In July this year, Hubei Xingji Times Technology Co., Ltd. , a subsidiary of Geely , acquired 79.09% of the equity of Meizu Technology Co., Ltd. and gained sole control of Meizu Technology.
In addition to Geely’s substantive actions, Weilai and Tesla have also successively revealed news of entering the mobile phone business. Why do car companies love the mobile phone business recently? What benefits can this cross-border interaction and small mobile phones bring to car companies and consumers?
Material Technology
Mobile phones are fast moving consumer goods. If you want to gain an advantage in market competition, you must first differentiate in the appearance of the product . This involves the development and application of materials.
Source: Internet
Major mobile phone companies have relevant R&D teams that conduct material research based on consumer preferences and production and manufacturing costs. Years of technology accumulation and reserves, as well as a dynamic cognitive assessment of the market, are unmatched by car companies. This is one of the reasons why new energy car companies have begun to absorb relevant talents and business mergers in recent years.
Source: Internet
Taking Tesla as an example, the aluminum alloy material it transferred from the "next door" Space Exploration Technology Company in 2018 provided the basis for integrated die-casting. The man behind this is former Apple material expert Charles Koyman, who has developed integrated aluminum alloy bodies and other related processes for iPhone and Mac products. With his efforts, Tesla successfully developed a new aluminum alloy formula, which solved the problem of eliminating heat treatment during the integrated die-casting process.
For this reason, many car companies are eyeing the material experts and teams of major mobile phone manufacturers, hoping to improve the material technology of their products, reduce costs and increase production capacity.
Get rid of constraints
When car companies choose cross-border mobile phone business, they must also consider software ecological issues. At this stage, car-machine systems are mainly occupied by Carplay, Carlife and QNX. Except for Huawei and Hongmeng, domestic new forces are almost blank.
Source: Internet
This time Geely acquired Meizu mainly because of the potential of its Flyme system. Deploying it on vehicles can get rid of the pickyness of Apple, BlackBerry and other companies' systems for users' mobile phones, and improve the tolerance to attract users. Using your own vehicle system can avoid the technical risk of being stuck, and can also reduce licensing fees. It can be said to kill two birds with one stone.
Source: Internet
In addition to avoiding the above problems, in the era of the Internet of Everything, the distance between new energy vehicles and mobile phones has been broken, and the interaction between the vehicle system and mobile phones has become more frequent. The original intelligentization of vehicles requires cooperation between car companies and system developers to share user data. But this is unbearable in the Internet era that emphasizes privacy protection. No user wants his privacy to be seen. And car companies don’t want to transfer data to outsiders. After all, these are another portrait of users, and they definitely don’t want to be poached by their peers.
Fusion upgrade
With the rapid development of the domestic new energy industry in recent years, the demand for and dependence on electronic components continues to increase. According to research by relevant departments, the proportion of automotive electronics in the total vehicle cost will reach 49.55% in 2030.
Source: Internet
Faced with a million-level market demand, the domestic mobile phone industry chain began to develop into the automotive business. Original battery manufacturers began to produce power batteries, and the semiconductor production department expanded its business to driving assistance and electronic control chips. Reverse cooperation between car companies and these suppliers can also facilitate their own mobile phone production.
In the future, car companies with an ecosystem built from mobile phones and car systems will inevitably face challenges on two fronts, which will accelerate the upgrading of semiconductors and material processes and promote the upgrading of related industrial chains.
is written at the end
The 5G technology that my country has vigorously promoted in recent years has provided a solid guarantee for the Internet of Everything and laid the foundation for new energy vehicle technology upgrades and cross-industry integration.
Source: Internet
In the face of the huge demand for smart cars, traditional companies such as Baidu , Huawei and Xiaomi have taken advantage of their own advantages to take the lead. The recent actions of Geely and NIO are more about getting rid of the constraints of the former, making up for the shortcomings of their own products, and preparing for long-term development.
Finally, I hope that new products from Geely and NIO will be unveiled as soon as possible to provide domestic consumers with diversified solutions and help the development of the Internet of Everything.
