From knock-off old-man's electric vehicles to industrial giant

Chapter 323 Win-Win: I Won Twice!

"Of course, no problem."

Xu Yi understood the implication and then chuckled.

He wouldn't refuse something that expands the ecosystem and benefits the consumer experience.

Now that we've established such a deep partnership, it's only natural to coordinate and collaborate. When things get really good, it's hard to resist...

Back then, Huang (Huang Yonghong) even stood on stage at the product launch event to promote Xiaomi in order to sell its ecosystem.

If Xingchen car owners are drawn to Xiaomi phones, then aren't Xiaomi phone users also drawn to Xingchen cars?

When the ecosystems become integrated, it's hard to say who will affect whom!
"Oh, by the way, has Xiaomi made a solution for the battery life of electronic watches? This time, our public version battery model is very cheap, and it has been optimized for low power consumption discharge for small devices. Its energy density will also be more advantageous than that of suppliers on the market."

Xu Yi suddenly added a sentence.

The Polestar Watch1 brought the dynamic sleep mode to the market ahead of time, and other companies will definitely catch up quickly. This technology is not as difficult as gesture recognition and UWB.

But the advantage brought by the battery capacity is real; the battery supply is included with the purchase of the solution!
Double binding!!
"..."

Lei Jun realized he simply couldn't refuse.

Long battery life is also a necessity for wearable devices.

Although various companies are now developing dynamic hibernation solutions, they can quickly achieve more than a week of standby time under extremely low load.

However, in high-load and motion scenarios, the sensors and GPS motion tracking are sampling at high frequencies, and the power consumption in this part cannot be reduced.

If the press conference claims it can last a week, but it only lasts ten hours after you receive it, that would be embarrassing.

"Mr. Xu, it is a great thing that Xiaomi and Xingchen are joining hands. This year's digital market has become more vibrant with the addition of Xingchen."

The two finished discussing the initial plan and conditions over the phone.

Lei Jun readily agreed and hung up the phone in a cheerful tone.

"Mr. Lei, it seems that the launch date of our next flagship smartwatch can be brought forward."

Group President Lin Bin, who was also paying attention to the smartwatch business, smiled and took over the conversation as Lei Jun hung up the phone.

Xiaomi Group intends to create a purebred version of the "MI Watch" and does not put all of its smartwatch business on Huami, but it is not as good as other companies in terms of solutions and technology accumulation.

With Starry Sky's ready-made solution, they can significantly advance the timeline for launching their product.

But he noticed that after Lei Jun hung up the phone, the smile on his face gradually faded, and he became serious.

"Xingchen's strength in this area is too great; continuing like this may not be a good thing."

Lei Jun would giggle while chatting with Xu Yi, but he stopped giggling as soon as they were separated from each other.

He was feeling very heavy-hearted!
wrong!

Something's really not right!
After a long phone call, the core product solutions all ended up in the shape of stars.

Although this is nothing special for Xiaomi.

However, we must also consider Xingchen Group's positioning. It is not an ordinary supplier. It also has its own products, and its UWB technology and gesture sensing solutions may not be exclusively supplied to Xiaomi.

From the perspective of market competition, this is a worrying matter.

"CATL said they want to accelerate the research and development of silicon-carbon anode technology and that they have already produced mass-produced products with stable yields." Lin Bin immediately understood what he meant when he heard this.

CATL is in a hurry because its share of flagship phone battery supply has been taken away.

In just over six months, they immediately followed suit.

What was originally described as immature technology, processes, and equipment has now been transformed into "can be done"!
joke.

If they can't produce it, the high-end consumer battery market will truly be dominated by StarCraft.

"Okay, let's schedule a time next week and take a look at their mass-produced samples to see how much the energy density has actually improved, so we can have a backup option."

Lei Jun thought about it and felt that the cooperation with Xingchen was too "pleasant" and made him feel less secure.

He decided to increase support for other battery suppliers.

……

the other side.

Xu Yi had just hung up the phone when Hua Wei called.

"Mr. Xu, do you sell battery solutions for the Polestar Watch1?"

Yu Chengdong's tone was more direct, getting straight to the point.

I had no choice but to make this call.

Huawei's smartwatches are priced in the mid-to-high-end market, and just as they were starting to achieve good sales, the Polestar Watch1 arrived.

Their WATCH 2 is priced between 1688 yuan and 1988 yuan.

The battery life has been outclassed by Polestar, and a better solution cannot be found in the short term.

"Sell!"

Xu Yi readily agreed.

The smart wearable device market is not dominated by a single company. There are sports-oriented, business-oriented, and leisure-oriented products, as well as various ecosystems. Polestar WATCH cannot possibly capture them all. Why not cooperate to make more money?

Starry Sky can make money if its own watches sell well, and it can also make money from supplying other brands of watches.

What's the difference between this and a win-win situation where I win twice?

Yu Chengdong breathed a sigh of relief. With Xingchen willing to supply battery solutions, the battery life concerns for Huawei's mid-to-high-end electronic watches could be alleviated.

"Mr. Xu, your gesture recognition accuracy and UWB communication function are quite good. They have enabled many functions that we wanted to do but could not."

He said with emotion.

Huawei also has a team researching this field, and even more complex gesture recognition is showing promise in the lab, but Xingchen's speed is truly unexpected.

"Mr. Yu, if you are interested, we can discuss these two options in detail."

Adhering to the principle of "win-win", Xu Yi once again promoted his own solution.

"You sell gesture recognition solutions too?!"

Yu Chengdong was a little confused!

Xu Yi: "It's a lightweight version of the algorithm model, so the recognition accuracy will be somewhat different."

"Never mind then..."

Yu Chengdong was genuinely interested after seeing the demonstration.

But upon hearing that it was a censored version, he immediately lost interest.

If Huawei puts in the effort, it can achieve results; in terms of battery solutions, other companies really can't find anything as good.

As for the UWB solution, it is not a function that electronic watches must have.

Huawei hasn't even started building cars yet, and it hasn't even reached that stage of being a solution provider.

of course.

The vehicle networking department paid close attention to this technology. Before he made the call, Xu Zhijun was impressed by Xingchen Motors' boldness in launching a brand-new communication unlocking protocol to the current market, which was no easy task.

"Mr. Xu, does Xingchen plan to bring UWB to its car models and have developed different versions of RF certification for the global market?" Yu Chengdong couldn't help but ask.

The most crucial aspect of promoting new protocols and wireless technologies is certification. In the US, for example, UWB requires FCC ID certification and RF and antenna design according to Subpart F emission and spurious emission limits. Europe has even stricter certification requirements for UWB, imposing restrictions on frequency bands and outdoor use…

Of course, there are also corresponding requirements in China. Certain frequency bands can only be avoided and cannot be touched.

Therefore, even with the same technology, StarCraft still has to split the RF version by region and make hardware modifications, otherwise regulatory issues alone would be a major obstacle.

This person is considered an experienced driver.

"Yes, we are prepared for this. We will establish a universal testing standard and certification system for the world. If Huawei is willing to join, it will have readily available high-precision positioning solutions in the future car manufacturing market..."

Xu Yi listened and nodded.

The UWB function of Xingchen is based on the Decawave DW1000 chip. Currently, a large number of RTLS positioning solutions are in use abroad, and a certain standard and interoperability have been initially established, laying the groundwork for subsequent promotion.

UWB itself is not a sensitive technology, but establishing organizational standards and streamlining the supply chain and export control environment requires the participation of many players. Xu Yi believes that as long as Xingchen's UWB unlocking method is effective, there will be many interested car manufacturers in China.

As for the environment and policies abroad, let's get the compliance certification sorted out first, and then we can deal with the rest gradually once the cars are exported in large quantities.

"Well... I need to discuss this with Mr. Xu. Whether or not high-precision positioning is needed for the implementation of intelligent connected vehicles is not up to me."

Yu Chengdong was both amused and exasperated.

They understood Mr. Xu's intention to win them over, but they couldn't just agree to it outright.

He has also experienced digital key unlocking in depth, and in terms of accuracy and location unlocking, it is definitely not as good as Starry Sky's ultra-wideband technology.

But having ideas in his mind is useless.

Hua Weiche BU is no longer under his control.

unless……

"It's alright, Mr. Yu, as long as you approve of it. Anyway, it's not something that can be decided in a day or two. If Huawei's intelligent connected vehicle business takes a turn next year, we can continue to deepen our cooperation in the car manufacturing business."

Xu Yi spoke with a smile, unhurriedly.

Yu Chengdong was stunned for a long time, feeling that there was something more to the words.

The idea of ​​building cars in his mind has never been extinguished. There were indeed signs of internal disputes within the group this year, but those were just internal power struggles between senior executives. People below the department level had no way of knowing about them. How did President Xu see it?

Very strange!
"Well, we'll talk about it later."

Yu Chengdong thought the other party might just be guessing, so he gave a vague answer for the time being.

If we can seize this opportunity for a shift in strategy, Starry Sky is a reliable partner.

Compared to mobile phones, the market for car manufacturing is much broader. Even if Huawei adopts some of the core technologies supplied by Xingchen, it may not necessarily take into account the competitive relationship.

Let's do a joint venture first!

The rise of new energy vehicles is no longer just about holding onto the small piece of the low-end market. The success of Xingchen Group has shown many people that domestic independent brands can also take a big bite out of joint venture giants.

……

The impact of the Polestar Watch1 continues to spread.

soon.

This has even attracted attention from abroad.

When Cook received a report from Williams, the vice president of China, he was shocked when he saw the "Polarstar Watch 1" in the video footage sent to him.

His shock was not due to the appearance or function.

It's simply because it uses UWB (Ultra-Wideband) technology.

Apple is already working on this technology, internally naming the new UWB chip the U1 chip, which will enable centimeter-level precise positioning between devices and will be directly implemented in the next generation of iPhones and Apple Watches.

It's no exaggeration to say that once it's launched, it will be another major revolution in the consumer electronics industry.

But now...

How did someone beat me to it?

Cook's expression was somewhat strange; as a global electronics giant, their actions were already quite ahead of their time.

It's outrageous that there are companies that are even more advanced than them!

This isn't even a Silicon Valley company; it's a local enterprise in China!
“Star Group acquired a large stake in Decawave, supposedly to solve the problem of inaccurate digital key positioning, but for some reason they started with watches first…” Williams reported the background in detail.

"That might be a coincidence. The rapid development of new energy vehicles in China shows that the person in charge of this company is also a forward-thinking person. We should keep an eye on any moves this group makes in the future."

Cook said thoughtfully.

From a sales positioning perspective, it doesn't need to compete with the Apple Watch; Apple's ecosystem is unique.

But what he cares about is the UWB ecosystem and related patent issues. They developed the U1 chip internally in order to lay out the future global market and gathered a group of people to form a communication protocol alliance.

Now that there's such a company in China, and they're even moving faster than them, we have to take them into consideration. Fortunately, this company only manufactures cars...

"Star Group has made moves this year, announcing its decision to manufacture mobile phones and even establishing a separate company. Their battery technology has also indirectly boosted the sales of flagship phones from several domestic Android brands..."

Before he could finish thinking, Williams added another comment.

Cook: "..."

A car company is now trying to enter the mobile phone industry?
It sounds strange, but it fits the stereotype that Chinese companies want to do everything.

Ultimately, his attention returned to the battery.

"I've checked. The battery capacity of flagship phones from Chinese brands has increased significantly this year, and the battery life has indeed improved."

Cook felt a little annoyed when this was mentioned.

Apple didn't notice it at first, but this year, several leading domestic manufacturers launched new models, which really disrupted the market.

While consumers were overjoyed, other foreign mobile phone brands were truly dumbfounded.

Battery capacities have reached 5000+ mAh, have all of you Chinese mobile phone manufacturers gone on drugs?

The international media were shocked.

Some foreigners who got their hands on the latest domestically produced flagship phones were excited!

This battery capacity and range are so impressive that they would cause a sensation worldwide!
If Apple doesn't even consider brands like Xiaomi and OPPO/Vivo a threat, the news that Huawei's flagship phone will also adopt a 5000mAh battery shows that Cook is really losing his nerve.

Last year, Huawei's sales performance in overseas markets was extremely strong, with rapid growth all over the world. Whether in high-end smartphone markets such as Europe or Russia, it closely followed Apple and Samsung.

What's most crucial is that Huawei is a mobile phone manufacturer with its own self-developed SoC.

It is fundamentally different from other mobile phone manufacturers that rely on Qualcomm.

If this continues, it could really cause a big problem!

"The battery capacity of the iPhone this year will also be increased by 300mAh to cope with competition in the global market," Cook said.

Compared to the thousands of mAh capacity increases offered by domestic Android manufacturers, iPhone only offered a 300mAh adjustment.

But in his opinion, that was enough!
They hadn't even planned to increase battery capacity, so consumers should be extremely grateful!
As for Hua Wei's threat, he recalled his previous communication with the Ministry of Commerce, and his worries subsided.

Ultimately, it is a Chinese company, and if its performance is too outstanding, it will become an eyesore in the eyes of some people.

And what about Star Group? Were there any procedural issues with their acquisition of Decawave?

Taking into account various interests.

Cook had a new idea in his mind.

(End of this chapter)