Recently, some netizens broke the news that Weilai Automobile will enter the smart phone industry, and the current smart phone team in Shenzhen has carried out research and development personnel recruitment.
According to industry insiders, Weilai mobile phone basically excludes the possibility of OEM, but personally develops and designs. Not only that, Weilai mobile phones are likely to be high-end machines like Apple and Samsung. After all, Weilai's models are sold so expensive, and Weilai's mobile phones cannot be cheap.
For this news, Weilai said: There is no information to disclose at present, and further information will be communicated with everyone.
For the news, Weilai did not give a direct negative. The ambiguous answer seems to "indirectly" acknowledge the fact of doing the mobile phone business.
It is worth mentioning that as the rumors of "Weilai mobile phone" continue to ferment, 36Kr randomly broke further news: Yin Shuijun, the former president of Meitu Mobile Phone, has joined and taken the lead in taking charge of related business.
At this point, Weilai mobile phone can be said to add another stone hammer.
There are already "lessons from the past"
In fact, Weilai is not the first manufacturer to announce the manufacture of mobile phones, before Weilai, Geely has announced in a high-profile manner that it will invest 10 billion yuan to enter the field of high-end smart phones.
In September 2021, Geely officially established Star Era Company. According to the enterprise investigation APP, in September last year, Hubei Xingji Times Technology Co., Ltd. was established, the business scope includes mobile terminal equipment manufacturing, electronic product sales, 5G communication technology services, etc., Geely Group (Ningbo) Co., Ltd. is the major shareholder, holding 32.3077% of the shares, Li Shufu holds 6.1538% of the shares, and serves as the chairman of the company.
In January this year, Xingji Times (Geely's mobile phone company) was rumored to be preparing to buy Meizu. It is currently in the due diligence phase. Interestingly, Meizu neither admitted nor denied this matter, but expressed "gratitude for its concern for Meizu".
In addition to Geely, Tesla will also launch its own brand of mobile phones. According to rumors, the phone can be connected to starlinks, brain-computer connections, mining systems, photovoltaic charging and ultrasonic fingerprint sensors, full control and driving cars.
Full screen + solar charging + starlink + control car + brain-computer connection + mining... Many black technologies are simply left foot stepping on the iPhone, right foot stepping on Huawei.
However, the above features Tesla officially did not recognize. But a bit of Musk personally confirmed: in the future, Tesla's mobile phones can allow users to enjoy free Internet access.
Before xiaomi, Huawei, Apple, OPPO and other mobile phone giants have announced the manufacture of cars, and now Weilai, Geely and Tesla as the representative of the car companies have entered the mobile phone circle, somewhat no one obeys whose gunpowder smell.
However, for xiaomi, Huawei and other mobile phone manufacturers to enter the automotive industry, many people are actually not too surprised. After all, in recent years, there have been too many cases of technology companies building cars across circles, and everyone has seen them frequently. Moreover, today's automotive industry is experiencing electrification and intelligent development, a century of unprecedented changes, everyone wants to seize the outlet, a piece of the pie.
However, the mobile phone business is different, and the mobile phone has already completed multiple rounds of elimination system. At present, the combination of Apple, Samsung, Xiaomi and OV accounts for more than 70% of the global market. In opposition to this, a new car brand will be born in the automotive market in the short term.
In addition, according to the latest market data released by market research institute Counterpoint, the shipment volume of China's mobile phone market fell slightly by 2% in 2021.
Therefore, this makes people wonder: why do Weilai and Geely want to enter a shrinking market in a big way?
The drunkard's intention is not to drink
Mobile phones are now an extremely involuted Red Sea market, if you want to make money, car companies do not have to put funds into the "basket" of mobile phones. Not only may not be able to "lay eggs", but even "smash hands".
Therefore, for Weilai, Geely and Tesla, the fundamental purpose of making mobile phones is obviously not to make money.
1. Create an intelligent ecological chain and master the "soul" in your hands
Weilai's mobile phone is actually the same as the starting point of Geely and Tesla, and the fundamental purpose is to create its own intelligent ecological chain. In the words of Li Shufu, chairman of Geely, the next game of cross-border integration, strengthening the ecological circle, and creating a moat is a big chess piece.
In Li Shufu's view, "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 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."
Such a "vision" seems to be somewhat similar to the concept of "ecology" proposed by another manufacturer, LeTV. Shortly after LeEco released its LeEco mobile phone, it soon announced its entry into the field of car manufacturing. Jia Yueting hopes to open up the top-level logic and realize the interconnection of all things through the layout of mobile phone + content + car + terminal.
For example, remote control of the car can be realized through mobile phones, keyless unlocking/starting, intelligent driving assistance, and file interaction functions, ARVR resource projection, and voice assistants.
Of course, some people will say that these technologies can be achieved through the development of app, why bother to build mobile phones?
In fact, at present, Baidu, Xiaomi, Huawei and other technology companies are working hard for the interconnection of the entire ecological chain system of cars, families and mobile phones, which has also become an important trend in the intelligent automotive industry.
Earlier, CHEN Hong, chairman of SAIC, said on whether SAIC would consider cooperating with third parties such as Huawei in autonomous driving: "SAIC is unacceptable and must take its soul into its own hands." Therefore, similarly, in the face of the ecological chain of car-home-mobile phone, car companies also need to take the "soul" into their own hands.
2. Improve the strength of software research and development
For car companies, making mobile phones can also greatly improve their software research and development strength to some extent. Compared with the perfection of the mobile phone system, the current car machine system is slightly inferior in terms of functionality, fluency and human-computer interaction.
Then, after the car company enters the mobile phone, it can not only improve the research and development strength of its own software, but more importantly, it can further communicate and adapt the car machine system with the mobile phone system.
For example, NIO mobile phones will add a large number of interactive functions with NIO cars, such as NOMI voice assistants, through the association between locomotives, improve product intelligent experience and services.
3. Improve the stickiness of brand users
Just like Xiaomi and Huawei, when they have huge data and user groups, expanding other businesses can make users dependent and sticky. For example, many rice noodles will also go to Mijia to buy various smart household items while owning a Xiaomi mobile phone.
Therefore, for Weilai car owners, when they own a Weilai car, they will not mind having a smart phone with a high degree of adaptation to their car.
In the future, there may be more car companies to follow
The essential purpose of car companies to make mobile phones may not be just to buy mobile phones, but to form a set of their own "people, cars, mobile devices" intelligent ecosystem.
Therefore, it is not difficult to predict that in the future, more car manufacturers may choose to enter the mobile phone industry to improve their product experience and smart car competitiveness by improving the interconnection experience between people, cars and mobile devices.
Finally, what do you think about Weilai's mobile phone? Some netizens asked: Weilai cars can change the battery, so can the Weilai mobile phone change the battery?