Driven by the wave of smart cars, since last year, mobile phone makers have built cars across borders or in hand with car factories, and car makers have made mobile phones. Now there are new examples.
On February 22, a number of people familiar with the matter disclosed that China’s new car head company Weilai automobile has entered the mobile phone industry, and Yin Shuijun, the former president of Meitu mobile phone, has joined in to take the lead in the mobile phone business of Weilai. On the same day, Weilai responded that there was no information available for disclosure.
Weilai enters the mobile phone industry
Recently, many certified bloggers disclosed that Weilai intends to enter the mobile phone industry.
The disclosure pointed out that Weilai mobile phone Department has made a lot of moves recently, and the capital is still increasing investment. More than 100 new offers have been made years later. Recently, more than 200 R & D posts are expected to be added in Shenzhen, both high school and low school. The workplace is Qianhai excellence building in Shenzhen.
Sources revealed that at present, Weilai’s mobile phone business is determined to be done, and the current project is in the initial research stage. Basically, the possibility of labeling is ruled out. The probability is that you will end up making a mobile phone. The mobile phone will have many interactive functions with Weilai car.
“The project has been established for a while. At present, the team is located in Shenzhen and is doing personnel recruitment.” Recently, a source told reporters.
Some people in the mobile phone industry also disclosed that more than a year ago, Weilai looked for a person in charge of the glory mobile phone, but it was not negotiated. At the same time, some people in the industry said that some of their peers had joined Weilai in the name of doing “peripheral” business.
The news is not groundless. According to the investigation, recently, Weilai automobile released a large number of recruitment information related to mobile phones, such as BSP engineer, communication test engineer, imaging chip design engineer, etc.
In response to the above news, on February 22, Weilai automobile also made an official response: “at present, there is no information to be disclosed. We will communicate with you if there is further information.”
will other new car building forces follow up?
Since last year, driven by the wave of smart cars, the scientific and technological community has set off a trend of cross-border integration of mobile phones and cars.
Huawei, oppo, vivo, Xiaomi, Luxshare Precision Industry Co.Ltd(002475) and apple have joined hands with car manufacturers to enter the field of intelligent vehicles. Some directly build complete vehicles, while others are located to help car enterprises build good cars, mainly providing intelligent vehicle solutions and parts for car enterprises. Meanwhile, Geely holdings and Gree Group began to build mobile phones. Recently, it was revealed that Tesla will also build mobile phones.
The reason behind the integration of cars and mobile phones and the cross-border or cooperation between manufacturers is that these technology giants are optimistic that smart cars will be another emerging trend of smart terminals after smart phones. The development trend of smart cars has been determined. The technology giants do not want to miss this opportunity and try to give full play to their strengths on the track.
Another reason is that as an indispensable carrier for people’s future life, the intelligent function of smart cars also needs to be coordinated and interconnected with mobile phones, that is, the development of smart cars is inseparable from smart phones, but the data of smart car manufacturers are confidential and wealth, and no manufacturer wants its own user data to spread to external mobile phone manufacturers, So car companies began to make mobile phones in their own factories.
In addition, smart cars and smart phones have certain technical similarities. They both make terminals Internet and intelligent through certain technologies. The integration of car enterprises and mobile phone enterprises can create greater market imagination space.
Apple CEO cook also said that cars are the ultimate form of mobile devices.
It is worth noting that as one of the leaders of the new forces of smart cars, Weilai has opened the way to enter the mobile phone industry. Will the new forces of car making such as ideal cars and Xiaopeng cars follow suit and enter the mobile phone industry? In addition, as a new entrant to the mobile phone industry, Weilai’s subsequent competitive strategy and success have also attracted much attention. After all, the current mobile phone industry is already a fully competitive market.
When Geely announced the construction of the car, some comments pointed out that Li Shufu’s mobile phone is “desperate”. At that time, Geely, as an “independent brother”, was facing the problems of slow sales growth and backward layout of new energy. It needed to expand its brand matrix, find a “reassurance” for the market with mobile phones, and prepare for the strategy of multi screen coordination and ecological interconnection in advance.
For the mobile phone made by Weilai this time, some people believe that Weilai needs to use mobile phones to increase the stickiness with users and provide a new story with more imagination for the capital market.
According to the passenger Federation, in January 2022, China sold 2.0785 million narrow passenger cars, a year-on-year decrease of 5%. In terms of new forces in car making, the sales volume of Weilai automobile in January lagged behind that of Xiaopeng automobile, ideal automobile and Nezha automobile. In January, Weilai automobile sold 9652 vehicles, with a year-on-year increase of 33.6%. Meanwhile, the monthly sales of Xiaopeng automobile, ideal automobile and Nezha automobile all exceeded 10000. In January, Xiaopeng sold 12922 cars, a year-on-year increase of 114.8%; Ideal car sales 12268, an increase of 128.1%; Nezha sold 11009 cars, with a year-on-year growth rate of 401.5%. In addition, the sales volume of Zero run vehicles also increased significantly in January. In January, the sales of zero running cars were 8085, with a year-on-year increase of 384.7%. In 2020, in terms of new forces in car making, Weilai automobile once won the sales champion of that year, and in 2021, Weilai automobile ranked second.
