The two OV families are gradually drifting apart on the road of "duty".
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Author | Li Shuaifei
Edit | Li Zongren
In 2022, the domestic mobile phone battlefield continues to roll inward, and high-end mobile phones are still a hot topic - but at this time, a message from the blue factory has attracted the attention of the mobile phone circle:
VivoNEX was quietly and silently cut off.
This is truly astonishing. Because high-end has long been a dream territory of domestic manufacturers, Xiaomi has launched the MIX series, OPPO has a Find series, and glory has a Magic series; and Vivo also has its own flagship series NEX, and this series was quite stunning when it debuted in 2018 - but now, it has been cut.
Is vivo going to give up the high-end?
This is certainly not the case. According to the latest developments obtained by Leifeng Network, vivo NEX has been integrated into the X series as a whole, the original NEX digital series has been renamed the X Note series, and the folding screen mobile phones in the NEX series have also been classified as an extension of the X series - the X series, which has assumed the banner of vivo's high-end.
So, why the X Series?
The answer to this question may be sought in 2021.
In fact, looking back at the Chinese smartphone market in 2021, vivo has shown a different degree of stability in its usual low profile, and has continued to exert efforts in products and technologies at the image level, especially its key X series two-generation new products, which have largely helped vivo to support its recognition in the high-end field.
However, the main focus of Vivo's products in 2021 is not so much "high-end" as "image".
1
Vivo's 2021: Steady word
When asked by Leifeng Network about the evaluation of "vivo's performance in 2021", the answers of many senior practitioners in the smart phone industry were surprisingly consistent, one word: stable.
The stability here is first reflected in the cognitive grasp of its own positioning.
From the overall situation, Huawei mobile phones are substantially absent in 2021, more market space is released, and Xiaomi OV actually has the opportunity to expand market share - but in the face of this potential opportunity, Vivo's response is different from OPPO and Xiaomi.
Lu Si, an employee who used to be engaged in the mobile phone supply chain in a giant company, told Leifeng Network that in early 2021, Xiaomi was "riveted", and in terms of annual mobile phone shipments, the forecast (estimated) forecast (estimated) to the supply chain at the beginning was as high as 250 million units. As a result, in April and May, it was found that shipments were not so ideal, and the previous goal was impossible to achieve, so in fact, Xiaomi OPPO cut orders, and Forecast was cut to about 190 million. And OPPO is also high and low.
Lu Si also said that in fact, Xiaomi OPPO gave such a high Forecast, on the one hand, it is indeed a bit of blind confidence, on the other hand, it is also considering the risk of chip shortages, including international political factors; there is also a small part of the reason is the suspicion of running on friends, "after all, the competition is too fierce", but Vivo did not go to this hilarity.
In contrast, vivo gave an estimated amount of about 150-180 million, to which Lu sighed and commented, "Vivo is more sober, more aware of what you want."
From the perspective of the supply chain, Lu Si also said that OPPO Xiaomi first gave high expectations, and then cut orders, "this practice is very bad for suppliers." In contrast, vivo's expectations are relatively reasonable, leaving enough room for itself to move, and has not caused any trouble to the supply chain, so "supply chain manufacturers are indeed more willing to cooperate with vivo."
Vivo's "stability" is also reflected in its attitude and practice in the matter of "impacting the high-end".
Judging from the situation in 2021, Xiaomi and OPPO have shouted out the slogan of impacting the high-end, Xiaomi has sacrificed the "Android Emperor" and "Android Light", the MIX Fold folding screen mobile phone and MIX 4, and OPPO has taken out the Find X3 series with great momentum, which all want to occupy the high-end mobile phone market space vacated by Huawei - but the results have not been successful, but Apple has become the biggest winner.
A number of mobile phone practitioners told Leifeng Network that Huawei's high-end status is based on its deep research and development accumulation, full investment and the leading results that follow, the mobile phone business can stand at the high end, more than half of which relies on the Kirin SoC that has been soaring all the way; similarly, Apple Samsung can develop its own SoC, without this thing, there is no way to build the differentiation of the core selling point of the product and the product rhythm dominated by itself, and the high-end cannot be talked about; so whether it is OPPO millet or vivo, At present, they do not have the ability to take over Huawei's mobile phones at the high-end level.
Therefore, from the result point of view, OPPO Xiaomi's efforts in the high-end did not achieve the expected effect in the end, they may not know that their strength is not enough to impact the high-end, but the high-end market gap left by Huawei is indeed a big temptation, they want to seize the opportunity, which is beyond reproach, but in the end it can only be a feather.
On the other hand, vivo, it did not have any big moves in 2021 to hit the high-end, and even did not launch a new NEX flagship series that positioned the high-end - some internal feedback heard by Leifeng Network from vivo is that in fact, the new NEX product in 2021 was made, but "if this product is not good, then vivo would rather not release it."
In this regard, the industry person Sun Yu commented that vivo is actually relatively sober, its own positioning is clear, it is more insistent, and its approach is very smart.
Sun Yu believes that when other homes are rushing to the high-end, vivo focuses on the X series that is positioned in the middle and high-end, which is lower than the NEX series, but the shipment volume is larger - the key is that vivo will gradually explore the product positioning and price through the main image in 2021, which is more pragmatic and more effective, and does not delay it to continue to make money.
Therefore, he said that vivo does not emphasize playing high-end in 2021, but continues to exert efforts in images, which is a relatively stable strategy on the whole, and it is actually relatively clever from the result.
It is worth mentioning that in response to the cutting of vivo NEX, an industry insider commented: This is mainly because of the performance of the X series, its oversized cup sold to 6K, "has gone much farther than the R series (and later Reno) - however, the person also said that the X series also has its own problems, "too scattered", "not easy to focus".
2
The image is out of the circle, starting from the micro-gimbal
The performance of vivo mobile phones in 2021 on images is quite recognized.
Fang Ze, an image circle person who was once engaged in a mobile phone industry giant (not vivo), told Leifeng Network that in his image circle, mobile phone images are more critical, and he has rarely recommended mobile phones to people in the circle in the past; and in 2021, under his recommendation, at least four people have purchased vivo X60 series or X70 series mobile phones, which is a very rare thing.
In Fang Ze's view, this at least shows that vivo's two products have gained some recognition in the image circle and done a good job.
However, vivo first broke the circle at the image level, and did not start in 2021. In fact, as early as the middle of 2020, the X50 series released by Vivo has begun to attract the attention of the image circle - which is largely due to the "micro-gimbal" scheme mounted by Vivo on the X50 Pro of the series.
So, how did this "micro-gimbal" scheme come about?
According to Yu Meng, general manager of vivo imaging technology, in an interview, the X50 Pro's "micro-gimbal" is a differentiated vertical product for different consumers. However, informed sources told Leifeng network that the birth of the "micro-gimbal" program is not a technical problem, but an insight into user needs - this is where Vivo is really powerful.
It is understood that vivo uses a very traditional questionnaire survey method in terms of insight into user needs, that is, sending tens of thousands of questionnaires to users, and then making corresponding product planning and decision-making according to the questionnaire results, this process is very cumbersome, but once implemented, it is very effective. Vivo's final decision to make the decision to "micro-gimbal" should also go through this process.
Of course, behind Vivo's decision to make a "micro-gimbal", it is actually the result of Vivo's attention to and continuous efforts in imaging for many years - one of the more typical appointments is Yu Meng's appointment as the general manager of Vivo imaging technology.
Informed sources told Leifeng Network that Yu Meng is a competent general who has served in Vivo for many years and has made many contributions to Vivo. In the early years, he served as the head of Vivo's audio technology department, bringing vivo's product strength in the early years of mobile phone HIFI; then he went to be responsible for vivo's quality control, and successfully helped vivo improve its quality control. Later, Vivo decided to vigorously exert his efforts on imaging, and Yu Meng was transferred to be the person in charge of imaging.
According to the person, Yu Meng himself has a high reputation in the vivo engineering and technology department, and many people admire him, and everyone's evaluation of him is "flexible brain" and very open-minded.
In addition to specially transferring Yu Meng at the image level to lead the big future, vivo's imaging department also enjoys high authority internally.
An insider gave leifeng network an example, if a vivo mobile phone begins to be stacked structurally, in an extremely limited space, the position of the camera module is often ranked first, decided by the imaging department first, arbitrarily selected - after which it is the turn of the battery, audio and other modules. Not only that, in terms of recruiting people, setting up office locations and even building factories, vivo's image department has a high voice and is willing to spend money to smash.
Specific to the "micro-gimbal" project, the early research and development cost needless to say, according to Yu Meng, vivo's BOM cost of the "micro-gimbal" main camera used on the X50 Pro is 2-3 times that of the ordinary main lens.
In addition, in order to solve the problem of "micro-gimbal" occupying too much volume, Vivo invested hundreds of people, before and after half a year, after hundreds of programs, finally adopted an innovative stacking scheme, that is, a special-shaped structure magneto-dynamic frame, while with a double ball suspension and double S-type FPC cable design, to achieve a "perfect" balance between the appearance design and the layout of the motherboard Stacking Scheme - it is understood that this scheme has undergone at least hundreds of modifications within the Vivo R & D team.
From the result point of view, the addition of "micro-gimbal" has helped the mobile phone achieve a stabilizer-like effect, which is a continuous and visible stability, and the experience of video shooting has been greatly improved; of course, it also makes vivo image technology "out of the circle" for the first time, favored by more image enthusiasts and young people.
Not only that, the "micro-gimbal" has laid a solid foundation for Vivo's differentiation in imagery in 2021 - for example, in the main X60 series and X70 series in 2021, Vivo has upgraded the "micro-gimbal" twice, making its effect better and better; in addition, in terms of model coverage, it has also changed from the Pro exclusive of the X50 series to the full range standard of the X70 to help it reach a larger user base.
For Vivo's "micro-gimbal", The veteran who is deeply involved in the image circle, Damu, also has a high evaluation.
Damu said that the "micro-gimbal" is a very valuable innovation, because in the anti-shake technology solution, vivo chose a way to make consumers more acceptable and understand the way to productize this technology, the second is the "micro-gimbal" makes the mobile phone in the night scene situation does have improvements, the blessing of the anti-shake function allows the mobile phone to increase the exposure time, improve the night imaging effect.
In fact, the "micro-gimbal" has also solidified into an important label for vivo imaging technology in 2021.
3
ZEISS Bonus: More than just an OEM
Of course, the reason why vivo imaging technology can create impressive differentiated attributes in 2021 is inseparable from the brand and technology support of the world-class veteran optical giant ZEISS.
On December 17, 2020, Vivo officially announced that it has become a "Global Imaging Strategic Partner" with ZEISS, and the two sides established the "VIVO ZEISS Joint Imaging Laboratory" on the same day. Not only that, at the time of the official announcement, the two sides had actually created the "vivo ZEISS joint imaging system", and the results of their cooperation were officially landed in the X60 series released shortly thereafter.
This cooperation has aroused a lot of attention in the mobile phone industry; not only that, due to the high popularity of ZEISS in the field of imaging, vivo's action has also stirred up waves in the image circle.
From the past, since the introduction of imaging functions in mobile phones, the cooperation between mobile phone manufacturers and optical or imaging brands has a long history, such as the cooperation between Nokia and ZEISS; in the era of smart phones, there are also classic cases of cooperation between Huawei and Leica - but in fact, this time vivo and ZEISS reached a cooperation, there are many difficulties that need to be overcome.
Leifeng network learned from Wu Yue, a person familiar with the matter, that in fact, before vivo, there was also a domestic mobile phone giant seeking joint cooperation with the old optical or imaging giants, and listed a list - this list not only includes optical giants such as ZEISS, but also German camera manufacturers such as Leica, and even well-known Japanese imaging brands such as Fuji, Canon, and Nikon. However, the mobile phone giant only regarded this type of joint cooperation as a marketing resource, rather than making up its mind to cooperate at the product and technical level, and ultimately did not succeed.
Therefore, Wu Yue said that similar to the veteran optical giants like ZEISS, they cherish their feathers very much, so in the face of the olive branch thrown by mobile phone manufacturers, they will never consider cooperation only in the form of OEM, but hope to see the sincerity of mobile phone manufacturers in product strategy and planning, technical investment, etc., so that after the cooperation between the two sides, they can fit, highlight and enlarge their brand value to the greatest extent - even if these old giants may not be in a very good financial situation.
It is worth mentioning that in the subsequent interview, Yu Meng, general manager of Vivo Imaging Technology, announced a detail: before the two sides determined the cooperation, ZEISS led the team to vivo's headquarters in Chang'an, Dongguan, to investigate, Vivo originally thought that ZEISS was to investigate sales, but ZEISS instead visited Vivo's mobile phone manufacturing center and sewage system, as well as to understand Vivo's situation in quality control and green environmental protection - ZEISS's requirements and standards in choosing partners are high, which can be seen.
In addition to the strict requirements, the two sides can reach a brand cooperation, but also need to solve a key problem: brand gap (gap).
Wu Yue said that in fact, a high-profile brand similar to ZEISS will definitely consider the brand strength of the partner when cooperating, and if there is a large brand gap between the two sides, it will be difficult to do. For example, it is not easy for Huawei mobile phones to reach cooperation with Leica in the past few years, because Leica has never cooperated with mobile phone manufacturers before, but Huawei's brand potential at that time is rising, so that Leica can put down its body and agree to cooperate.
Therefore, Wu Yue believes that for ZEISS, today's vivo is already a giant level in terms of brand awareness and volume, so the brand gap between the two sides has been very small or no, which is why the two sides can reach an agreement.
Leifeng network noted that in fact, zeiss and mobile phone manufacturers cross-border, in fact, more frequent; in the era of feature phones, there are former kings such as Nokia, in the era of smart phones, there is actually Sony, but its cooperation with Vivo in 2020/21 is the loudest - for this situation, a vivo insider also told Leifeng Network, "This also shows that Vivo's industry status and brand potential have arrived."
It is worth mentioning that in addition to the brand problem, Wu Yue also said that the cross-border cooperation between mobile phone manufacturers and imaging/optical manufacturers also needs a run-in period.
Wu Yue said that the cooperation between Huawei and Leica at that time was not very obvious on the two generations of products P9 and P10 launched at the beginning, and it was only after Huawei images slowly reflected the bonus of Leica in terms of imaging style, and it was only in the third generation of P20 that people felt that there was a visible difference with other brands of products, thus gaining industry recognition.
Therefore, Wu Yue said that vivo and ZEISS actually need a run-in process similar to this - however, from the trend of vivo and ZEISS cooperation (such as joint laboratory) and the actual situation of X60 series and X70 series, he believes that the run-in between the two sides is still good.
On this point, Ohki also deeply agrees. Damu told Leifeng Network that vivo X70 Pro+ is a mobile phone with a relatively high degree of recognition in terms of imagery, which fully reflects the deep cooperation between vivo and ZEISS in terms of software and hardware, and the effect is also very good, for example, the "Deweier" of the portrait function of this mobile phone is very strong, the T-type coating is much better in anti-glare, and the color adjustment is also very good.
Ohki said that in his image circle, vivo X70 Pro+ is still relatively recognized, and more than twenty people in his circle of friends have used this phone - he is also a user of this phone.
Of course, in addition to the cooperation between vivo and ZEISS, Fang Ze, an industry insider, also told Leifeng Network that in 2021, OnePlus cooperated with Hasselblad, and after OnePlus merged into OPPO, the cooperation between OPPO and Hasselblad will be opened as a whole; in addition, Xiaomi is also talking about similar joint cooperation with a large image brand. Therefore, in 2022, a new pattern of three major Chinese mobile phone brands + three major image brands will basically be formed in mobile phone images.
4
V1 chip: Highlight moment in the blue factory
For vivo, its highlight moment in 2021 is the official release of the X70 series. As vivo's culmination at the image level, the X70 series is not surprisingly equipped with the latest generation of "micro-gimbal" technology, and also received a double bonus from ZEISS at the brand and product levels.
However, the most concerned point of the X70 series is vivo's self-developed V1 chip.
According to vivo's official statement, V1 is a fully customized special specification integrated chip, with high computing power, low latency, low power consumption characteristics, its specialty is to deal with complex operations - it should be noted that Vivo does not detail more parameters of V1, such as computing power, process technology, etc.
Of course, in the eyes of the outside world, V1 is essentially an ISP chip.
Reflected in the specific product effect, the V1 chip can support X70 Pro/+ support real-time black light night vision function, through the viewfinder can see the brightness of the film effect, and support manual adjustment of exposure intensity; when shooting polar night video, present a clearer, smoother picture, compared to pure software to brighten the night scene, power consumption is reduced by 50%.
So, why did vivo develop a V1 chip for imaging functions?
In response to this problem, Yu Guang, investment director of Yaotu Capital, told Leifeng Network that ISP is the key to achieving differentiation of image functions, Huawei can use self-developed NPU+ISP to achieve unique AI camera functions, in contrast, the use of Qualcomm and MediaTek SoC mobile phone manufacturers will play a space will be limited; not only that, due to the long cycle of hardware iteration, the needs of mobile phone manufacturers can not be quickly met, especially the needs of differentiation, self-developed ISP Chip implementation of hardware and software close integration is a good choice.
In addition to image differentiation, there is another reason: computing power has become an important constraint on the development of mobile phone images.
Zheng Ming, a veteran who has long been concerned about the field of smart phones and the image circle, told Leifeng Network that in fact, the development of images to this stage, video is already the core, but the mobile phone shooting video has higher requirements for computing power; therefore, the self-developed chip on the image function of the blessing, the focus is not on the imaging effect, but the computing power - he stressed that apple iPhone's imaging capabilities, especially the video capabilities, are powerful, in essence, the computing power in the A series chips for the video function bonus.
Leifeng network learned from the relevant insiders of a domestic mobile phone giant that as early as the first half of 2019, the giant found that one of its mobile phones equipped with three cameras had incoherent lens switching during the zoom process, and the reason was that the Qualcomm SoC used in this mobile phone at that time was not enough to support all the lenses at the same time "lit up", so it caused the lens to "instantaneously shut down" when zoom switching, which had a serious impact on the user's experience.
The person said that at that time, the company held a discussion within the company to see how Huawei solved this problem, and it turned out that the Kirin SoC on Huawei's mobile phone was enough to solve the problem of seamless switching of multiple lenses at the computing power level, because its ISP was completely customized according to the needs of the company's internal products, which is also the advantage of Huawei's self-developed SoC.
Of course, for the three major mobile phone giants other than Huawei, the road to self-developed SoCs is still too long, and is relatively easy to do is the ISP chip; more importantly, after having an ISP, it does not need to be subject to Qualcomm or MediaTek in terms of computing power, and it can also achieve strong image functions with different positioning SoC combinations - which provides manufacturers with a lot of freedom when building product portfolios.
"In fact, since then, mobile phone manufacturers have become more and more aware of the importance of self-developed ISP chips."
Leifeng Network noted that according to vivo officials, the V1 chip, as an image chip independently developed by Vivo, lasted 24 months and invested more than 300 people in research and development manpower - from the timeline, vivo started the development of V1 chip Research and development time is almost the middle of 2019. In fact, OPPO's self-developed chip is also at a similar point in time.
In addition, according to Leifeng Network, in the V1 chip research and development project, Vivo is extremely confidential; an engineer engaged in research and development work in Vivo said that he also saw the relevant news of the V1 chip official announcement on the Internet to know the existence of this chip, and was completely unaware of it before.
5
In research and development, "a bit like Huawei"
In Vivo's long-term discourse system, there is a well-known "causal theory": cause determines effect, buries one's head in the seed of cause, and the effect comes naturally.
If you look at Vivo's 2021 from this perspective, it can be said that it is a fruitful and fruitful harvest year. According to the data of counterpoint, the first three quarters of 2021, Vivo's shipments in china's smartphone market ranked first in China - not only that, Vivo's shipments in 2021 are also the first in the Chinese market.
This external achievement also gets feedback from some trends within Vivo. Leifeng network learned from multiple channels that Vivo experienced two salary adjustments in 2021, and the cumulative salary increase of some employees was quite high, "the overall internal feeling is that the performance is very good", which suddenly swept away the haze that was suppressed by Huawei in the previous two years.
Of course, in addition to shipments, Vivo has made many progress in the actual product positioning and technological innovation, especially in the field of imaging, whether it is the evolving "micro-gimbal", or its strategic cooperation with ZEISS, as well as Vivo's self-developed V1 chip, which can be said to be the "fruit" harvested by Vivo after many years of "burying its head in the cause".
So, what is the "cause" planted by vivo?
One of the undoubted points is R&D investment. Leifeng network learned that in recent years, vivo has successively established advanced new technology laboratories and research institutes such as user innovation laboratories, chip laboratories, analog network laboratories, and thousand mirrors safety laboratories, and established the Central Research Institute.
According to vivo's official discourse, so far, vivo has laid out R&D centers in ten places around the world, including Shenzhen, Dongguan, Nanjing, Beijing, Hangzhou, Shanghai, Xi'an, Taipei and other cities in China, as well as Santiago in the United States and Tokyo in Japan, with R&D scope including 5G communications, 6G pre-research, industrial design, imaging technology and other fields.
Among them, it is worth mentioning that Vivo's R&D center in Tokyo, Japan was established in 2019, mainly focusing on the pre-research of future imaging technology, mainly hoping to rely on Japan's century-old history and accumulation of mobile imaging to promote the development of mobile imaging. According to vivo officials, the R&D center's research and development work has gradually expanded from mobile phone cameras to areas such as car cameras, sports cameras and industrial cameras - these technologies have not yet appeared in the Chinese market.
Vivo Tokyo R&D Center
Vivo's emphasis and active investment in research and development can also be perceived from its daily interactions with suppliers.
Yang Yu, an employee of a research and development department of BOE, told Leifeng that from his own interaction with the R& D employees of several major Chinese mobile phone giants in cooperation, vivo invested more in research and development, and the initiative will be higher, "more like catching up with the state before Huawei did not have an accident", followed by OPPO. He said that before Huawei had an accident, the enthusiasm for research and development was the highest, and he took the initiative to find BOE to do research and development every day, very active, pushing BOE to do things together.
P said that vivo's state is similar to huawei before it was sanctioned by the United States, "not fully catching up, but basically almost the same", and is very willing to invest money - he also believes that vivo is willing to invest and get market returns, which is taken for granted.
In addition to R&D investment, vivo also pays attention to the strategy of developing product landing, and proposes the "product iron triangle" and "four long tracks" for this purpose. The former refers to product planning, technical planning, and technical pre-research, and the latter refers to the four tracks that Vivo is determined to invest in technology for a long time, including imaging, performance, design and system.
Among them, in the field of imaging, Damu told Leifeng Network that vivo has indeed done a lot of technical accumulation in the field of imaging, and its iteration is step-by-step, very rhythmic; and vivo's current key product technical attributes are very strong, and it has changed the image of the past "high price and low match", giving people the feeling that it has done a lot of things technically, and has also done a lot of video promotion.
Damu also said that in the past, vivo felt that there were more female user groups, but vivo has been working on images for a long time, and now it feels that many men are also using it.
In addition, a number of industry insiders told Leifeng Network that the reason why Vivo can make a breakthrough in the mobile phone market in 2021 is that Vivo is more focused on mobile phones in the overall strategy, "drilling very deeply", extremely cautious in the expansion of the product line, even if the layout of the IoT field, it is also closely around the mobile phone, and it is also more adhering to the concept of "dare to be the queen of the world".
"This is also the external embodiment of vivo's culture, and vivo may be the one that adheres to the culture of this duty most thoroughly," a number of practitioners told Leifeng.
6
Behind the low profile, Vivo faces the challenge
In the outside world's cognition of vivo, in addition to "duty", there is also a keyword "low-key".
Indeed, in the process of development, Vivo mainly puts its products in the spotlight, rarely makes a big splash like Internet companies, and rarely attracts attention on social media, not to mention commenting and attacking competitors - based on these situations, coupled with Vivo's market performance in 2021, market research agency Counterpoint evaluates Vivo as the "king of low profiles".
Not only that, according to Counterpoint's latest Chinese smartphone market data released on January 26, 2022, vivo shipments increased by 21% year-on-year in 2021, and ranked first in the Chinese market with a market share of 22%.
So, in the face of this achievement, how did Vivo react?
On January 24, 2022, Shen Wei, founder and CEO of Vivo, said in a New Year speech that 2021 is a very turning year for Vivo, and it is also the first year of qualitative change; in which when reviewing the performance of 2021, Vivo focused on many breakthroughs in imaging.
However, facing the future, Shen Wei said in his speech that 2022 will be the most challenging year for the smartphone industry, but vivo will adhere to the user-oriented regardless of good times or adversity, only in this way can it realize the three dreams of "world-class".
From this point of view, Vivo is quite sober again.
Indeed, vivo achieved a breakthrough in the image out of the circle and the high-end mobile phone market in 2021, but this is only a starting point.
In the future, vivo will face more challenges.
For example, the vivo X series has made a single breakthrough, but it is still far from world-class players such as Apple and Huawei, and how to further impact the high-end mobile phone market in the true sense on the basis of deeply cultivated technology is a big problem. At the same time, after making a breakthrough in the domestic mobile phone market, how to enhance product acceptance and brand awareness in more international markets.
In addition, although the mobile phone business is steady and steady, vivo's action in the IoT business is too slow, a senior industry insider commented: "This is somewhat dangerous, because the industry trend changes rapidly, if you can't keep up, no matter how to talk about it is useless."
These are tough challenges and take more time.
However, from the perspective of vivo's "results" in 2021, vivo has initially formed a set of effective product development systems, as well as the consequent organizational culture system - in short, it is to grasp and recognize the direction of the industry and its own positioning, while vigorously investing in technology, product innovation based on the actual needs of users, while maintaining steady development.
Of course, the most important thing is user orientation. Vivo CEO Shen Wei said:
User orientation is the biggest and most important orientation among all the subdivision dimensions of vivo's intrinsic values... At any time, competition-oriented, cost-oriented, parameter-oriented, efficiency-oriented, etc. must not be above the user-oriented.
Actions speak louder than words – and see what kind of performance will be given in 2022 by cutting off the NEX series of vivo phones.
Note: At the request of the interviewees, Lu Si, Sun Yu, Fang Ze, Wu Yue, Zheng Ming, Yang Yu and others in the text are pseudonyms.
END