Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 154 Zhiyun's Replacement: Xiaolan MAX
Once users get used to the fingerprint unlocking of the S10, if you want them to enter the password every time they open the phone, they will feel uncomfortable, unable to adapt, and even complain.

It doesn’t even take long to develop this habit, even after just a few days... a large number of users who were the first to buy the S10 mobile phone will become dependent on the fingerprint recognition function.

Then, one by one, they became like tap water and started to brag about the convenience of fingerprint recognition...

While other netizens are still criticizing the high price of Zhiyun S10 and questioning the insecurity of fingerprint recognition, such as the fact that fingerprints can be easily pressed while sleeping and it is difficult to recognize when sweating, among other defects.

A large number of S10 mobile phone users have actually become accustomed to and even cannot do without this function. They will then defend Zhiyun S10 online and then start arguing with each other.

Among a large number of posts analyzing, discussing and even arguing, some new features that were not emphasized at the press conference but are quite interesting were also discovered and paid attention to by netizens.

For example, the raise to wake function.

Whether it is the previous Zhiyun mobile phone or other water machines, if you want to turn on the screen to check the time, you need to operate several steps.

There are several steps required: pick up the phone, then press the power button or HOME button to turn on the screen so that you can see the time on the lock screen page.

Then enter the password, or slide to unlock if no password is set, and finally enter the main page of the phone.

However, in the S10 and S10 Pro, the screen will automatically light up when the accelerometer senses that the user has picked up the phone, without the need to press the power button to wake up the screen.

At the same time, the sensor is used to sense the user's gentle tapping of the screen, and the screen will automatically light up.

In addition, the metal ring in the fingerprint button can be used as a bioelectric sensor for fingerprint recognition and can also be used as a sensor to wake up the screen.

For example, when a user is holding a mobile phone and does not lift it up to wake it up because the action is not obvious, the user can put his thumb on the HOME button to simultaneously identify the user operation, wake up the screen, and then perform a series of fingerprint unlocking operations.

In other words, even if the phone is in screen-off mode, the user only needs to press the HOME button to directly turn on the phone screen, unlock it, and enter the phone's home page.

These seemingly small details can actually bring a very convenient user experience!

This is also one of Zhiyun Technology’s concepts in making high-end mobile phones.

In addition to the extreme hardware configuration, we try to make it as convenient and worry-free as possible for users to use...there is no need for a lot of messy and complicated operations.

The camera system is also developed with a similar concept. The imaging effect of Zhiyun Technology's camera system can only be said to be first-class. There is not much essential difference between it and several other major manufacturers, but the camera system of Zhiyun mobile phone is definitely the smartest, or the most intelligent.

It is very simple and worry-free for users to use. Basically, you just need to turn on the camera, aim at the target and press the shooting button. There is no need to set any parameters, and you don’t even need to fix the focus... The camera system can automatically take a pretty good photo for you.

Of course, if you have professional photography skills, you can also set various parameters yourself and take better photos!
Many of the designs and functions of Zhiyun phones are designed to make their use convenient and worry-free for users.

Add to that the extreme stacking of materials, quality control in craftsmanship, and texture.

All these aspects add up to the high-end attributes of Zhiyun mobile phones...

High-end, in fact, is just a pile of details, not just a pile of extreme materials...

Don’t treat rich people as fools… Just because they don’t care about a few thousand dollars doesn’t mean they are really stupid.

Then... when a user gets used to Zhiyun phones, especially the high-end texture of the S10 series phones, and all the conveniences and worry-free features, let alone switching to other brands of phones, they won’t even be used to the S9!
The days without raise-to-wake and fingerprint recognition...it would be unbearable.

The Zhiyun S10, which has so many details, has silenced a large number of other mobile phone manufacturers who are preparing to hype their products...

As professional mobile phone manufacturers, they are more sensitive and professional than ordinary consumers, and can easily analyze some unique selling points of S10, such as the high-resolution large screen of S10 Pro... fingerprint recognition module, then lift-to-wake function, intelligent camera system, beauty algorithm, and a lot of other miscellaneous things.

But they soon discovered that they couldn't copy...

The first is the very important fingerprint recognition system. This damn thing is Zhiyun Technology’s own exclusive technical patent. It is Wanjin Technology’s exclusive product and is only supplied to Zhiyun mobile phones.

Other mobile phone manufacturers simply cannot find a second supplier of capacitive sensing press-type fingerprint recognition on the market... because there is no second supplier.

Apple was still the fastest. Just a few days after the release of Zhiyun mobile phone, it quickly acquired a European company engaged in fingerprint recognition. This company was also the second largest company in the world in fingerprint recognition technology. Although it does not yet have capacitive sensing press-type fingerprint technology, its friction fingerprint recognition technology is still acceptable... After the acquisition, it directly started the technical research and development work of capacitive sensing press-type fingerprint recognition.

And what about other mobile phone manufacturers... They don't even have a candidate. Of the only two fingerprint recognition technology companies in the world with good technology, one was acquired and privatized by Zhiyun, and the other was directly acquired and privatized by Apple. There is no third one for other manufacturers to be a candidate!
How to do?
We can only keep looking around the world and see if other suppliers have reliable solutions... Qianding Technology has seen the market and announced that it will enter the fingerprint recognition technology market and has started preliminary research and development work... But when it will be ready, only God knows.

Technology is not even the key, the key is the patent!

Wanjin Technology has registered all the relevant patents for capacitive sensing press-type fingerprints that can be registered. Latecomers who want to enter the field will find that there are a lot of patents blocking them.

These patents are disgusting!

Just like the multi-touch patent that Apple had before, it used this thing to hold other mobile phone companies back for a year or two, forcing other companies to take other technical routes.

The same is true in the fingerprint field. Other companies cannot expect to use the technical route adopted by Fingerprint Technology. There are various patents along the way, and they can only find ways to use other patents, which is not easy.

This also means that the fingerprint recognition on the S10 phone cannot be copied in a short period of time... There is not even a fingerprint module, so what can be copied?

Then there are some hardware. This stuff is easy to make, 8X55 series chips, -inch and -inch high-resolution screens, GB of RAM, etc. In fact, everyone can use them... The question is: can you afford it?

Each and every one of these things are currently the top-level and most expensive hardware. You can use one, but if you use all of them, your hardware costs will basically not be much lower than that of S10!
How much do you plan to sell this high-cost product for? If the price is too low, you will definitely lose money, but if it is too expensive, you won’t be able to sell it.

A more reasonable price range is the high-end price of more than 4,000 yuan, but these days, apart from Zhiyun and Fruit, there is only one high-end brand with very limited features, that is the four-star Galaxy S series that can sell for more than 4,000 yuan...

This thing still relies on the limited domestic market in South Korea, coupled with a lot of publicity in other global markets, to barely gain a market share of 6 or 7 points in the global high-end smartphone market.

Of course, although their share is low, they still have a market share. Others are even worse, one or two points are very few... Most of them can't even get one point.

If you want to sell a mobile phone for more than four thousand... you have to have the ability to do it.

If you sell it for less than 4,000, your hardware procurement costs, OEM costs, and even many other costs are probably much higher than Zhiyun...

Zhiyun can probably maintain a good hardware profit if it sells the phone for 4,000 yuan, but other traditional mobile phone manufacturers will most likely lose money if they sell it for 4,000 yuan. These are all hardware costs, R&D costs, supply chain costs, marketing costs, administrative costs, tax costs, etc. Considering the scale effect, few companies' costs can surpass Zhiyun Technology's limit.

This is not because Zhiyun Technology is deliberately trying to save costs. It is simply because Zhiyun Technology is too large, its shipment volume is too high, and its purchasing volume is also large... When the purchasing volume is large, its bargaining power becomes extremely strong.

Large shipment volumes can also significantly dilute costs in other areas, such as OEM, logistics and transportation, and even its own R&D expenses, equipment depreciation costs, etc.

If your shipment volume does not reach the level of Zhiyun mobile phones, then your expenditures on various costs will be higher, and in some areas it may even be several dozen percentage points higher.

This means that for other manufacturers, selling a high-end phone like the S10 for four thousand would be a loss-making business... Therefore, hardware seems to be the easiest to copy, but it is also difficult.

Anyway, copying exactly is definitely not an option. If you follow the example of phones like Zhiyun S10 and mindlessly pile up hardware... you will end up dying miserably.

So how to copy? This is not difficult for a group of manufacturers... A 800-inch screen does not have to have a high resolution, and an 480x resolution is also possible, and the pixel density is also - PPI.

Even a 480x320 screen can be used. As for pixel density... since you are using this kind of screen, who will talk to you about pixel density? Naturally, people will only pay attention to the term "four-inch large screen". As long as it can be viewed, it's fine.

By then, even a 2,000 yuan phone will be able to have a 4-inch screen...

Well, Weiku Electronics is the most typical representative... Among so many mobile phone manufacturers now, if you want to say which one imitates Zhiyun the best and most shamelessly, it must be its sister company Weiku Electronics... They copied it so well that they just short of publicly promoting themselves as a substitute for Zhiyun.

Especially the Xiaolan MAX series, which basically aims to completely imitate the Zhiyun S series.

You definitely can't afford the S10 Pro that costs six or seven thousand yuan, but I also have a 4.3-inch Little Blue MAX2, which is not expensive, only two thousand and eighty yuan. Why don't you get one and try it? It's definitely the most fashionable ultra-large-screen mobile phone of the time. You can change the logo yourself and put a white cloud LOGO on the back of the body.

Who knows, it might even pass for S10 Pro in the eyes of those who don’t know much…

My MAX2 is not much different from the S10 Pro... The only difference is the screen, CPU, GPU, power, touch IC, battery, acoustic components, vibration motor, and plastic body texture.
Then it has less RAM, less storage space, a thicker body, no fingerprint recognition, a poor front glass cover that is easy to break, and the lens glass cover is not sapphire, and it is not waterproof...

But putting the above aside, in fact, our Little Blue MAX2 and S10 Pro are similar!

We also have a Lan OS system at home... Everyone on earth knows that our LAN OS is the son of Yun OS... It is very smooth to use.

Two thousand eight hundred, you will definitely not lose out if you get one!

You know what, this thing really attracted a lot of people to buy it right after the S10 Pro was launched!
How should I put it? Zhiyun’s daily advertising and marketing bombardment has made many people aware of the S10 Pro, and then there is this concept of a big screen.

But Zhiyun's large-screen mobile phones are not cheap... The standard version of S10 is close to yuan, and the Pro is to yuan.

In China today, if consumers bring a gold or pink-purple S10 to work, they will definitely attract the attention of their colleagues...

If it's the S10 Pro, eight out of ten people will say something like "nouveau riche" or "rich man" to you.

As for this thing, ordinary workers can’t afford it, or they are reluctant to buy it.

But they actually also yearn for similar large-screen mobile phones, so what should they do? At this time, Weiku Electronics, taking advantage of its sister company, stepped forward to provide them with a replacement solution: Xiaolan MAX2, a -inch large-screen mobile phone, only yuan, and you can save another yuan by buying it now with a limited-time coupon...

If you still think it is expensive, don’t worry, we also have a Little Blue MAX model with a large four-inch screen.

Still think it’s expensive?

Well, let me show you another high-tech thing. The Vicoo K73 Pro, which was launched at the beginning of the year, has a -inch large screen, a Snapdragon chip from a top international manufacturer, and various high-specification components of the Zhiyun system. This thing only costs RMB ... It has a very high cost-effectiveness.

What? You still think it's expensive? Oh, don't leave yet, come back, I'll give you a discount, 1,700 yuan, just as a friend...

What, sixteen thousand? Big brother, big sister, where did you learn the bargaining skills? You bargain so hard... OK, sixteen thousand. I'll sell it to you at a loss today, just as a good start. Oh, I'm going to lose a lot of money doing business with you.

Then the mobile phone store made hundreds of dollars in profit.

But the so-called Vico K73 Pro is actually almost the same as the Blue M1 which started at RMB last year, except for the screen size.

Qualcomm's 7225 chip with 256 running memory is a combination that makes people feel extremely cheated in the eyes of so-called technology enthusiasts on the Internet who only spend a thousand dollars.

But if you add a domestically produced 73-inch low-resolution screen and change the name to K Pro, you can still sell it for RMB ... That's a big profit!

Weiku Electronics likes to do this kind of thing... The appearance is bright and beautiful, but the parts used inside are all outdated parts from the previous generation or even the generation before that. It seems inexpensive, but in fact it is also a very typical low-spec and high-priced model.
Of course, don’t blame Weiku Electronics for being negative, but many consumers just buy into this.

If you don’t cut the leeks of this quality with a knife, you will feel guilty…

Besides, if you don’t come to harvest such a green and high-quality chive field, foreign brands will come to harvest it... Rather than letting them be harvested by foreign brands, it’s better to harvest it yourself first...

Taking into account the macro effects, what is this behavior of WeCool Electronics called?
This is called patriotism!

Well, at least that’s what Bai Qiwen said!

(End of this chapter)