Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 302: Global Fighting Galaxy Security

In early October, many Zhiyun fans discovered a new piece of news, that is, Zhiyun's new generation of notebooks that were delayed in the spring: YunBook is about to release a new generation of products.

Moreover, this new generation of products will pioneer the use of Zhiyun's self-developed X86 chips.

This news did not bring much joy to foreign consumers, and they even felt worried.

In the first half of this year, Wichi Technology, a subsidiary of Zhiyun, also released its self-developed X86 chip WZ2000 and the low-voltage version WZ2000U. However, they are only entry-level dual-core chips, and their overall performance lags behind Intel's similar products, namely the new Core i3 chips, and are generally at the same level as AMD.

After the release of this WZ2000 chip, its performance can only be described as average, after all, it is only a chip made with a -nanometer process.

However, it is not without advantages, that is, it is very cost-effective.

Especially its full-blooded version WZ2040, this chip is not frequency locked, enthusiasts can easily overclock this chip, and thus it is regarded as the little prince of overclocking by many netizens and technology enthusiasts. They believe that this chip is the most cost-effective entry-level mid-range chip after the first generation Core i3.

In the minds of the junky guys in Picture Bar, WZ2040 has become the chip of choice for many entry-level installations!
After all, this thing can easily overclock the main frequency to over 4GHZ even if it only uses the built-in boxed air cooling.

Therefore, this chip performs quite well in the DIY market and has become the first choice for some people to install entry-level computers.

This has opened up a certain market for WZ Technology's WZ chip brand, gained a certain degree of recognition, and promoted the sales of branded desktop computers equipped with this chip.

It also improved the reputation of the low-voltage version of the chip, the WZ2000U chip, and promoted the sales of domestic notebooks equipped with this low-voltage version of the chip.

For example, Tianfang's 14-inch notebook series priced around 4,000 yuan sells quite well.

Recently, some other notebook manufacturers have also launched entry-level notebooks equipped with WZ2000U chips, which are quite good at the price of three to four thousand yuan.

Although the WZ2000U chip is very good, it is ultimately just an entry-level chip. The price of such a chip alone cannot support the brand value, let alone a high-end notebook.

Not to mention, Zhiyun's YunBook has always been on the high-end route, and the cheapest entry-level version costs six or seven thousand.

This makes many people worry that Zhiyun will use the WZ2000U with nm process to develop the YunBook... By then, I will spend six or seven thousand to buy a computer, but it will still be equipped with an entry-level dual-core CPU?

Isn't that treating me as a fool?

However, some people are very much looking forward to it. Zhiyun’s strength in chip manufacturing is unique in China, and even world-class.

This has been fully demonstrated on the S503 chip.

To this day, the S503 chip is the top chip in the mobile phone SOC field, no doubt about it!

Even the A6 chip on the Fruit 8 is inferior to the S503.

In the comparison tests of many enthusiasts, Zhiyun S503 beats Apple A8 in almost all aspects, and the gap is quite obvious.

Naturally, other chips made by Zhiyun will not be too bad.

An entry-level dual-core CPU can produce an overclocking prince, the king of cost-effectiveness. Will Zhiyun produce a more advanced low-voltage version of the CPU?
With such questions and expectations, many potential users and technology enthusiasts of Zhiyun notebooks, some self-media bloggers, and technology media have paid attention to the launch of Zhiyun notebooks.

Of course, high-end notebook manufacturers such as Apple, Dell, and Samsung, as well as chip manufacturers such as Intel and AMD, are also of great concern.

As competitors, they are more concerned about Zhiyun’s new notebooks this year!

Especially on the Intel side, since the two sides began to break up last year and after many fruitless negotiations, Intel began to restrict the supply of notebook chips to Zhiyun. The old chips continue to be supplied, but the supply of new notebook chips is restricted.

This directly led to the delay in the launch of Zhiyun notebooks at the spring conference... Subsequently, in this year's notebook production and sales, the shortage of high-end CPUs made it impossible to roll out production.

Its entry-level YunBook has been out of stock in the market for several months, with only some high-end models on sale, and even these are often out of stock.

The sales of Zhiyun notebooks in the first ten months of this year can be said to have collapsed. In the first ten months of last year, Zhiyun's notebook sales reached 15 million, but in the first ten months of this year, Zhiyun's notebook sales were only 8 million units, a decrease of nearly 50%.

Outside analysts believe that the sales volume of Zhiyun YunBook has almost been halved this year, which will result in Zhiyun losing at least tens of billions of US dollars in revenue!
The sales volume of Zhiyun notebooks has dropped significantly, and coupled with the loss of the US market this year, these have caused Zhiyun Group's revenue this year to decrease instead of increase, and its profits to further decrease.

These have a direct impact on the market, that is, Zhiyun’s stock price has not recovered since it plummeted in June.

Even after the release of the S14 phone, sales were strong, and outside analysts believed that this phone is expected to achieve total sales of million units.

However, it is still difficult to conceal the fact that Zhiyun Group has encountered operational difficulties in the field of smart terminals this year, with revenue decreasing instead of increasing and profits falling.

At the same time, Zhiyun Group's R&D costs have always been extremely high.

In particular, we will continue to increase and expand research and development and investment in semiconductors, whether it is the design and development of new chips or the huge investment and construction of semiconductor factories, all of which require a lot of real money.

Outside analysts believe that Zhiyun’s semiconductor business this year will further drag down Zhiyun Group’s overall profit performance.

For example, in the newly entered X86 chip field, including the initial cooperation and acquisition investment, plus the R&D breakthroughs in the past few years and the continued investment this year, Zhiyun Group has continued to invest more than US$86 billion in the X chip field.

Despite such a huge investment, it only brought in a mere tens of millions of dollars in revenue this year.

In other words, the X86 business has brought Zhiyun Group a loss of nearly billion US dollars!

As for the field of semiconductor manufacturing, let alone, anyone who sees the huge investment in Zhiyun's semiconductor manufacturing business will take a breath and say: It's crazy!
The investment in any 12-inch wafer fab with advanced technology is several billion dollars, and Zhiyun Microelectronics, a subsidiary of Zhiyun, has six wafer fabs under construction, with an investment of hundreds of billions of dollars.

Such a huge investment in the semiconductor field has brought extremely heavy financial pressure to Zhiyun, and has also significantly reduced the overall profit margin of Zhiyun Group.

Some people say: No matter how profitable Zhiyun's S series of mobile phones are, they can't withstand the investment of Xu Shenxue... tens of billions or even hundreds of billions of dollars, and the investment continues in the fiercely competitive field such as the semiconductor field.

At the same time, Zhiyun Group's investment is not limited to chip design and chip manufacturing, but also covers all aspects of the consumer electronics industry chain and the semiconductor industry chain.

For example, in the field of screens, Huaxing Technology's investment is still continuing. In order to solve the problem of large-scale mass production of high-end flexible notch screens, Zhiyun has joined hands with partners such as Sixin to invest a total of more than US$4 billion.

At the same time, it continues to cooperate with Beijing Xifang, another major screen supplier of Zhiyun/Weiku. As a strategic investor, Zhiyun Group has also invested a lot of money in Beijing Xifang.

In addition to the conventional consumer electronics industry, there is also a lot of investment in the semiconductor industry chain.

Zhiyun's investment in the semiconductor field is not limited to the chip manufacturing field, but also includes upstream industries in the semiconductor industry, such as various equipment and consumables.

In order to further support the subsequent research and development of Gulf Technology, a manufacturer of core equipment such as lithography machines, etching machines, and ion implantation machines, Zhiyun's Zhiyun Microelectronics has injected funds into Gulf Technology twice, and the cumulative amount has reached US$2 billion.

As a result, Zhiyun Microelectronics also became one of the shareholders of Gulf Technology.

At the same time, Zhiyun Microelectronics also made a strategic investment in Huasai Electronic Technology Co., Ltd., the only advanced photoresist supplier in China... that is, it poached the R&D team of a Japanese photoresist company and got the shady photoresist.

There are also joint ventures with some suppliers.

Zhiyun Group, with Zhiyun Microelectronics as its main body and Xiannvshan Holdings as its main partner, has made extensive layouts and investments in the upstream industries of semiconductors, including equipment, photoresists, masks, special gases, etc., covering almost all areas of semiconductor manufacturing.

Such a large-scale investment has also led to the fact that although Zhiyun Group makes a lot of money every day, the final profit is not much.

Zhiyun earns a lot, but spends a lot too!
In the end, there was not much cash profit left for the shareholders, only a large number of various investment project assets were left to the shareholders.

You don’t even need to look at many assets; you can tell they are losing money just by hearing the name.

This series of operations by Zhiyun ultimately led to the following situation in the eyes of investors: Zhiyun has changed from a light-asset high-tech enterprise like Fruit to a heavy-asset high-tech industry like Sixing!

In this case, don't expect to enjoy a high P/E ratio like that of fruits. It would be good enough if you can be given a P/E ratio treatment similar to that of four stars.

As of early October, Zhiyun's stock price was still only 14 billion US dollars... Even the strong sales of the S mobile phone could not improve the concerns of a large number of investors about Zhiyun.

Because outside analysts generally believe that although Zhiyun's revenue this year will still reach more than 300 billion US dollars and its smart terminal business continues to make money, due to the sluggish growth of the smart terminal business and the drag of huge investments in the semiconductor field, this year's net profit may only be around 40 billion US dollars, a year-on-year net profit of more than 50 billion US dollars, there will be a net profit drop of at least 30%.

For ordinary investors, this is a very bad phenomenon.

This is also the reason why Zhiyun’s stock price has not been able to go up in the second half of this year... Ordinary investors are not stupid. They know that you, Xu Shenxue, have invested all the money you earned into the bottomless pit of the semiconductor industry.

Since you, Xu Shenxue, want to play it this way, then don't expect a market value with a relatively high price-to-earnings ratio.

Of course, even so, it is still better than four stars...

The Four Stars are even worse off. At the beginning of this year, their market value once dropped to more than 100 billion US dollars... Their net assets are not much more, and their net assets are almost 200 billion US dollars.

Later, it rebounded for a while, especially in June when Zhiyun and Fruit started to fight, and Sixin took the opportunity to expand its market share. However, Zhiyun released S14 in August and September, and Fruit released Fruit 6 in September, which put Sixin's high-end mobile phones under great pressure. The stock price collapsed again and returned to the half-dead state in the first half of the year.

Of course...the stock price of Sixing mentioned here is just a part of Sixing Electronics...the huge industrial chain of Sixing.

Just like Zhiyun Group, it is just one of the many companies under Xu Shenxue, but Zhiyun is larger in scale, makes more money, and attracts more attention from the outside world.

In fact, many of the companies under Xu Shenxue are quite large, but they are not listed and do not receive much attention from the outside world. For example, Hailan Automobile has annual car sales of more than 500,000 units and annual revenue of several hundred billion US dollars.

South Gate Aerospace, the world's most powerful commercial aerospace company, has annual revenues of several billion dollars.

There is also a Yihai Technology Group, which includes Yihai Network, Yihai Software, and Tiaodong Technology. Its annual revenue is also several billion US dollars. Since last year, the outside world has ranked Yihai Technology alongside BTA as one of the four major giants in China, belonging to the Y in BTAY.

Then there are the old industries, such as Vico Electronics... This is the world's fourth largest smart terminal company, a huge enterprise with annual mobile phone shipments of more than 200 million units. It is no longer the small copycat workshop of the past. Its mobile phone products are also sold all over the world, and it has great advantages in many emerging regional markets. For example, in India, ASEAN, and South America, Vico Electronics' Little Blue mobile phone is either ranked first or second in sales, competing with Samsung's mid- and low-end mobile phones.

This company has annual revenue of several hundred billion US dollars.

There is also Wecoo Industrial, the third largest OEM assembly company in the world, second only to Foxconn. Its direct employees have always been maintained at over one million people. Its annual revenue is also very exaggerated, but the profit of this kind of OEM company is relatively low.

Another company that is not well known to most people but is relatively well-known in the industry is Weiku Trading, the largest smart terminal trading agent in China and even in Greater China. It not only serves Zhiyun and Weiku, but also other domestic smart terminal companies and some overseas smart terminal companies. It has a very deep sales network in the domestic market as well as the ASEAN market, the Indian market, and the South American market.

The above mentioned are all relatively large-scale enterprises, and some small and medium-sized enterprises have not been counted...

In the entire Fairy Mountain Holdings system, there are more than 100 wholly-owned and controlled companies...

Then Liuhe Investment has hundreds of wholly-owned and holding companies.

Zhiyun Group has even more companies of all kinds, hundreds of them. Xu Shenxue has three banks under his command... one in the mainland, one in Hong Kong, and one in Europe. However, these three banks are only used to meet the capital call needs of the companies under their umbrella, and generally do not do regular banking business, so the outside world does not know much.

The above... is still about the parts that can be seen in the light and can be found out by some senior professionals who spend time and effort.

But there are still parts that cannot be investigated... For example, Galaxy Life, which is still unknown to the outside world and even the ordinary wealthy class... As a biomedical company rooted in Africa and doing business in India, Europe, East Asia, South America and other places, it is actually very large.

However, the outside world has no idea about the existence of this company. Only the bosses of the financial groups in various places know about the existence of this company...

How could we not know that they fight with each other every day!
Since June this year, Galaxy Life's Galaxy Security and the security personnel under the American consortium have been fighting from the United States to Mexico, and then to South America and Africa...

Galaxy Security, in recent years, there have been fights all over the world, but I haven't heard much about it.
Very lively.

As the world's richest man, Xu Shenxue has so many industries that he himself can't even figure out how many companies and employees he has under his control.

Xu Shenxue himself couldn't figure it out, let alone outsiders.

In the eyes of ordinary people, Xu Shenxue is the boss of Zhiyun Group, the world's richest man, and also a very low-key person. Except for his own product launch conferences, he almost never attends any public occasions and rarely accepts interviews.

Starting this year, he even stopped participating in the launch of some important products of his own company.

Including the Zhiyun notebook launch conference held this year.

A large group of media reporters came running over, originally hoping to see Xu Shenxue and get a chance to interview him, or at least take a few photos.

But unfortunately, Xu Shenxue was not seen at the Zhiyun PC product launch conference, which was held independently for the first time this year.

The press conference was hosted by Ji Chenghe, the senior vice president of Zhiyun who is familiar to media reporters and ordinary people and is in charge of marketing, public relations and other matters.

At the press conference, Ji Chenghe announced it to the outside world for the first time and introduced Zhiyun Group's latest X86 chip products.

The WZ4000 and WZ4000U chips are manufactured using an nm process.

However, although WZ4000, the flagship desktop chip, has been released, it will not be sold immediately. Instead, it will be supplied to the public in January next year. Now we are just showing you a picture to tell you that there is such an awesome chip.

But after listening to the introduction of this product, everyone doubted whether Ji Chenghe was bragging, because according to Ji Chenghe's introduction, this chip can be compared with the fourth-generation Core.

The entire WZ4000 desktop series uses a quad-core CPU design and supports Zhiyun's self-developed ultra-multi-threading technology. The flagship model, WZ4030, supports eight threads.

Flagship WZ4030, maximum main frequency 3.8GHZ.

The L2 cache reaches 8MB and the L cache reaches MB.

Equipped with a high-performance OP6500 graphics processor, the GPU core frequency can reach 760MHZ.

Supports DDR3 1600 dual channel and up to 32GB memory.

In addition, the overall power consumption of WZ4030 is only watts, and the power consumption is well controlled.

In addition to the regular flagship WZ4030, there is also an unlocked WZ4040 chip, which has attracted the attention of a group of technology enthusiasts... Considering the reputation of WZ2030 as the overclocking prince in the first half of the year, the overclocking performance of this WZ4040 will probably not be bad.

Many enthusiasts are already planning to get one to play with after the chip is released next year to see how much it can exceed expectations.

In addition to the flagship version with four cores and eight threads, the WZ4000 series also has a mid-range version with four cores and four threads, namely the WZ3.7 with a main frequency of 4020GHZ and the WZ3.5 with a main frequency of 4010GHZ. The third-level cache is only 6MB and the integrated GPU is slightly inferior.

The overall performance of this chip is completely comparable to the top flagship chip under contemporary technological conditions, and is compared with Intel's fourth-generation I7 and fourth-generation I5.

This kind of chip made a group of domestic technology enthusiasts exclaim in excitement... This kind of chip is in line with the product image of Zhiyun in people's minds.

Either don’t do it, or if you do it, you must do it to the highest level. Even if you can’t be ahead of your competitors, you must be on par with them.

To be honest, the WZ2000 released in the first half of the year is somewhat inconsistent with Zhiyun's status... Although they are both entry-level products, apart from their high cost-performance, they are simply no match for Intel I3 of the same period.

The release of the WZ4000 series chips now makes people feel relieved: Zhiyun has not let down and is as strong as ever.

At the press conference, in addition to the WZ4000 chip which can only be seen but not consumed for the time being, the chip that was actually released and available for purchase was the WZ4000U chip.

It is also a high-performance mobile chip under Vichi Technology, based on the Shenlong architecture.

Among them, the flagship CPU used in YunBook 15Pro is the most eye-catching.

This WZ4040U chip uses quad-core eight-thread technology, with a basic clock speed of 2.4GHZ and a dynamic maximum clock speed of an astonishing 3.5GHZ. It also has an astonishing 6MB of L cache.

This is quite amazing data for a low-voltage CPU mainly used in laptops.

This CPU is directly targeted at the low-voltage version of Intel's fourth-generation Core i7...or in other words, it is targeted at the CPU of the Apple laptop 15Pro.

As a core competitor, Zhiyun will not allow the performance of its flagship notebook to lag behind that of Apple's notebooks. Therefore, even though the design experience is not perfect, such as the power consumption is relatively high, it still manages to improve the performance of this chip.

Of course, this is also due to the 18-nanometer process technology provided by Zhiyun Microelectronics... At the same time, Zhiyun Microelectronics' process technology has always been quite outstanding in low-power technology, and its technology in this regard even surpasses Intel and TSMC.

Therefore, even though the chip design engineers of Weichi Technology adopted a forceful approach to stack performance, which would lead to an increase in power consumption, they were able to still control the power within 50 watts by relying on Zhiyun Microelectronics' excellent 18-nanometer process performance.

Except for the flagship WZ4040U chip, the other three are slightly more normal. The WZ4030U also has four cores and eight threads, but the main frequency is much lower, with a default main frequency of 2.1GHZ and a maximum main frequency of 3.4GHZ.

The WZ4020U and 4010U are models that are comparable to the low-voltage version of the Core 5th generation I3. They are dual-core and four-thread designs, with a maximum main frequency of 3.3GHZ and 4GHZ, and use MB shared cache.

The entire WZ4000U series is aimed directly at the fourth-generation Core low-voltage version I7 and I5.

Even in terms of model segmentation, it is clearly benchmarked against I7 and I5.

This is a direct challenge to Intel, and also a direct challenge to Fruit.

While releasing the WZ4000U series chips, Ji Chenghe also officially released the new generation of Zhiyun notebook YunBook at the press conference.

It is still divided into three sizes: 14 inches, 15 inches and inches. In addition, performance-enhanced versions, namely YunBook Pro and YunBook Pro, have been launched for the -inch and -inch notebooks that are mainly used in office and production fields.

The most expensive one is the top-end version of YunBook 15 Pro, which is priced at 19999 yuan.

Expensive as always.

In order to maintain the price system, the entry-level version still starts at 6999 yuan... The lowest price of Zhiyun's notebooks released over the years has always been 6999 yuan, and this price has never changed!

However, considering the CPU replacement this year, in order to increase the product attractiveness, certain price reduction measures have actually been taken on several mid-configuration models.

This is also to entice people to buy the higher-priced mid-range configuration instead of just the entry-level version.

This pricing strategy is highly similar to Zhiyun Group's pricing strategy for mobile phones. Both aim to increase revenue and profits as much as possible while stabilizing the price system and expanding sales.

Therefore, Zhiyun has always been more inclined to sell more mid-range mobile phones or laptops.

The low-end entry-level model is more about maintaining the price system and also serves as a protective wall.

For example, if other manufacturers launch an ultra-thin business notebook that costs more than 6,000 yuan, people will subconsciously think: Zhiyun's notebook is only 6,900 yuan, why don't I spend a few hundred more to buy Zhiyun's...

Even if the opponent's laptop has been fully configured and is not making much money but only seeking market share, it will still be greatly suppressed by Zhiyun.

The same is true in the mobile phone field. If other mobile phone manufacturers release a flagship phone that costs more than 14 yuan, no matter how good your hardware performance is, when people see the price of your phone, the first thing they think of is: Zhiyun’s latest S is only yuan. Why do you sell my phone, a second- or third-tier brand, for more than yuan?

If I have more than 14 yuan to spend, why not add a few hundred yuan more to buy a Zhiyun S?

The S14 is a world-class flagship phone, not much better than yours!
At this time, consumers often ignore the fact that the top-end flagship phone of the Zhiyun S series costs more than 16 yuan, and the yuan model is just the entry-level version with GB.

Of course, even if it is the 14GB version of S16, which means the storage capacity is a bit smaller, the other configurations are still the same and the performance is quite powerful.

You see... this is why Zhiyun’s low-end version of the S series has not increased in price in recent years, but has even slightly reduced in price!

With the S14 priced at yuan, it will be very difficult for other manufacturers to make high-end mobile phones, especially when they want to hit the yuan price range.

Whether it is Samsung or other international or domestic mobile phone manufacturers, it is actually very difficult for them to make mobile phones priced at more than 4,000 yuan.

Even Fruit, which is also a high-end brand, cannot escape the influence of Zhiyun's pricing system. Basically, its annual pricing is aimed at Zhiyun's S series, and the price difference between each version is not very large. In fact, because it is in a weak position, Fruit is actually cheaper than Zhiyun in pricing in order to expand market sales.

In the modern world, the most expensive mobile phone is not a fruit, but a Zhiyun S series mobile phone
The fruit company wanted to raise prices several times to expand revenue and increase profits, but it did not dare to do so.

The price is already cheaper than Zhiyun S series mobile phones, but it still can’t sell better than Zhiyun. If the price is made more expensive than Zhiyun S series mobile phones, the sales volume will drop sharply!
I don’t dare to take this risk when it comes to fruits!
This has also led to the fact that in recent years, the prices of Fruit and Zhiyun products have been basically highly similar, and the prices of Fruit products are generally lower than those of Zhiyun products.

On October 4000, Zhiyun officially released the new generation of YunBook and the matching WZU series CPU, which brought new changes to the notebook market in China and even most of the world.

Many people are also paying attention to whether Zhiyun's self-developed CPU WZ4000U can revive Zhiyun Group's PC business.

After all, in the past ten months, Zhiyun's PC business has declined by nearly 50%, which is a scary decline.

Can this chip save Zhiyun’s PC business?
It won’t be long before the market gives the answer!
On October 13, YunBook was launched in major markets around the world. Many people, not just consumers, but also media reporters and industry insiders, came to the market.

In particular, some competitors of Zhiyun's notebook business, especially Apple, are paying close attention to the sales of this notebook.

In addition, Intel, which seems to have no direct relationship with laptops, is also closely watching the sales of this laptop!
Because the WZ4000U chip on this laptop is directly targeted at Intel's mid-to-high-end laptop CPUs, the fourth-generation low-voltage version of I7 and I5.

If Zhiyun's laptops sell well, it also means that WZ4000U will sell well.

This is not a good thing for Intel!
This means that they not only lost an important customer, but also gained a strong competitor!

In particular, the WZ4000 series chips under Wichita Technology, including this low-voltage notebook, are not only used by the group itself, but also sold to external parties.

(End of this chapter)