" share fell by 60% year-on-year and only 14%, while the overall market size growth rate was -11%.
According to these data, we can sort out the following information: First of all, the market environment of smart phones is not good, even in the context of the global hot sales of iPhone 13 and the frequent occurrence of new domestic mobile phones, negative growth data is still recorded, and consumers' willingness to buy smart phones is weakening. Secondly, the head manufacturers further expand the market dominance, and the market share of other manufacturers has been compressed to a very small volume, and perhaps this momentum will continue to intensify in the future.
Therefore, as a "mobile phone newcomer", if Weilai wants to enter the Chinese mobile phone market at this node, unless it has a breakthrough innovation comparable to the first generation of iPhones, which can make the entire market vibrate and make tens of millions of consumers turn against it, it is unlikely to stir up too much splash in the Chinese smartphone market, which has entered a white-hot stage of competition.
So, if Weilai mobile phone enters the foreign market, can it find another way? In this regard, Xiao Lei believes that Weilai Automobile has not yet been able to go out of China to be recognized by overseas markets, so what does the self-made Weilai mobile phone use to influence overseas consumers and persuade them to buy a completely unfamiliar brand product from China?
Personally, I think that whether it is Geely or Weilai, their mobile phone business is unlikely to achieve much in the consumer market, but if you change the perspective, the mobile phones made by these car companies are "accessories" for car owners, then the situation may be much better.
Speaking of this, Xiao Lei remembered the famous "Gree mobile phone", and the "Gree mobile phone" launched by the white goods manufacturer also once tried to sell externally, but unfortunately the results were not ideal, and finally it could only be digested internally and became the "standard" of Gree employees.
Knowing that Gree mobile phones are not easy to do, why does Dong Mingzhu still insist? The reason is that Dong Mingzhu believes that the hub of the future smart home will still be a mobile phone, which needs to be controlled by a mobile phone, so this is a matter of "ecological commanding heights". Today's car companies to make mobile phones, it seems that the reason is similar, in the era of intelligent cars and mobile phones between the linkage communication needs greatly enhanced, smart phones can not only become car keys, but also remote control of vehicles on the mobile phone, such as starting the vehicle, turning on air conditioning, etc., the deep combination of smart phones and cars has become one of the trends.
At the MWC in 2020, Apple announced that it would bring a "CarKey" feature to the iPhone, which would support the action of "phone unlocking the vehicle", and BMW became one of the first brands to support the iPhone CarKey. Domestic manufacturers have made more radical efforts in mobile phone-car interconnection, such as Weilai itself can open the seat heating function on the vehicle through the mobile phone App, and as for what ignition starts and remotely controls the car.
It is not difficult to find that in today's domestic car use scenarios, smart phones have long been more than just a role in navigation, although we can drive without mobile phones, but obviously the car experience will be greatly improved with the cooperation of mobile phones, and this is likely to become the focus of differentiated competition in the future.
Geely and Weilai insist on making mobile phones, which is also a story about the "commanding heights". By producing exclusive models that are adapted point-to-point to maximize the comprehensive experience of cars and mobile phones, car companies are also racing to create unique advantages that are different from competitors.
Even, Geely/Weilai's mobile phone does not necessarily need to be purchased by the owner at his own expense, but is given to the owner as a standard accessory. The various kinds of big data legally obtained through the two terminals of cars and mobile phones are also conducive to improving the various capabilities of smart cars in the new era, such as user behavior perception, analysis, automatic driving and intelligent cockpit upgrades, etc. There is indeed a lot of imagination space.
In this way, Weilai mobile phone has become a "Gree mobile phone", but it is a better result.
Car companies make mobile phones, there is something to do
If there is anyone in the Chinese car company who is most likely to do mobile phones, in fact, Xiao Lei has a personal choice: BYD. What is not known is that Huawei has a large number of mobile phones manufactured by BYD, BYD originally has the ability to produce smart phones and even high-end smartphones, if it is announced that the next production of mobile phones, it seems that it will not be surprising.
Even so, so far there has been no news that BYD intends to produce mobile phones on its own, and I personally believe that BYD will not choose the mobile phone track and jump into the mire. At present, the added value that smart phones can bring to BYD is not high, and the product itself is not very profitable, and the supply chain is still long and difficult to manage. At present, BYD's new energy vehicles are in a difficult stage of product climbing, and they do not have the necessary and spare energy to operate and manage the mobile phone business.
Returning to the mobile phone itself, Xiao Lei believes that the smart phones launched by car companies may not be able to compete with mainstream brands in terms of experience, and it is not impossible to be abandoned by the car owner group.
First of all, on the most critical system, car companies do not have enough ability to adjust, coordinate, and optimize a set of mobile phone operating systems that meet the habits of mainstream people, which may make car owners use fewer or even abandon these car companies' smart phones. Whether it is Android or iOS, domestic mobile phones or Apple Samsung, they have spent a lot of time and manpower and material resources on system optimization, and the system itself has undergone several years or even more than ten years of iteration, and finally has today's stable and excellent experience.
Can a car company that is halfway out of the house really rely on the "banknote ability" to organize a huge team of engineers in a short period of time and create an easy-to-use, stable and mainstream mobile phone system overnight? Personally, I think it is almost impossible, after all, most of the car companies' car machine systems are not easy to use, and how to talk about doing a good job of mobile phone systems?
Secondly, although these car companies have indeed made some preparations when carrying out mobile phone business, such as hiring mobile phone industry veterans and forming teams, to be honest, their "combat effectiveness" is still far from the current head manufacturers, or even waist manufacturers.
Although automakers can quickly produce mobile phone products with good hardware configuration by purchasing supply chain parts, the effort to optimize and adjust the hardware is not something that can be done overnight. In other words, even if the mobile phone produced by the car company already has the strongest hardware, it may also lag behind the experience due to the lack of tuning optimization, and eventually end up with a "eating ash".
Finally, there is the problem of user habits, no matter how well the mobile phone of the car company is done, as long as it is not exclusive, Xiao Lei believes that most people will still use their Huami OV or iPhone. Now the status of smart phones is remarkable, not only is it the most important digital device in daily life, but also the hub of many intelligent ecosystems, basically what brand of mobile phone you are currently using, which means binding with a huge ecology. Convincing users to unbind with the current familiar ecology is an almost impossible task.
On the other hand, smart phones for cars are not a necessity in any way, not "without Weilai mobile phone Weilai car can not be used" situation, it is conceivable that it is simply "more convenient to use the car" This is difficult to become the reason why the owner will use his own car brand mobile phone as the main machine, not to mention that in fact, most of the car machine - mobile phone interconnection function, install an App can be done, and do not limit the specific model.
For this reason, Xiao Lei feels that car companies still have to do something to do in the mobile phone thing, and it is the best solution to combine the development prospects of new business and core business and complement each other. Relatively speaking, Xiaolei is not too much looking forward to Geely and Weilai being able to make any surprises in the declining category of smart phones, but hopes that they can learn the skills of smart phones in system optimization and interactive logic, upgrade the car machine capabilities well, and give priority to ensuring the experience of car owners rather than mobile phone users.