Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 217 Do you think I, Xu Shenxue, am easy to fool?
In the current smartphone market, faced with the dominance of Zhiyun Technology, other manufacturers have become cowards, and some have even tried every means to copy Zhiyun and take advantage of Zhiyun's popularity.

Almost every mobile phone manufacturer likes to compare it with the Zhiyun S series when releasing their so-called high-end flagships.

When releasing some mid-to-high-end models, they like to compare them with the Zhiyun C series.

Then they try to find some so-called advantages in it and brag about it.

But people think that fruits are different. As the pioneer of smartphones, subsequent generations of mobile phones have also brought many innovations to people.

This time, they also expect Fruit to bring something unique to fight against Zhiyun.

We can't say that we can completely defeat it, but at least we can compete with it, for example, by bringing out the long-awaited fingerprint recognition technology, adopting a large-size retina screen, etc.

As a result, people were disappointed that the 4S launched this year had a 4-inch reticulated screen and looked almost the same as the previous generation Fruit , with a stainless steel middle frame and a glass back cover.

The chips used are dual-core chips, and the memory is a standard 1GB. Of course, Apple's mobile phones have never relied too much on memory capacity.

The camera is 11 million pixels... This is quite satisfactory. It is actually the same as the standard version of the S11 series and the A series, but it is a huge difference from the million pixels of the S pro.

In general, with the Zhiyun S11 series as a reference, the 4S is average in terms of appearance design and hardware configuration, with nothing particularly outstanding.

However, Fruit did not bring out nothing. They brought out their own artificial intelligence and voice assistant SIRI.

Although the technical route is completely different from AI Xiaoyun, its SIRI can also do some of the things that a voice assistant should do, so it can be said that it has saved the situation to some extent.

If 4S had been released a few months earlier, the situation might have been better, but due to technical and supply chain issues, 4S was not released until September.

This put them in a very unfavorable situation.

At least it is at a great disadvantage in the competition with the Zhiyun S series.

However, they also have a very unique moat, a closed ecosystem, smooth system, operating habits, and brand appeal. The final sales will definitely not be too bad.

At least in its home base of North America, its sales are definitely not low.

----

Faced with competition from Zhiyun, Apple can still resist and rely on its many moats to ensure high sales, but other mobile phone manufacturers do not have such strong strength.

Previously, a research organization released a survey report on the mobile phone industry, listing the sales situation of various mobile phone manufacturers.

Nokia, the king of the feature phone era, continued to be stubborn and refused to develop Android phones. Instead, they turned to work with Microsoft to develop Windows Phone phones. However, they failed to make any splash and were almost completely defeated in the field of smartphones. Now they can only survive by relying on low-end feature phones.

However, it is worth noting that their feature phones are still selling well in various emerging markets, with sales reaching more than 300 million units, and they still occupy the leading position in the mobile phone market...but the large number of units sold is of no use as they do not make money.

The four-star Galaxy 2 was also released in July. It sold very well in South Korea, but the feedback in other countries' markets was mediocre. It was almost completely lagging behind the Zhiyun S series and could not compete at all. This phone had a very small market share in the high-end market.

However, although the sales of four-star high-end phones are not very good, their mid- and low-end phones are still selling very well. At the same time, feature phones are also selling well. Therefore, the sales of various mobile phones are still over 300 million.

Samsung is still the second largest mobile phone sales company.

As for the third place, it is Zhiyun, which has sold hundreds of millions of mid-to-high-end smartphones alone, firmly securing the third place in mobile phone sales.

Although Zhiyun's mobile phone sales volume seems to be only third, its mobile phone business revenue is the highest in the world, and its net profit is also the highest in the world. According to the forecasts of some analysis agencies, Zhiyun Technology alone has reaped more than 50% of the profits in the entire mobile phone market.

The profitability is extremely strong!

Next is WeCool Electronics, which ranks fourth in overall sales with sales of 80 to 90 million units, but it mainly focuses on mid- and low-end smartphone business, with average revenue and profits.

Next is fruit, which ranks fifth in overall sales volume. Its revenue and profitability are also quite exaggerated. One company alone reaped more than 30% of the profits in the global mobile phone market.

Zhiyun has more than 50%, and Fruit has more than 30%... Then what about other mobile phone manufacturers? Well, they can only share the remaining 10%... The other numerous mobile phone manufacturers, including Six Star and Weiku Electronics, share the remaining 10%.

LG ranks sixth in global mobile phone sales. This company, which has a strategic partnership with Zhiyun Technology in the field of screens, also has a very miserable mobile phone business. Its smartphones sell worse than 4-star in South Korea, and worse than Zhiyun and Fruit in other places. This year's sales have dropped by at least 30 percentage points compared to last year.

Nowadays, it can only survive by relying on some mid- and low-end smartphones and feature phones. Of course, it still has sales of tens of millions of units.

However, although their mobile phone business is not doing well now, their screen business is making a lot of money. By shipping high-end screens to Zhiyun and Fruit, LG is now counting money until their hands cramp.

Even if Zhiyun Technology wants to develop its own supply chain, LG dares to lower its status and directly form a joint venture with Zhiyun using its advanced screen technology and existing factories, and managed to snatch a portion of Huaxing Electronics' shares.

This represents a steady stream of revenue from the screen business!

Ranked seventh is Zhongxing, a Chinese company that has done well in the domestic market with its low-end feature phones and mid-to-low-end contract phones.
In addition, several other domestic mobile phone manufacturers are also doing well, with sales of tens of millions of units. Of course, the mobile phone business of these domestic mobile phone manufacturers seems to have large sales, but in fact it is not very profitable, and the net profit is even far less than that of Weiku Electronics.

However, Zhongxing and Huawei’s main business is not the mobile phone business, but the base station business… The more popular the sales of smartphones in China and overseas, the more prosperous their base station business will be, and they will make a lot of money.

Among the above-mentioned companies, except for Nokia, the other companies are actually the beneficiaries of the rapid explosion of the smartphone market, but the directions of their benefits are different.

A large number of international mobile phone manufacturers that used to dominate the market are still in the market, but their performance is no longer as good as before. The sales of mobile phone manufacturers such as Motorola, Sony Ericsson, HTC, and BlackBerry are now classified as others.

And it’s typical that the more you struggle, the faster you die.

The above is still about the overall mobile phone market.

In fact, by this time period, feature phones are so cheap that they are of little use other than contributing to relatively good sales figures, and the revenue and profits they provide are extremely meager.

In the contemporary mobile phone market, the computing smartphone market can better reflect the current situation of the mobile phone market.

If we only count the sales of smartphones (including various systems), then there is no doubt that Zhiyun is first, Weiku is second, Sixing is third, and Fruit is fourth.

If we compare the revenue and profit of smartphone business, Zhiyun ranks first, Fruit ranks second, Sixing ranks third, and Weiku ranks fourth.

However, there is a huge gap between the fourth-ranked Weiku Electronics and the third-ranked Four Stars.

At the same time, the profit gap between Sixing, Fruit and Zhiyun is also huge.

The top four smartphone manufacturers are divided into three tiers.

And it is a cliff-like echelon, with a huge gap between each other.

Then looking at these rankings, you will find one thing: among the top four smartphone manufacturers, two are from China.

The most surprising thing is that both of these companies were founded by Xu Shenxue: Zhiyun and Weiku!
Among them, Zhiyun is the core of the core!
The reason why the domestic smartphone supply chain has developed so rapidly in the past two years is because of the support of Zhiyun controlled by Xu Shenxue.

Why has the total investment in domestic semiconductor design and manufacturing been so huge in the past two years? It is because Zhiyun is supporting it from behind.

All of these, in turn, brought great benefits to a number of domestic mobile phone manufacturers, including Weiku Electronics. Finally, they started to play with cost-effectiveness and price, and finally squeezed a number of international mobile phone manufacturers in the domestic market.

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The mobile phone market has been very lively in the past few months, but Xu Shenxue did not pay much attention to it. In September, Xu Shenxue also attended a press conference.

However, it was not a mobile phone launch conference, but a drone launch conference.

Xiaojiang Technology, a subsidiary of Liuhe Investment, officially released its first generation of consumer-grade drones. After months of polishing the details and preparing for mass production, they finally released their first drone.

However, this drone did not cause much sensation after it was launched on the market. The main reason is that current drones are still very niche products and ordinary people will not buy them.

Therefore, even though Xu Shenxue personally appeared on the stage and said a few simple words at the press conference, it brought in a certain amount of publicity traffic, but the effect was very general.

Although many people pay attention to it, he doesn’t buy it!

This thing is of no use to ordinary people, so the early buyers are only some technology enthusiasts, model aircraft enthusiasts and some photography professionals who want to try using this thing for aerial photography.

Therefore, it is impossible for this drone to quickly cause a global sensation like the launch of smartphones by Zhiyun Technology. The drone market will still take some time to cultivate.

After attending the press conference, Xu Shenxue ran to the nearby Hailan Automobile Company to take a look at their prototype cars.

Some time ago, Hailan Automobile Company reported that they had completed the research and development of the first prototype car and were even ready for mass production and sale.

Xu Shenxue was a little skeptical. Could it be so easy to make an electric car?
With suspicion, he went to take a look, and then was speechless... This thing was not the mainstream electric car he wanted at all, but a compact three-box sedan with a mediocre appearance. Xu Shenxue could still tolerate the ordinary appearance.

But it actually uses lead-acid batteries, there is no so-called intelligent driving in the car, and even the display screen is only a small size and placed on the dashboard.

The whole thing is to hollow out a traditional low-end gasoline car, stuff a lead-acid battery in it, add an electric motor, and make a rubbish gasoline generator that makes an annoying rattling sound to extend the range.

Xu Shenxue looked at the sample car with an expressionless face, and before leaving, he fired all the management members of Hailan Automobile Company one by one.

Including Xu Yuanliang, who he had been optimistic about before... This guy seemed to talk a lot before, but in the end, his mind was still full of concepts of low-end cars and gasoline cars.

What the hell! I have invested more than 1 billion in research and development, and I am also planning to invest several billion in the subsequent production base. I have even laid out lithium resources in advance and acquired controlling stakes in lithium mining companies.

However, I have been a little busy in the past six months and haven't paid much attention to this car project. How can you make me an old man's car that uses lead-acid batteries?
He even had the nerve to ask me to come over and see the sample car!
Do I, Xu Shenxue, look so easy to fool?
(End of this chapter)