Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 511: Solid-State Battery Rumors
The battery industry has been one of the most important industries in the past twenty years, and its development has directly affected the development of the electronics industry.

Especially for various portable devices.

From early Walkmans, mobile phones in the analog era, antique laptops and other electronic devices, to mobile phones, MP3s, PDAs, and laptops in the feature phone era, batteries have become a very core component, and their performance directly affects the battery life and performance of the product.

For portable devices, if the battery is not good, you are basically helpless.

In the era of smart terminals, the importance of batteries has risen again. Smartphones, tablets, Bluetooth headsets, smart watches, AI glasses, ultra-thin notebooks and other devices are heavily dependent on the performance of lithium batteries.

Previously, Zhiyun Group used lithium cobalt oxide batteries, which is also the type of battery used in most mobile phones or other portable electronic products.

The energy density of this type of battery is particularly high. In the past, it could easily reach an energy density of 170 to 180 watt-hours per kilogram. The energy density of lithium cobalt oxide batteries from big brands with more advanced technology can basically reach more than 200 watt-hours per kilogram.

However, although this type of lithium cobalt oxide battery has a high energy density, it also has a lot of disadvantages, such as poor charging and discharging capabilities. Excessive current can easily cause the battery to heat up, and the battery's thermal runaway temperature is also very poor, and it will explode and catch fire at around 150 degrees.

This is also the reason why Zhiyun Group’s electronic products were very cautious in the field of fast charging in the early days: if you mess around with lithium cobalt oxide batteries, they will really explode for you to see... just like a four-star mobile phone.

Of course, most mobile phone manufacturers are not stupid. They also know that this thing is very dangerous, so the battery charging and discharging management and thermal control management technology are very complete.

There are very few companies that are as aggressive as Sixin in the field of lithium cobalt oxide batteries for portable devices... No, it is the only one in the past decade.

When using lithium cobalt oxide batteries, the biggest feature of batteries and battery application manufacturers is that they maintain great restraint in current output and input voltage... The output and input voltage of mobile phone batteries are very low!
In addition, lithium cobalt oxide batteries have another characteristic, which is that they are expensive... The price of cobalt as a material is about six times that of lithium materials at present. Lithium cobalt oxide batteries are much more expensive than ternary lithium batteries.

This high cost is unaffordable for electric vehicles or other products that use a large amount of batteries.

It can be said that lithium cobalt oxide batteries are not very good in other aspects except for their energy density. They are not safe, have a slow charging speed, have an average battery cycle life, and are very expensive!
However, the advantage of high energy density is enough to cover up its many shortcomings.

In addition, the usage environment of portable devices is much more relaxed than that of electric vehicles, so lithium cobalt oxide batteries have become the batteries for most portable battery products.

Zhiyun Group was no exception. The batteries used in its portable products are almost all lithium cobalt oxide batteries, and they are the top-level lithium cobalt oxide batteries. The energy density has reached more than 200 watt-hours per kilogram.

However, two years ago, not long after Hailan Automobile released its first generation of semi-solid-state batteries, the batteries used in various portable electronic products under Zhiyun Group have been fully switched to semi-solid-state batteries.
The semi-solid battery developed by Hailan Automobile, as a transitional product between liquid batteries and solid-state batteries, can easily reach an energy density of 350 watt-hours per kilogram, which is higher than lithium cobalt oxide batteries and higher than conventional liquid ternary lithium batteries.

In addition, semi-solid-state batteries are safer and have longer cycle life. Another important point is that although the cost of semi-solid-state batteries is more expensive than ternary lithium batteries, it is similar to lithium cobalt oxide batteries.

The performance has increased significantly, while the cost has not changed much. This is the core reason why all types of smart terminal devices under Zhiyun Group have turned to semi-solid-state batteries.

And as the production capacity of battery cells suitable for portable devices of Hailan Battery, a subsidiary of Hailan Automobile, gradually increases, it also began to supply Weiku Electronics this year.

And through its shareholding in Ningdai Battery, it has begun to gradually sell semi-solid battery cells for smart terminals. Now other manufacturers' high-end mobile phones are gradually using semi-solid batteries.

By the way, in the past two years, Hailan Battery has become the new core battery supplier of Zhiyun Group!
Of course, Hailan Battery only supplies the core battery cell parts, and other components of the finished battery products, mainly the core electronic control parts such as the core battery management chip, are still independently developed by Zhiyun.

Starting from the year before last, Zhiyun Mobile Phones began to take advantage of the battery life of semi-solid-state batteries and began to significantly surpass its competitors in mobile phone battery life, but this leading advantage will not last long.

Because starting this year, Ningdai Battery began to provide various types of semi-solid batteries to the outside world on a large scale. Tesla has taken the lead in using them in the automotive field, and other electric vehicle manufacturers will follow suit.

Semi-solid-state batteries have also begun to be used on a large scale in the field of smart terminals. The battery cells of the new mobile phone that Apple plans to release in the fall of this year will come from the semi-solid-state batteries of Ningdai Battery. As time goes by, the supply chain of Apple mobile phones has not only not reduced its dependence on Chinese high-tech companies, but has been increasing year by year. The screens of core components have begun to use screens from Huaxing Technology, batteries have begun to use battery cells from Ningdai Battery, and flash memory and storage chips are using chips from Zhiyun Storage on a large scale.

Even in the field of communication baseband, Apple has actually been in negotiation with Zhiyun Group... Qualcomm has been killing Apple in the field of communication baseband, but Apple's self-developed communication baseband has not been smooth.

After struggling for many years, Apple finally plans to introduce Zhiyun's communication baseband to balance Qualcomm's dominance in the communication baseband field.

In addition to fruits using Ningdai Battery's semi-solid-state batteries, high-end smart terminal devices from some other manufacturers are also beginning to use Ningdai semi-solid-state batteries produced using semi-solid-state battery technology from Hailan Battery.

In this regard, Ningdai Battery is always open to supply various companies around the world!
Ningdai Battery is a relatively complicated enterprise. Although it is a holding company of Xu Shenxue, it also has a large number of other messy shareholders.

On the one hand, it cooperates with major automobile manufacturers and smart terminal manufacturers, and is also independently developing ternary lithium batteries and some other batteries.

But on the other hand, it also received support from Hailan Battery and obtained technical licenses for Hailan Automobile's lithium iron phosphate batteries and semi-solid batteries...although most of the profits from these two battery businesses will eventually be taken away by Hailan Battery.

However, even so, Ningdai Battery has become the largest battery manufacturer in the contemporary world and the only manufacturer that can provide semi-solid-state batteries to third-party manufacturers, and it has received a lot of attention.

HaiLan Battery, on the other hand, is relatively special. It is a typical internal supply chain company of the Xu Group. Its products are only supplied to HaiLan Automobile and its corresponding sister companies, and its battery products are never sold to the outside world.

The semi-solid-state batteries produced by Hailan Battery and Ningdai Battery both come from the same technology source. However, the technology license obtained by Ningdai Battery is only for the first generation of semi-solid-state batteries, which are relatively inferior in technology.

However, although everyone has started to use semi-solid-state batteries this year, the differences in technology among manufacturers in battery management technology, overall power consumption control, and the balance between performance and battery life still lead to huge differences in the battery life of mobile phones among major manufacturers.

In terms of battery management technology and battery safety technology for smart terminals, Zhiyun Group is still at the world's top level.

So even if it is the same battery cell and the same battery capacity, the battery life of Zhiyun phone is better!
Zhiyun Mobile has become one of the world's top high-end mobile phone brands. For many years, it has suppressed Apple, the four-star Galaxy series and a large number of domestic mobile phone brands. This is not just suppression in one or two aspects, but suppression in all aspects.

From mobile phone SOC, memory chips, flash memory chips, to mobile phone screens, cameras, mobile phone batteries, early fingerprint recognition modules, current 3D face recognition sensing modules, under-screen photoelectric sensing modules and other core components, to microphones, speakers, flash lights, vibration motors, data interfaces and even a tiny screw, all are the world's top spare parts products.

Other mobile phone brands can at best be comparable to Zhiyun phones in some aspects, but it is impossible for them to be comparable to Zhiyun phones in all areas, not even Apple.

Zhiyun Mobile, which brings together the world's top spare parts, is a high-quality OEM manufacturer provided by top OEM manufacturers such as Weiku Industry and BYD.

It is also equipped with an operating system that pays great attention to personal data security and a smooth operation, and the Zhiyun APP Mall, which has more than two million pieces of content and has very strict content supervision.

What consumers ultimately get is an industrial product that represents the most advanced technology of today’s humanity…Although a Zhiyun phone only costs a few thousand yuan, it actually represents the most advanced technology in many fields of humanity today.

It is impossible for other mobile phone manufacturers to catch up. Not to mention anything else, they can't even get the S903 chip!

When the above-mentioned top technologies are put into the hands of consumers, the experience they give to consumers is actually not too exaggerated. It is nothing more than higher mobile phone performance, better battery life, better signal, and better screen color.

Then the phone looks more comfortable overall, feels better in the hand, and is more resistant to falling if it falls.

When using it, the vibration feedback is more flexible and more comfortable.

If you play music directly, the sound quality will be better.

When you are talking on the phone or recording, the sound quality you receive is better. When you are taking photos or videos, the quality of the videos or photos you take is better!
If all these advantages are released, there is actually not much to say. Major mobile phone manufacturers have their own advantages to a greater or lesser extent, and can compete with Zhiyun phones in some areas.

The problem is that Zhiyun mobile phone combines all the above advantages in one!
The world's top high-end mobile phone, this is no joke. To manufacture such a top mobile phone, the technical requirements are very high. Strictly speaking, it is even more difficult than Zhiyun's other two core products, smart robots and virtual devices!
Robots and virtual devices, the technical difficulty of these things lies in the artificial intelligence of the software part, but in the field of hardware, although the technology is also advanced, after research by large companies such as Google and Apple, they feel that they can also make the hardware themselves...

The problem is that they don't have the artificial intelligence to operate such hardware, and robots are useless as mere shells.

But Zhiyun phone’s hardware alone is enough to make competitors despair!
Even if they can stack hardware with the same performance, they can't keep the cost so low...

Last year, after Four Star received the S18 series of mobile phones, it disassembled the S18 standard version in detail and made a cost estimate... This cost estimate was based on Four Star's own Galaxy series evaluation method. In other words, assuming that Four Star itself built a Galaxy phone that is exactly the same as the S18 standard version, how much would it cost?

The result was very disappointing to them... After they made a cost estimate, they found that if they did it themselves, leaving aside the problem of not being able to purchase chips such as the S903 chip, assuming Zhiyun was willing to sell it, the hardware cost of the phone would actually be around four thousand.

As we all know, Zhiyun Group's mobile phone business has a very high gross profit margin. The hardware cost of the S18 standard version is at most yuan, and most likely even less than that!

The same product costs three thousand and four thousand yuan respectively. This is the difference between Zhiyun and Sixing!

There are a lot of different technologies behind this cost control. Let alone other things, the supply chain system alone is enough to make the four-star executives frown.

Zhiyun's efficient supply chain is recognized worldwide as the top, most efficient, and most technologically advanced supply chain!
Massive data collection sensors are directly connected to the production lines of each supplier... In order to manage this supply chain, Zhiyun Group has specially built a large supercomputing server to process massive supply chain data. In order to maintain smooth data communications on a global scale, Zhiyun has even set up a satellite operating subsidiary and built a satellite communication network covering the world!

It also built Zhiyun Airlines, owns a number of its own cargo planes, and has reached various cooperation agreements with a number of airlines.

Although this supply chain costs a lot of money, it can save Zhiyun Group at least tens of billions of dollars in operating costs every year... Hundreds of billions of dollars, this is not a small amount of money!

Fruit and Six Star have always wanted to emulate Zhiyun and develop this advanced top-level supply chain, and have been trying to catch up, but there is still a gap.

Gaps in the supply chain are invisible.

The gap in the battery field is visible!
But, at least everyone will be able to use semi-solid batteries this year. Although there is a gap, it will not be too big. At least there will not be any obvious gap in energy density.

However, just when everyone thought that semi-solid batteries would be used for a long time, rumors began to spread in the industry that Zhiyun Group was going to jointly release solid-state batteries with Hailan Automobile.

This shocked many people in the industry!

Is this news true or false?

If this is true, then the development speed of Hailan Battery is too fast. The previous semi-solid batteries can actually be understood by everyone. After all, they still belong to the field of liquid batteries. Many battery manufacturers work hard and can also make liquid batteries with higher energy density. Then there will be no problem in calling them semi-solid batteries.

To some extent, semi-solid-state batteries are actually a marketing concept... just like the retina screen in a mobile phone, it is a concept created based on some technical parameters in order to sell better products.

Before Hailan Automobile launched its semi-solid-state batteries, the industry rarely talked about semi-solid-state batteries. Generally, they talked about marketing concepts such as polymer lithium batteries.

The concept of semi-solid-state batteries became popular around the world after Hailan Automobile first adopted semi-solid-state batteries for marketing on a large scale, and especially after Zhiyun Group's robots and various portable products also adopted semi-solid-state batteries on a large scale and promoted them as selling points.

They even proposed technical standards for so-called semi-solid-state batteries, such as an energy density of 300 kilowatt-hours per kilogram. In fact, many battery manufacturers’ advanced lithium-ion batteries have also been using a hybrid product between liquid batteries and solid-state batteries, but the energy density of their experimental products is not that high, generally around 200 watt-hours per kilogram.

According to the technical standard of 350 watt-hours per kilogram proposed by Hailan Automobile and Zhiyun Group, their semi-solid-state batteries do not meet the technical standards... This is also very infuriating and even speechless.

Because Hailan Automobile and Zhiyun Group are typical examples of companies that rely on more advanced technology and greater market influence to forcibly formulate technical standards that are more in line with their own interests, which makes it difficult for other battery manufacturers to follow suit.

Everyone can understand semi-solid-state batteries. They are just liquid batteries with higher energy density and some solid electrolytes. We are also researching and developing them, and the results are about to come out, but the technical indicators are slightly worse.

But what are solid-state batteries?

This thing is completely different from liquid batteries.

Globally, we have never heard of any battery manufacturer making technological breakthroughs in the field of solid-state batteries. Everyone is still in the laboratory stage, and many technical problems have not yet been solved, let alone commercial mass production.

It is not a problem to produce some samples on a small scale, but what about commercial mass production?
This is impossible!

However, the news currently circulating is that it is indeed going into commercial mass production, and it is even planned to be used in Zhiyun Group's intelligent robots.

This news is so scary.

On the eve of the press conference, at Zhiyun Group's routine press conference, many reporters asked many questions about the joint press conference and solid-state batteries.

But in order to maintain a certain mystery and to make the press conference gain more attention and expectations.

Zhiyun Group’s spokesperson evaded the reporter’s questions: neither admitting nor denying!

This attitude itself explains the problem, that is, Zhiyun Group and Hailan Battery must have developed solid-state batteries, otherwise the Zhiyun Group’s spokesperson would directly deny it.

After all, there are consequences for such public statements!
After the press conference, Zhiyun Group’s stock price rose by several percentage points on the same day...this is a solid-state battery.

We are not stupid, and we can all imagine what kind of effect will be produced once solid-state batteries are applied to various terminal products under Zhiyun Group.

The battery life will definitely be greatly increased!
For portable devices such as mobile phones and robots, battery life is actually one of the most important performance characteristics.

Especially for robot products, battery life has become the biggest pain point for intelligent robots under Zhiyun Group.

If Zhiyun Group can solve the battery life issue, investors can already foresee a surge in Zhiyun Robotics' robot sales.

In this case, you must increase your stock holdings and wait for big profits!
As a result, this new generation of flagship robots has not been released yet, and solid-state batteries have not been released yet. Even Zhiyun Group itself is not a developer or manufacturer of solid-state batteries, but only a user of solid-state batteries. As a result, its stock price has risen a lot!
This also further proves the importance of solid-state batteries to various portable devices, electric vehicles and other products!
It also makes people look forward to it. If Hailan Automobile is launched on the market, what a sensation the scene will be!

Hailan Automobile not only has the world's top, most advanced and most intelligent autonomous driving technology, but also has the world's top semi-solid-state battery technology, and now it is even possible to develop solid-state battery technology.

If this were to go public, the stock price would definitely go through the roof!

Many investors even believe that if HaiLian Automobile goes public, it may even become the second Zhiyun Group. Its market value will not be limited to hundreds of billions of dollars, and it is very likely to reach trillions of dollars.

(End of this chapter)