Recently, when asked by Weibo netizens whether they still make mobile phones, Luo Yonghao said on Weibo: Because I want to burn investors' money, so I really don't have the courage, otherwise you invest, as long as 2 billion. Without considering the financial returns or the reactions of the mediocre, I'll make you a soul-stirring phone.
Since the stage of "True Return", whether Luo Yonghao has once again entered the mobile phone industry has become a hot spot in the digital circle from time to time. In fact, netizens have always had a huge curiosity about where the idealist will go after leaving the live broadcast industry "just to earn the entanglement of dreams". This is not only because its "industry lamp" title can bring after-dinner talk, but also because when a sentimental idealist enters a new industry, the industry becomes interesting.
Since abandoning education and entering business in 2006, Luo Yonghao's entrepreneurial journey has experienced website operations, education and training institutions, smart phone manufacturing, and live streaming and other careers. And every time he enters an industry, Lao Luo can always bring some fresh changes. For example, the mobile phone industry.
From the establishment of Hammer Technology into the mobile phone industry in 2012, to the acquisition of the mobile phone business by ByteDance in 2018, the 8 years of doing mobile phones, lao Luo's own contribution to the topic and popularity, more than all other channels of Hammer Technology combined, even even Lei Jun, such a net red CEO, can only rank behind. Behind the topic and heat, as a wild catfish, Luo Yonghao's hammer technology has indeed brought many changes to the mobile phone industry.
What does Luo Yonghao bring to the mobile phone industry?
Internet celebrity is not an accurate definition of Luo Yonghao, relatively speaking, Luo is more identified with his identity as an "idealistic entrepreneur". After smashing Siemens' refrigerator, Luo Yonghao used the hammer as the corporate logo to create a mobile phone company Hammer Technology from an English teacher. The development path of Hammer Technology is similar to that of Xiaomi, first creating the well-received SmartisanOS, and then creating mobile phone hardware.
It is undeniable that Luo Yonghao and Hammer Technology have injected a clear stream into the mobile phone industry, and SmartisanOS is the sweetest part of this clear stream.
1) Special and easy to use SmartisanOS
Although it is two or three years later than Xiaomi's MIUI, SmartisanOS is of great significance in the domestic customization system that has just opened up in Chaos. When domestic mobile phone manufacturers rushed to the camp of "flat design", SmartisanOS, like Luo Yonghao's personality, stubbornly brought a refreshing Android custom operating system to the mobile phone industry with a materialized style and a minimalist classic nine-square grid design.
Although Luo Yonghao's remarks of "sending ideas for other manufacturers to copy all year round" are debatable, many of the functions made by Smartisan have really brought many changes to the smartphone industry.
Mute the sound at regular intervals. Hammer phones are not only equipped with a rare "one-click mute" button on Android phones on hardware, but also quite user-friendly in software settings. SmartisanOS pioneered the timed mute function, which can set the mute duration according to the needs of the scene. For example, a two-hour meeting can be set with timed mute, so that it can be automatically unmuted after the meeting ends, so as not to forget to turn off the mute and miss important information.
OneStep features. By collecting recently added/used pictures, files, and text from the clipboard at the top of the screen, frequently used apps and contacts are concentrated on the side of the screen, and in the same interface, you can drag and drop pictures, text, files, etc. to the app or contact. It can be said that it saves many steps of switching between different applications, and greatly improves the efficiency of collaboration between applications. And this function can be said to be quite practical on today's full-screen flagship mobile phones that focus on large-screen business. Subsequent Huawei and other manufacturers have also done similar functions.
Hammer sticky notes. Hammer sticky notes, which were once popular on major social platforms such as Weibo, have become popular in major media circles for their high value, lightness, minimalism, but with advanced features such as Markdown. In order to solve the problem of "Weibo 140 word limit", the "sharing in the form of pictures" launched by Hammer Sticky Notes and the way of adding their own home watermarks at the bottom have become the standard configuration of the official signatures of major manufacturers today.
In addition, flash capsules, scrolling screenshots, Bigbang, etc. have brought too much inspiration to the mobile phone industry. In this regard, Luo Yonghao once said: The company has come to this day, the big bang lightning capsule and a one step, which have been copied by the first few major mobile phone manufacturers to even have pants left, but I said they said I copied them.
Even WeChat has been suspected of plagiarizing smartisanOS features. In the national application WeChat version 7.0.5, updated the function: support for notes, file previews and other pages set as floating windows, some netizens use the WeChat floating window function after finding that it is particularly similar to the flash capsule launched before Hammer Technology.
When Luo Yonghao learned about it, he turned against the normal state of anger at "friendly businessmen" and expressed his recognition of this "plagiarism". Of course, behind this "recognition", part of it comes from WeChat is not a competitor; on the other hand, it shows that SmartisanOS has exported its influence to a certain extent.
2) Aesthetic but problematic hardware
Looking back at the design of hammer mobile phones in previous generations, in addition to other models called "shame machines" by Luo Yonghao, they are quite distinctive, bringing many surprises to the seriously homogenized smartphone market.
Smartisan T1, as the first product of Lao Luo's craftsmanship, adopts a double-sided glass design similar to that of the iPhone 4, which not only improves the texture and grade of the mobile phone, but also sees Lao Luo's tribute to Jobs's thoughts. Even from today's point of view, the design of the Smartisan T1 is still impeccable, 83.8% of the fuselage surface is covered by Corning's third-generation Gorilla Glass, the fuselage line is both simple and tough line beauty, the lock screen key and the headphone hole, brightness key and volume key are perfectly symmetrical...
With excellent craftsmanship design, this phone won the iF International Design Gold Award, the highest level of the iF International Design Award. This is the first time since the establishment of the iF Design Award that Chinese mainland smartphone product has won the iF International Design Gold Award, and the successor Meizu Zero has only been late for five years. However, the Smartisan T1 also has many problems. First of all, the design problem leads to the product yield is too low, and secondly, the large glass back cover leads to the extremely fragile fuselage, and the SIM card also needs to be removed and the battery cannot be replaced, the key is that it is 2014, and it does not support 4G.
These problems led to the bold words made by Lao Luo even before: if it is less than 2500 yuan, I am your grandson, and I did not stop Smartisan T1 from directly "diving" at half price shortly after its listing. To digress, at that time, Wang Ziru's evaluation of smartisan T1 caused Wang and Luo to debate live on Youku, which became the topic of the whole people at that time. This incident directly led to a major adjustment in Zealer's business, which completely changed the direction of China's assessment industry.
However, after the Smartisan T1, most of the mobile phones launched by the hammer, whether it is the "beautiful and not as strong" nut mobile phone Pro 2, or the next-generation flagship R1, are enough to attract attention in the design aesthetic, but also often criticized due to supply chain control, yield rate and design aesthetic influence on the use of issues.
Why don't you want to make mobile phones anymore?
The famous media person @阑夕 once dismantled Luo Yonghao's "feelings" into "Roche's marketing three axes":
First, the emotional proposition is "considerate", people did not expect that I helped you think, such as timed SMS sending, graphic design delicacy and refinement, etc., in the details of humanized care;
Second, rational claims are "superiority." On the basis of being different from others, prove yourself more pioneering and scientific. For example, double pressing the side button to wake up the camera, the 81 palace grid App dragging method, etc., by cultivating a new experience mode, to shape the superiority of the fan group;
Finally, the value of "decency", that is, standing and earning money. For example, 200 yuan anti-fall insurance, ticket income is donated to open source institutions, etc., with the carving and innovation of publicity means, forming an exclusive Roche feeling.
Analyzing the various generations of mobile phones launched by Hammer, combined with this Roche marketing three-plate axe, it is not difficult to conclude that Luo Yonghao cherishes "user thoughtfulness" over "user experience", tries to replace measurable ease of use with abstract beauty, and wants to impress the "non-emotional" audience outside of Luo Fan. As it turned out, this set didn't work.
Therefore, from this point of view, Luo Yonghao is reluctant to do mobile phones, on the one hand, because the mobile phone industry is already the end of the Red Sea, winners take all; on the other hand, it is more that Roche's emotional marketing has not gone through in the mobile phone industry.