Rebirth 99 to become a car giant

The development history of China's mobile phone business is very emotional.

In China in 1980, a mobile phone cost more than 20,000 yuan, and the monthly salary of an ordinary employee was only about 40 yuan. Even if you work for a lifetime, you may not be able to afford it.

Moreover, mobile phones were an imported product with a price but no market at that time. When it came to China, it was sold at a high price of 50,000 yuan, and the mobile phone could only be a plaything for the rich to show off.

Around the 1990s, domestic electronics foundries emerged, and a large number of mobile phone manufacturers entered the domestic market. The price of mobile phones ranged from 2,000 to 6,000 yuan. At that time, the per capita annual disposable income in China was about 1,000, and it took about one or two years to buy a mobile phone.

It was impossible for ordinary people to spend one or two years of their income to buy a mobile phone, so mobile phones were still a rare thing at the time.

In 1993, Panda launched the first domestic mobile phone.

In 1999, the automatic dual-band mobile phone GM518 was launched, with a Chinese interface, Chinese keyboard, and Chinese text messages, and the price dropped to about 1,000 yuan. It quickly became popular in the market in 2000, with 700,000 shipments in one year, becoming the first A domestic mobile phone giant.

I guess many people have never heard of Panda Mobile, right?

Domestic mobile phone sales that year were 20 million units, but the market was basically dominated by foreign brands. Motorola, Nokia, Ericsson and Samsung accounted for 90% of the market share, while Panda only accounted for 3.5%.

But Panda's success was a start. From then on, the gears of destiny began to turn, and a large number of home appliance companies began to enter the mobile phone industry, such as Konka, TCL, Haier, XomoChina, etc.

The ministries and commissions have even allocated 1.8 billion in support funds, and the domestic mobile phone market has officially entered an explosive period.

By 2005, the total sales volume of the domestic mobile phone market was 85.33 million units. Although Nokia, Motorola and Samsung were still in the first three quarters, among the top ten sales rankings, domestic mobile phone manufacturers occupied six places, and Lenovo mobile phones rushed to fourth place. name.

Nokia is unique in that it is not only expensive but also has high sales volume. The price of an N95 is as high as 6,990 yuan, while domestic mobile phones can only survive on low prices.

But at that time, for most migrant workers, mobile phones were no longer a luxury. They could buy a domestic mobile phone with only one month's salary.

It can be said that although domestic mobile phone brands have little technical content, they have made some contributions.

In the history of the development of domestic mobile phones, Huaqiangbei's "copycat phones" are also a link that cannot be ignored.

The news about Zhongguancun Online that Xia Qingqing came over to tell Cao Yang this time was related to "copycat phones".

"Mr. Cao, according to a survey by Zhongguancun Online, the shipment volume of copycat phones imitating HONOR 3G from Huaqiangbei last month reached a scale of one thousand units per day."

"The appearance of these mobile phones is almost the same as our HONOR 3G, but they use MediaTek chips."

"In 2003, MediaTek mobile phone chips were mass-produced, and the era of copycat phones officially arrived. MediaTek chips integrate cameras, videos, and MP3s. The factory only needs to build the casing and battery to sell them."

“So whether it’s Nokia, Motorola, or various Samsung mobile phones, you can find knockoff phones in Huaqiangbei.”

“Our influence was not very big before, so there were relatively few copycat phones.”

"Now it is estimated that those people have realized the appeal of Honor mobile phones to consumers, so they have begun to imitate our products."

Xia Qingqing's face was very serious.

As a person with a relatively good family background, she came into contact with copycat phones relatively late.

It was only after I took charge of the Honor mobile phone business that I got to know the development of Huaxia Mobile Phones and learned about the special existence of copycat phones.

I didn't expect that I would eat melon on my head so quickly.

"Have those people who are making fake mobile phones started to copy HONOR 3G?"

After hearing Xia Qingqing's words, Cao Yang didn't panic at all.

He was also one of the former users of Huaqiangbei’s copycat mobile phone.

You can buy a very good copycat phone for about a thousand yuan.

What about four SIM cards and four standby, super long standby, amplifier speakers, funny styling...

It can be said that since MediaTek broke through the technical barriers of Motorola and Nokia and developed a "turnkey" mobile phone chip solution, the entire mobile phone industry has changed.

MediaTek is like a dragon, and copycat phones are like dragons giving birth to nine sons. Unfortunately, they all have different appearances, but who cares?

As long as it can be sold.

"Yes, Huaqiangbei's copycat phones have no core technology. Their business model of relying on plagiarism and simple assembly to make quick money is their core."

"But judging from news reports, we have to admit that this simple and crude business model is extremely effective."

"So I think the company should pay attention to this matter."

Xia Qingqing obviously cared about this matter, but Cao Yang thought of something else.

In 2001, MediaTek, which had just been established four years ago, relied on its keen business sense to cross from the field of optical drive chips to the field of mobile phone chips.

Two years later, MediaTek broke through the chip technology monopoly of companies such as Nokia and Motorola and launched an integrated mobile phone baseband chip that combines call and multimedia functions. At that time, most mobile phone chips still used dual-chip solutions to control calls and multimedia respectively.

Around 2005, MediaTek officially launched the "Turn key solution" model, which is a "turnkey" solution.

Different from the "rough house" solutions of chip manufacturers such as Qualcomm, MediaTek's "turnkey" provides mobile phone manufacturers with a "finely decorated" packaging solution: in addition to processors and baseband chips, MediaTek also integrates WiFi, GPS, Functional modules such as FM, Bluetooth, and even applications were built for manufacturers, which directly led to a significant reduction in the threshold for mobile phone manufacturing at that time.

Early copycat phones were not called "shanzhai phones" but "black phones". The original copycat phone manufacturers were embarrassed to print the name of the city, so they used the initials "SZ" to identify them.

With the growth of the entire copycat industry, "SZ" has become "shanzhai".

The market size of the initial copycat phone market was not huge, and it was mainly looking for cheap solutions through refurbishment and other channels, until the emergence of MediaTek's turnkey solution.

The structure of the copycat machine at that time was extremely simple and could be simply divided into three parts: screen, motherboard and casing.

The motherboard is generally controlled by upstream MediaTek and solution providers. Shanzhai mobile phone manufacturers are only responsible for the appearance design of the mobile phone without any technology. These manufacturers are called "mobile phone integrators" in the industry chain.

Relying on this business, MediaTek launched it immediately.

So can Nanshan Semiconductor follow MediaTek’s path?

At present, the chips of Honor mobile phones are still outsourced, and Nanshan Semiconductor cannot make them by itself for the time being.

But Nanshan Semiconductor is obviously capable of providing chip solutions similar to those of MediaTek for copycat phones.

Relying on this market to accumulate experience in Nanshan Semiconductor's mobile phone chip market, and even boost the production capacity of mobile phone chips, seems to have different significance for the development of the entire Nanshan Group's semiconductor industry?

Thinking of this, Cao Yang couldn't help but ordered: "There is a huge gap between the price of counterfeit phones and our original ones. We don't need to be particularly worried."

"At least there is no need to worry in the short term. It is up to Nokia and Motorola to be nervous."

"In this way, you arrange for someone to conduct a thorough investigation of the situation of the copycat phones in Huaqiangbei, and collect information on the major copycat phone manufacturers."

Hearing what Cao Yang said, Xia Qingqing was a little confused.

He said he should pay attention to it, but he said not to be nervous.

You said don't be nervous. Why did you arrange to investigate the other party?

Is this about being polite first and then fighting?

After you figure out the situation, will you deal with those copycat phone manufacturers?

However, although there are many doubts in my mind, I still have to follow the boss's instructions.

After asking Xia Qingqing to investigate the copycat machine, Cao Yang felt that it was still not enough.

He called Zhang Jing from Nanshan Semiconductor and Dai Hanbiao from Nanshan Auto Parts, changed his clothes, and prepared to go to Huaqiangbei to experience it in person.

After all, if Nanshan Semiconductor really wants to use counterfeit phone manufacturers as a breakthrough point for its own smartphone chips, then it must understand the situation clearly.

After all, mobile phone chips can be sold to copycat phone manufacturers, as can parts such as cameras and batteries.

However, on the way to Huaqiangbei, Zhang Jing's words caught Cao Yang's attention.

"Mr. Cao, the prices of counterfeit phones are relatively low, and there is no brand reputation to speak of."

"Our mobile phone chips will be used in Honor mobile phones in the future, taking a high-end route."

"If everyone knows that the chips of Honor mobile phones and the chips of copycat phones are from the same supplier, it may have a negative impact on the sales of Honor mobile phones."

Although Zhang Jing is a technical person, he does not have no market vision at all.

Of course he thinks that counterfeit mobile phone chips are a good breakthrough point. After all, MediaTek's success story is there.

But we can’t just look at the present, we must also look at the long term.

"This is very simple. We can set up a separate vest to design mobile phone chips for copycat phones. By then, Nanshan Semiconductor will just be a foundry and will have no direct relationship with those copycat phones."

Although Zhang Jing's worries were reasonable, Cao Yang was not nervous at all.

The chip industry is still very different from other fields.

OEM has always been an industry practice.

Even Qualcomm’s mobile phone chips are produced by OEMs.

As a foundry, we certainly cannot only produce high-end chips, we also have to do low-end business.

There is no conflict at all.

Of course, Zhang Jing's reminder is also meaningful.

At that time, we cannot use the name of Nanshan Semiconductor to supply copycat phones. That will really harm our reputation.

"The main parts of a mobile phone are the motherboard, screen, battery and casing."

"Like the casing, we definitely won't make it for copycat phones, and we can't adapt to other people's needs."

"In terms of screens, our group does not directly produce them. It is estimated that they will be eaten by manufacturers such as BOE."

"In terms of batteries, although we have advantages, the price is not necessarily comparable to that of small outside manufacturers, and the threshold is actually not very high."

"Then in the end it's a motherboard that can do a good job."

"Nanshan Semiconductor produces the relevant chips and memory, and we integrate them on the motherboard."

Although the company name of Nanshan Auto Parts contains the word "car", it already has a dedicated team internally to deal with mobile phone parts business.

Even strictly speaking, mobile phone parts and car parts are actually the same. .

It's just that the final use is different, and it will not have any special impact on the production and management of Nanshan auto parts.

For example, mobile phone motherboards are also used when producing navigation components.

Even the intelligent network center under Nanshan Group is developed together with the mobile phone business and the automobile business.

This situation may seem a bit confusing now, but considering that the car will become more and more like a mobile phone in the future, this business model will become an advantage.

So even if someone once mentioned to Cao Yang that the intelligent network connection center should be split into two parts, Cao Yang did not agree.

The situation is the same at Nanshan Auto Parts. There is no need to set up a separate company to produce mobile phone parts.

"The motherboard is naturally very important, and it is what we mainly want to do this time."

"But everyone should also pay attention to the direction of the camera."

"In the future, the camera function of mobile phones will become more and more popular among everyone, and many consumers even choose mobile phones directly for the camera performance."

"Although the products of the knock-off phones have no innovation in terms of technology, there are still many micro-innovations."

"Our camera business can fully connect with them and understand the market demand, which may ultimately bring unexpected surprises to our development."

Cao Yang did not look down on copycat machines.

So many people, in order to make money and meet the needs of consumers, have taken China's speed to the extreme.

There must be something worth learning from Nanshan Group.

If you think that Nanshan Group is a big company and looks down on the people in Huaqiangbei from a high position, you are totally wrong.

The founder of China Computer and the founder of TP-LK router were both from China and Qiangbei in the early days.

Even the company's early office was in Huaqiangbei.

Huaqiangbei is the largest electronic product production, wholesale and retail center in southern China.

Foreign entrepreneurs who hang out in Huaqiangbei even said frankly, "400 components that take two months to get in Silicon Valley can be put together in one day in Huaqiangbei."

Because of this, Huaqiangbei is gradually known as the "Chinese Silicon Valley".

The story here could not be told in three days and three nights.

"The camera is really special."

"I feel that after the emergence of smartphones, digital cameras will slowly fall off the altar."

Before Dai Hanbiao could say anything, Mi Ying next to him couldn't help but interject.

As a girl, Mi Ying is obviously more concerned about the camera function of her mobile phone.

But when you go out, you can't always carry your camera with you. It's very inconvenient.

After having a mobile phone, the situation is different.

"Yes, no matter whether it is Canon or Nikon, no matter how perfect the functions of digital cameras are, they are destined to decline."

"The decline may even be faster than we thought."

"Digital cameras have eliminated film camera giants such as Kodak, and smartphones, led by Honor phones and Apple phones, will become the gravediggers of these digital camera giants."

Cao Yang is naturally very clear about the development trend of digital cameras.

This is really an industry that has been decimated by smartphones.

Some people say that the person who eliminates an industry is often not a competitor within the industry, but an outsider.

This seems to make sense.

"Although previous mobile phones had cameras, the pixels were not very high. There is still a huge market for digital cameras."

"The technology of small cameras has become more and more advanced in the past two years, and 5-megapixel cameras can already be used on smartphones."

"This is basically the pixel level of mainstream digital cameras five years ago."

"Although there is still a gap from other people's 15 million pixels or even 20 million pixels, for most ordinary people, more than 5 million pixels are already acceptable."

"The higher you go, the higher you go, the higher the level."

"Even with higher pixels, it will not only overwhelm ordinary digital cameras, but also overwhelm SLR cameras."

"I guess in the future, except for particularly professional people, ordinary consumers will no longer need to buy digital cameras."

Dai Hanbiao still agreed with Mi Ying's statement.

Nanshan Auto Parts internally regards the camera as a very important part in its development.

Not only the various cameras used in cars, but also on cameras.

Over time, Nanshan Auto Parts, an auto parts company that everyone considers to be the most popular auto parts company, may become the largest camera manufacturer in China.

"This time when we go to Huaqiangbei, if we determine the plan to supply them with mobile phone chips and motherboards in the future, we will also do the camera business."

"With the advantage of production capacity and our own semiconductor advantages, there is no reason why the price of our own cameras should be higher than that of other manufacturers."

"In terms of batteries, we can also specifically target these markets and set up a special vest to sell batteries."

"At that time, we will supply motherboards, cameras and batteries. The more copycat phones sold in Huaqiangbei, the faster our related industries can develop."

"There will even be a scene where hundreds of copycat manufacturers will follow behind Honor phones and besiege giants like Nokia and Motorola."

"Perhaps this will also be a grand event in the development history of China's mobile phone industry."

When Cao Yang said this, Zhang Jing and others next to him showed a look of expectation on their faces.

Although the reputation of copycat manufacturers may not be good, their combat effectiveness is not bad at all.

To a certain extent, the quality of copycat mobile phones is actually not very bad.

After all, the most critical motherboard is currently provided by MediaTek, and will be produced by Nanshan Semiconductor or Nanshan Auto Parts in the future. There is no problem with the quality.

Mobile phone batteries have always been China's dominant industry. BYD relied on this to get its start, defeating many international rivals.

Therefore, even if the copycat manufacturer purchases mobile phone batteries from small battery manufacturers, the performance is still acceptable.

Other screens, phone cases, etc. generally don't have any major problems.

The most critical thing is that people who buy copycat mobile phones often change their phones after one or two years of use, and they are eliminated before their problems begin to be exposed.

Therefore, the rapid development of copycat mobile phones in recent years has something to do with their good reputation for quality.

As Internet shopping becomes more convenient, copycat mobile phones will actually have a lot of market space in the next few years.

We have to wait until the production capacity of other smartphone manufacturers such as Xiaomi increases and the prices are so low, then the survival space of copycat mobile phones in China will be wiped out.

When the time comes, Cao Yang will have other plans to continue cooperating with these copycat manufacturers.

Soon, the group arrived at Huaqiangbei.

Huaqiangbei is a street full of dreams of getting rich, and it also records the stumbling of Huaxia electronic products across 30 years.

In the 1980s, the factory in northern Guangdong moved to Futian, Shenzhen City. Because of the desire to strengthen the national industry, the factory area was called "Huaqiang".

At this time, developed countries were shifting their processing and manufacturing industries to Southeast Asia, and a large number of updated electronic accessories were flowing in at low prices. The industry of assembling radios and televisions began, setting the tone for the development of Huaqiangbei.

In Huaqiangbei in the mid-1990s, due to the rapid development of the city, land prices soared, and a large number of electronics factories in Huaqiangbei relocated. Since then, Huaqiangbei, which was originally an industrial zone, has gradually transformed into an electronics commercial street focusing on sales.

Thanks to the geographical advantage of being close to the port city, Huaqiangbei has naturally become the national wholesale center for electronic products including mobile phones.

It was a boring era without Internet e-commerce and the three major operators, and it was also an era that belonged entirely to Huaqiangbei.

Before copycat phones appeared in large quantities, Huaqiangbei was the core of China's electronics industry, integrating R\u0026D, production, and sales. This provided a complete mobile phone supply chain system for the emergence of copycat phones in the future.

When Cao Yang and others came to Huaqiangbei, they naturally did not just wander around. On the way out, they contacted someone who was familiar with Huaqiangbei to act as a "tour guide" for everyone.

"Mr. Cao, the supply chain of knockoff phones here can be divided into three parts."

If Cao Yang wants to find someone in Shencheng who is familiar with all aspects of Huaqiangbei, he must be looking for an expert.

Of course, with his connections, it could be settled in just a few phone calls.

The Hu Yingang who is taking him around now was introduced by Guo Shuyin and is said to be his cousin.

Hu Yingang started working in Huaqiangbei in the 1990s. Now he has seven or eight counters there, and he can be considered a winner in life.

He is obviously very familiar with the situation here.

"First of all, MediaTek is at the top of the entire supply chain and is responsible for the research and development of mobile phone chips."

"Secondly, solution providers design and define mobile phone software and functions, and rely on MediaTek's turnkey solutions. The entire design process is extremely simple. And because they have software design capabilities, their industrial chain status is second only to MediaTek."

"Finally, there are mobile phone integrators, who are responsible for appearance design and have no technology or after-sales service. These manufacturers are what everyone calls copycat manufacturers."

"In addition, between MediaTek and mobile phone integrators, there are a number of component suppliers and mobile phone mold manufacturers that provide everyone with LCD screens, power amplifiers, batteries, speakers, cameras and other parts."

Hu Yingang said while watching Cao Yang's reaction.

This is a character that I have no contact with at ordinary times. Maybe the turning point in my life will be in the near future.

Therefore, he explained to Cao Yang the truest situation he knew.

The copycat industry here definitely has its own reasons and operating logic for its development and growth.

So Cao Yang listened very seriously.

Hu Yingang counted on Cao Yang for support, and Cao Yang also counted on the awesome copycat manufacturer to give him a divine assist.