Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 173 Weiku Xiaolan Ecological Chain
Now that he had come to Wecoo Electronics, Xu Shenxue also took a look at other R&D projects in Wecoo Electronics.

This includes the current important project of Vicoo Electronics, the Little Blue 3, and the shell-changing version of Vicoo K80.

The R&D systems used by the two sub-brands of Weiku Electronics are actually the same. The core is the same thing, but there are some differences in the outer shell.

For example, the Little Blue series and the Vico K series, the Little Blue M series and the Vico V series.

The detailed products include the Little Blue MAX series, the Vicoo K Pro series, the Little Blue MACx series and the Vicoo V pro series.

The internal structures of the above-mentioned mobile phones are actually exactly the same, and even the outer shells are basically the same due to the internal structure design, but there are relatively large differences in the details and styles.

One core set and two sub-brands, targeting different user groups, through changes in appearance, one mobile phone design can cover as many potential user groups as possible.

This is a relatively unique model in Weiku Electronics.

The new T20 mobile phone is no exception. Xiaolan launched the T series, while Weiku launched the corresponding P series.

Xu Shenxue also saw the P85 from Vicoo, which was more different in appearance. The appearance design of Vicoo P85 is more mature and stable, and it also uses a space gray color scheme.

In addition to this T20/P85, there is a new mobile phone prototype that uses self-developed SOC chip.

Xu Shenxue also saw the Little Blue 3 and the re-shelled version of the Vico K80. The appearance of this Little Blue 3 looks quite ordinary.

At this time, Bai Qiwen said: "We have continued the design language of the Little Blue Digital Series released in the first half of this year, and it is still positioned as young and fashionable!"

"It uses Qualcomm's MSM7230/7630 chip, with a maximum main frequency of 800MHZ, 512MB of memory, and a four-inch domestic screen. The low-end 4GB version is priced at 2099, and the high-end 8GB version is priced at 2499."

"The chip of this phone is also from the C3 series. However, because the cost of 7230/7630 and memory and other components is still relatively high, if it is rushed to the market now, the hardware cost of this phone will be too high, and the profit margin will be very low."

"Besides, since the C series of this chip is being widely distributed, Qualcomm's supply is also tight for the time being!"

"We plan to wait a few months, until the prices of chips and memory drop further and Qualcomm's chip production capacity increases further, and then launch it to the market around the Spring Festival."

Qualcomm's new generation of chips are now basically supplied to Zhiyun Technology first, especially the Snapdragon S2 series 8X55 and 7X30 series, which were just released this year and have not been produced in very high volumes.

The former mainly supplies the Zhiyun S10 series, and the latter supplies the Zhiyun C3 series.

These two things are not only expensive at present, but also have low production capacity. Basically, the production capacity in the first half of the year was monopolized by Zhiyun Technology, leaving no room for other mobile phone manufacturers.

Even if Zhiyun Technology's sister company Weiku Electronics wants to get 7X30 series chips on a large scale and the cost of purchasing cannot be too high, it will have to wait until the end of the year. Add to that the time it takes to organize mass production and prepare stocks, and the launch time of Little Blue 3 will basically be next year, just in time for the spring launch after the Spring Festival.

Although WeCool Electronics is not a very good brand, not many people pay attention to their new product launch conference, let alone wait for their new mobile phones.

But Bai Qiwen is also an ambitious person, so from the very beginning he followed the example of Zhiyun and Fruit and held a spring press conference, an autumn press conference and even a winter press conference.

Although press conferences don’t have much influence now, if we persist in doing them and form a certain inertia, they will still be helpful to the brand.

In the past two years, Zhiyun Technology has consistently released its flagship phones in June and the C series in August. The spring press conference is used to release revised versions of some existing models, such as adding new colors, commemorative editions, etc. In addition, the spring press conference is mainly used to release Yun Book notebooks and other products.

However, Weiku Electronics is different. They usually release the low-priced and popular models of the Xiaolan M series in the winter press conference, and the main models of the Xiaolan digital series and the low-priced large-screen mobile phone Xiaolan M MAX series in the spring press conference.

In autumn, the Little Blue MAX flagship series was released.

The most obvious example is the press conference in July this year, when Wecoo Electronics took advantage of the market's popularity and directly launched the so-called Blue MAX2 flagship phone... The 7227T chip, plus 512MB of memory and a -inch high-end domestic screen were not too bad at the time, and sales were also good.

In addition to official press conferences, Weiku Electronics sometimes also launches some slightly improved models in response to market changes. For example, it launched the Little Blue 2A in August and the Little Blue 2S in September, which was just this month.

At first glance, the entire product line seems a bit messy... but in fact, there are only two series at the core...

No matter how many more there are, our R&D capabilities cannot keep up. The reason why there are so many models is that we change the shells frequently and make some minor hardware upgrades, such as the Little Blue 2A, which is an upgraded version with increased battery capacity.

The Bluegogo 2S, on the other hand, uses the 7227T chip, which is the MAX2 chip, based on increased battery capacity. These minor revisions are mainly to enrich the product line.

In fact, the changes are not that big, it’s mainly just a change of shell... and a few slightly increased configurations.

Because Weiku Electronics is pursuing a strategy of flooding the market with products, with so many models, two press conferences a year are not enough!
It’s the sea of ​​​​machines tactic, that’s it!

Weiku Electronics is not the only one that adopts the strategy of launching a large number of mobile phones. In fact, among the major mobile phone manufacturers today, except for Fruit and Zhiyun which are relatively unique and only have a few mobile phones, other mobile phone manufacturers basically have a large number of mobile phone models.

For example, after Samsung released the Galaxy phone, it released five or six Android smartphones in just half a year.

This does not include smartphones with four-star self-developed systems, smartphones with WM systems, and a large number of feature phones.

Frequently launching new mobile phones, keeping up with market trends, and then using as many models as possible to cover different consumer groups, thereby expanding mobile phone sales, this is the common practice of most mobile phone manufacturers today.

Except for Fruit and Zhiyun...Fruit only releases one model a year, and Zhiyun releases more, but only four models in two series.

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Accompanied by Bai Qiwen, Xu Shenxue basically reviewed all the mobile phone projects in Wecoo Electronics.

The BlueM3, which is expected to be released in the winter, will be a low-priced and high-volume smartphone. The T20, which will be equipped with a self-developed chip, will also be released at the winter launch event during this period. The BlueM3, the brand's flagship model, and the BlueM3 MAX, a low-priced large-screen smartphone, which will be released at the spring launch event, will be released in the spring.
The Bluemax3 is being prepared for release next fall to enhance the brand and once again take advantage of the popularity of Zhiyun smartphones. Bai Qiwen has high ambitions for this smartphone, with all performance features maxed out at this price point, and even a -inch high-resolution screen.

However, whether it can be put into use and what the effect will be after it is put into use depends on the research and development progress of domestic screen manufacturers.

The above-mentioned mobile phone models have one feature, that is, they will gradually adopt various chips developed by Zhiyun Technology itself, including mobile phone SOC, baseband, memory and flash memory.

Zhiyun Semiconductor has previously acquired companies and obtained so many patents, not for the sake of appearance, but for use.

Some of these things don't even require research and development, as the acquired businesses already have mature products, such as flash memory, or solid-state drives. The acquired subsidiary SandForce already has very good solid-state drive products, but we didn't have time to use them before.

However, starting from winter, various products of Zhiyun Technology and Weiku Electronics will gradually use their own solid-state drives.

In terms of memory, the acquired subsidiaries also have mature products. Although the performance is slightly worse, they can be used directly. At least there is no problem in the mid- and low-end fields.

Mobile phone SOC, S100 has been put into use, and S101 is about to be taped out. At the same time, Zhiyun Semiconductor's baseband research and development is also maintaining a fast pace, and it is expected that three different types of external basebands will be available by the end of the year.

At the same time, the R&D department is also integrating the communication baseband of S100 and S101 to produce a standard SOC. This part is expected to be completed in the first half of next year.

Then the deeply improved version of the S100 series, the S1.4 with a single-core main frequency of 102GHZ is also under development.

This winter is just the beginning, and by next year, Zhiyun Semiconductor's core products will be gradually applied to various product lines.

Xu Shenxue attaches great importance to this!
Because this involves solving bottleneck problems.

Semiconductor manufacturing equipment and advanced lithography machines cannot be obtained in a short time. Even in the field of chip manufacturing, although DUV immersion lithography machines were purchased in cash, the 45-nanometer process has not been mastered.

But we have to figure out the chip design field first. This is already the relatively simplest part in the semiconductor field.

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After looking at some of Weiku Electronics’ mobile phone projects, I also looked at some of Weiku Electronics’ other ecological chain products. Weiku Electronics’ ecological chain products are different from those of Zhiyun Technology!

Zhiyun Technology's ecological chain products are basically aimed at various innovations. It doesn't matter whether they are practical or not, but there must be technological innovation, otherwise we would rather not do it.

As for WeCool Electronics, they are aiming for a mature supply chain, and will only do it after they have a mature supply chain... and usually they don’t do it alone, but bring in some cooperative manufacturers to work together, and the main technology research and development... well, there is no need for any technology research and development!
Basically, they take the mature spare parts provided by the supplier, do a simple integration design by themselves, then find an assembly company in the industry to integrate and assemble them, and then put a small blue brand logo of Weiku Electronics on it and start selling it.
Therefore, Weiku Electronics' Little Blue ecological chain is very rich, with all kinds of things, such as routers, keyboards, mice, and even desktop computers, as well as speakers, TVs, kettles, fans, etc.

Basically all home appliance catalogs are involved.

Of course, nowadays Weiku Electronics also claims to be a high-tech enterprise that deals with smart terminals, so it still has some disguise. For example, some kettles are just ordinary kettles.

But the kettle made by Weiku Electronics also has a digital temperature display and intelligent temperature control... There are also some small chips and a capacitor button inside.

If you want a TV, they will install an Android system on it, and then equip it with a WIFI module. The system has built-in online video software, so you can watch all kinds of video programs directly over the Internet.

But if you want to talk about the technical content...that's just it.

But you know what... in terms of practicality, these things are much better than Zhiyun Technology's messy so-called ecological chain products, and they are also more cost-effective.

Zhiyun Technology actually has a small number of smart home products, but ordinary people can't afford them.

The screen of smart TV is very large, and the performance configuration is also maxed out. However, LCD panels are very expensive these days, and you have raised the configuration so much, so the price is also very high. The price of Zhiyun TV starts at 20,000 yuan, and ordinary people shake their heads when they see it.

Unlike the Little Blue Smart Home from Weiku Electronics, some smart TVs have relatively small screens, and the prices are lowered, so there are some that cost four or five thousand. Of course, large screens are also expensive, and there are some that cost tens of thousands... Mainly because large-size LCD panels are very expensive these days.

Then some other smart home products are also very interesting, which can be regarded as effective in making up for the shortcomings of Zhiyun Technology.

Zhiyun Technology’s products are good in every way, but they are too expensive. Moreover, if they are done to the extreme without much technological innovation, Zhiyun Technology would rather not do it.

Therefore, Zhiyun Technology’s smart home ecosystem is actually incomplete...many things are missing.

Therefore, the Little Blue smart home series from Weiku Electronics can be a good complement.

Even Xu Shenxue himself took a lot of Xiaolan smart home products home to use... For example, the constant temperature kettle, which is very useful. After setting the constant temperature, it is very convenient to drink warm water.

This thing surprisingly sells very well... I don't know who spread the word, but it suddenly became popular among countless moms' groups!
Many young mothers with newborns have found that this thing is super easy to use for making milk powder... After setting the constant temperature to 42 or 45 degrees, there is no need to repeatedly adjust the water temperature, just pour water directly. It is simply a magic tool for making milk powder.

Although it is not cheap, the sales volume of this constant temperature kettle is very high…

The success of this constant temperature kettle also stimulated the people at Weiku Electronics to continue to develop some very practical smart ecological chain products.

Xu Shenxue was encouraging and supportive of this.

Sometimes, when making products, it is not necessary to have something high-end. Some practicality and the ability to bring more convenient life to people are also very important.

And Weiku Electronics has implemented this concept relatively well.

Of course, Weiku Electronics has its own philosophy, and Zhiyun Technology has its own philosophy!
Zhiyun Technology doesn’t care about all that. They only want interesting innovations, preferably disruptive ones. As for the high price of the products... it just so happens that this fits Zhiyun’s brand positioning.

The product is too cheap, and Ji Chenghe even complains that it lowers Zhiyun’s brand!
(End of this chapter)