In Navigant Research's "Autonomous Driving Competitiveness List Report", Apple only ranked third from the bottom, which means that it lags behind Waymo, GM, Ford and other competitors in terms of technology by three or four years. In contrast, Huawei's intelligent driving technology has obtained the ISO certificate issued by the TüV Rheinland Group earlier this year, and it is not far from a large-scale commercial use.
Huawei, this suffering enterprise is undergoing intense chemical reactions.
On the one hand, the news of Huawei's intention to change the glory of its sub-brand is rampant. Since Tianfeng Securities analyst Guo Mingchi released a research report saying that Huawei is "very likely to sell its glory business," related rumors have never stopped. On November 10, Reuters also reported that Huawei plans to sell Honor for 100 billion yuan (about 15.2 billion US dollars). According to 36 krypton reports, this transaction is very close to completion. Huawei’s consumer business COO Wan Biao and Honor President Zhao Ming may form a new leadership team.
On the other hand, Huawei's two important businesses-consumer business BG and automotive business BU have also ushered in a new round of adjustments. According to 36 krypton, citing a number of people close to Huawei’s senior management, the two businesses are about to be integrated. After the merger, the overall person in charge is Huawei’s "face-saving" figure-consumer business CEO Yu Chengdong.
Although the current merger progress of the two parties is only reflected in the investment level, this undoubtedly means the beginning of Huawei's strategic transformation. When the high-profile consumer business collides with the low-profile automotive business, what kind of sparks will there be between the two?
Behind the "weak and weak combination" of the two major businesses, Huawei wants to focus its efforts on the Internet of Vehicles technology
In this difficult period, it is a wise choice for Huawei to merge the two major businesses.
With the previous US export ban taking effect, companies such as TSMC, a key supplier of Huawei's mobile phone business, have stopped supplying Huawei, and its self-developed chip "Kirin" has been particularly affected. In the field of mobile phones, high-performance self-developed Kirin chips are the guarantee of Huawei’s strong competitiveness. After the loss of chip supply, Huawei’s consumer business is expected to be greatly affected, even if Qualcomm and other manufacturers have already obtained relevant supply applications for Huawei. , The decline of consumer business in the short term is also difficult to reverse.
Huawei's automotive business BU, to be precise, is a smart car solution BU, a business that is still under construction. Huawei has invested huge research and development costs on the car networking track occupied by this business, but this business cannot create stable revenue for Huawei in the short term. Integrating the two weak businesses in terms of revenue is expected to reduce Huawei's operating costs and help it out of this difficult winter.
In addition, Huawei's integration of the two businesses may also have the intention of promoting the development of Internet of Vehicles technology. From the perspective of the components of Huawei's automotive business,
mainly includes smart driving, smart cockpit, smart network, smart electric, and smart car cloud, and these five sub-businesses are basically related to Huawei's traditional ICT business. At the same time, the related technologies of Huawei's automotive business-TBox, Hongmeng system, and HiCar smart interconnection system are developed by the consumer business department. After the two businesses are integrated, their technical connections will be closer, which will greatly affect the growth of Huawei's Internet of Vehicles technology. Helpful.
In recent years, Huawei seems to pay more and more attention to the field of Internet of Vehicles-this emerging outlet. In May 2019, Huawei President Ren Zhengfei personally signed the organization change document and formally established the smart car solution BU. In the document, Ren Zhengfei mentioned that the Internet of Vehicles "is an important breakthrough point for Huawei and requires the establishment of a commercial organization and increased investment."
But what is the Internet of Vehicles? Why is Huawei so fascinated by it?
Why is the Internet of Vehicles so fragrant?
If the explanation is easy to understand, then the specific form of the Internet of Vehicles displayed in front of car owners is the comprehensive screen that is rushed by countless new car forces. On this screen, car owners can experience the same entertainment functions as mobile phones, tablets and other mobile terminals-videos, games and other rich applications. In order to enhance the effect of the entertainment experience in the car, Internet companies such as Ali and Baidu, as well as new car forces such as Tesla, are trying to make efforts in this regard.
But the concept of the Internet of Vehicles obviously does not stop there.
The so-called Internet of Vehicles, the problem to be solved is not only the entertainment needs of car owners, but all-roundSolve the relationship between cars and cars, roads, and people, and ensure the safety of the vehicle while the owner uses the entertainment function to relax. To achieve this goal, the Internet of Vehicles needs not only pure entertainment audio-visual software, but also the blessing of advanced technologies such as automatic driving, voice control, automatic parking, and intelligent adaptive cruise above level L4.
Huawei has a solid foundation on the subdivision of intelligent solutions. Its advantages in advanced technologies such as 5G, chips and operating systems can provide Huawei with ample room for imagination in its Internet of Vehicles strategy. This is also where Huawei's confidence in entering the Internet of Vehicles industry lies.
Of course, Huawei's continuous increase in the field of car networking is still due to the poor development of its major businesses. The consumer business that has suffered severe setbacks due to the ban has already been mentioned, here is the table below. But in addition to the consumer business, Huawei's other revenue pillar-the operator business has also encountered a growth bottleneck.
According to Sina data, since 2016, Huawei’s operator business revenue has been hovering at around 290 billion yuan, basically failing to have a significant growth. The proposal and application of 5G should have allowed Huawei's operators to take their business to the next level, but its effect is very limited. After the global launch of 5G commercial deployment in 2019, Huawei’s operator business grew by 3.8% year-on-year, which merely reversed the dilemma of the previous year’s revenue decline.
and the field of Internet of Vehicles is a completely different world. According to data from CCID Consulting and Shanxi Securities Research Institute, after a round of outbreaks in the Internet of Vehicles industry this year, the market size is expected to exceed the 100 billion mark by 2021, which is a veritable incremental market. Although the industry will still be in a state of high investment and low return in the short term, as the scale effect becomes prominent, the growth momentum it brings is immeasurable. In order to seek new growth points, it is almost inevitable for Huawei to enter the Internet of Vehicles.
doesn't take the usual path, Huawei says "NO" to car building
Now that Huawei has stepped into the field of car networking, will it go one step further and directly enter the vehicle manufacturing track?
In this crazy era, Huawei is not without the possibility of building cars.
As the concept of new energy vehicles shines from ideals into reality, countless companies are moved by this and want to take this express train to Xintiandi. Among them, there are many companies that have nothing to do with the automobile business-LeEco, who was tied to the chariot by Jia Yueting and chanted "suffocating dreams" together, and Dong Mingzhu, who invested strongly in Yinlong New Energy despite the opposition of Gree's many shareholders, Evergrande and Xu Jiayin, who believe in "you can build a good car with money"... Some of them are still struggling, some have failed miserably for various reasons, but anyway, these people have provided valuable experience for the new energy vehicle field And lessons. Compared with them, it is not surprising that Huawei, which has accumulated a lot of experience in related fields, has entered into vehicle manufacturing.
But Huawei's attitude is "NO".
Just after Ren Zhengfei issued an organizational change document to clarify Huawei's determination to develop the Internet of Vehicles field, Huawei's rotating chairman and head of automotive business BU Xu Zhijun also revealed Huawei's future layout in the automotive industry. He said that Huawei will not be involved in vehicle manufacturing. "We will focus on ICT technology and become a supplier of incremental components for intelligent connected cars. We will help car companies to'build good' cars and build'good cars'."
is just like Google's success on Android. If Huawei Hongmeng System and HiCar Smart Interconnect System want to find more competitive partners in the cloud-like Internet of Vehicles field, it is a major prerequisite to compete with car companies instead of building cars in person. As a pure service provider, Huawei's neutral position in the automotive field may make it more competitive.
Huawei's efforts to autopilot, can it defeat Apple?
However, Huawei is not without enemies in the car networking market. Many software service providers, led by BAT, are not on the list for the time being. Apple, an old rival that has been fighting Huawei for many years in the mobile phone field, has also been working overtime to deploy the Internet of Vehicles business in recent years. Although
now focuses on mobile hardware, the relationship between Apple and the car can be said to have a long history. The starting point of Apple's founder Steve Jobs' innovation journey was his father's private garage in California. Under the influence of ears and eyes, Jobs developed a great interest in cars. After founding Apple, he even had the idea of building a car. For this reason, Jobs also had a relationship with Volkswagen.CEO Martin Winterkorn met to discuss related plans.
However, under the temptation of the iPhone business in full swing, Jobs still gave up this plan. But this does not prevent him from frequently speaking in public about Apple's car vision, such as "We have a platform to design a car", "We will build a car in the near future" and so on. It's a pity that this technological pioneer failed to fulfill his promise until his death.
In the second year after Steve Jobs passed away, his pragmatic successor Tim Cook (Tim Cook) led Apple into the automotive field after a long absence. Unlike Jobs' dream of building a car, Apple under Cook is more inclined to start from the perspective of its own software. In 2013, Apple announced the "iOS in the Car" plan, and Huawei's automotive business took shape at that time.
In 2014, Apple officially launched its CarPlay in-vehicle system. Although CarPlay was very rudimentary at the time and only supported functions such as phone calls, music, maps, and sending and receiving information, car companies really liked this set. After CarPlay was released, Apple received support from many traditional car companies such as Ferrari, BMW, Ford, GM, Honda, and Hyundai.
In 2017, Apple also obtained the road test qualification granted by the California Vehicle Administration, and began to get involved in the subdivision of autonomous driving. In January of this year, Apple laid off hundreds of employees from the previous car-building project "Project Titan", focusing on autonomous driving.
However, Apple's development in the Internet of Vehicles related fields itself is not smooth. In Navigant Research's "Autonomous Driving Competitiveness List Report", Apple only ranked third from the bottom, which means that it lags behind Waymo, GM, Ford and other competitors in terms of technology by three or four years. In contrast, Huawei's intelligent driving technology has obtained the ISO certificate issued by the TüV Rheinland Group earlier this year, and it is not far from a large-scale commercial use.
In addition, Huawei also announced this year a high-end autonomous driving solution called ADS. Huawei said that ADS has reached the level of “autonomous driving of car owners throughout the commuting process”, that is, L4 autonomous driving. With its accumulated experience in autonomous driving, Huawei may be able to realize its unfinished dream in the field of mobile phones in the automotive field-overtaking Apple. However, in the domestic market, Huawei still has to face the dimensionality reduction attack launched by BAT Sanjie from the Internet field. Various car companies, bewildered by Tesla's success prospects, also have great ambitions for the Internet of Vehicles. Huawei has a long way to go if it wants to occupy a place in this "cake" with a potential of hundreds of billions.
