Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 242 12 Flagship Conference: Smart Home AI
The competition between multinational giants and large companies is extremely complex and involves a wide range of issues. It is difficult to analyze it from the perspective of simple right or wrong, or from the perspective of pure national disputes.

Because the interests of such giant enterprises are often multifaceted, it is difficult to form a unified standard.

At the same time, even at the national level, it is difficult to make a unified distinction between right and wrong, because the country is just a group of interests, it is not a person... You cannot personify it and then give it personal traits such as joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness.

Just like this time when the United States tentatively launched suppression and sanctions against Zhiyun, not all people, companies, and stakeholders in the United States agree with it. There are many people who oppose it, and the voices of opposition are quite loud.

Again, the money of these companies is money, and Zhiyun’s money is also money.

How to find a breakthrough in this complex situation and avoid large-scale sanctions is the recent focus of Zhiyun Technology's work.

"If the situation continues like this, comprehensive sanctions are a matter of time!" Ji Chenghe expressed pessimism. Ji Chenghe has always been in charge of public relations coordination with the United States. He understands the complexity and seriousness of the matter better than other senior executives in the group.

"As our group's products gradually become more independent and the market scale continues to expand, those companies on the other side will sooner or later become restless, so we should make the necessary preparations early!"

"Mr. Xu, I plan to increase market investment in Europe, ASEAN, South America, and South Asia starting this year. In addition to continuing to consolidate the European market, we will accelerate the layout of several important emerging markets and strive to continue to expand market share to offset the danger brought about by the continued decline in US market share!"

Xu Shenxue looked at the reports on markets around the world in his hand and said, "This approach is correct. Americans are unreliable after all, and the US market is also unreliable. For the group's subsequent development, in addition to the domestic market, the European market is the focus, and the emerging markets are also incremental markets. We must intensify our efforts to develop them!"

“We must prevent the serious risks of being completely banned from the U.S. market in the future!”

"At the same time, we must also increase the layout of the supply chain in the consumer electronics industry, further enhance it greatly, and further expand the supply chain share of mobile phone manufacturers such as Apple and Samsung. In the future, if we can't make money from the whole machine in the US market, then we can make money from the parts!"

Ji Chenghe said: "That's a solution. In the past two days, a lot of the supply chains supported by our group have entered the supply chains of Fruit and Sixing and other mobile phone manufacturers and PC manufacturers. For example, Fruit has purchased a lot of our memory products, flash memory products, auxiliary chips, etc., and the products of some of our holding companies have also successfully entered the supply chains of these foreign manufacturers. Qianding Technology's touch IC, Huasai's battery, and Huaxing's screen are all doing well!"

As Zhiyun Technology has continued to support supply chain manufacturers in recent years, Chinese companies currently account for a very large proportion of the world's consumer electronics industry chain.

The supply chain of domestic mobile phone manufacturers is almost entirely localized. Even domestic mobile phone manufacturers such as Xiaomi, which is supported by Qualcomm, have started purchasing mobile phone SOCs from Zhiyun Semiconductor this year.

In order to supply the needs of domestic mobile phone manufacturers and even some foreign mobile phone manufacturers for mobile phone SOC, Zhiyun has specially developed a W300 series chip for export based on the core technology of S600. The flagship export chip uses a quad-core CPU.

The flagship phones of a number of domestic manufacturers such as Xiaomi are expected to use this chip.

The reason why a lot of mobile phone manufacturers use Zhiyun Semiconductor's export flagship chips.

This involves a very critical 4G communication baseband issue!

Because in the past few years, Zhiyun Semiconductor has spent money like crazy, spending billions of dollars to acquire almost all the TD-FTE patents it could. In many cases, in order to acquire patents, it directly acquires the company that holds the patent in a package.

Then they erected a patent wall for TD-LTE communication baseband technology that made other companies despair at the first sight.

This technical patent is actually of little use to other domestic companies. At most, they can just brag about their technological independence and then collect some patent fees... The patent fees collected are not even enough to cover the cost of Zhiyun's acquisition of these patents.

But if this thing is in Zhiyun's hands, the effect it can play will be different.

For example, Qualcomm now cannot develop TD-LTE communication baseband... Of course, Zhiyun will still grant authorization on the surface, but the licensing fee is extremely expensive, which is so expensive that Qualcomm would vomit blood.

This is also the reason why the mobile phone SOC launched by Qualcomm this year only has FDD-LTE communication baseband. The TD-LTE technology is blocked by patents and the patent fees are too expensive, so they cannot use it.

This means that all 4G mobile phones trying to sell in the Chinese market and obtain TD-LTE communication functions have only one choice: use Zhiyun Semiconductor's mobile phone SOC and then obtain the accompanying TD-LTE communication baseband, or pay a high price to purchase Zhiyun's 4G communication baseband separately; or you pay a sky-high patent licensing fee and develop the communication baseband yourself.

No matter which one, you have to stick your head in and let Zhiyun chop it off!

In fact, this year, both Four Star and Fruit have been trying to negotiate with Zhiyun, and then trying to obtain the single-hang 4G communication baseband with TD-LTE technology. Zhiyun said that this single-hang communication baseband can definitely be sold, but the price... naturally not cheap!

If competitors purchase Zhiyun’s 4G communication baseband alone, the price will be so low that even Qualcomm will have to admit defeat!
Unless you purchase my mobile phone SOC directly, which is cheap... the price is almost the same as the communication baseband on the purchase order, which is equivalent to you purchasing a communication baseband from me, and then I will give you a SOC for free!

Well, this is also Qualcomm’s common tactic in the 3G era: buy a baseband and get a SOC for free!

Well, Zhiyun did the same thing before. Selling the CDMA2000 communication baseband separately is very expensive, but if you buy the mobile phone SOC directly, Zhiyun will give you a CDMA2000 communication baseband for free.

Zhiyun and Qualcomm are actually of the same nature...it's hard to say which one is better than the other.

So the deal failed. It was not that Apple and Four Star could not afford the money, but that they were unwilling to give up their own mobile phone SOCs... This was equivalent to handing their necks to Zhiyun, their biggest competitor, and letting Zhiyun slaughter them.

Then something even more interesting happens. Currently, only the TD-LTE standard is available in the Chinese market!

As for the FDD-LTE standard, it has not been liberalized yet, and don’t expect it to be liberalized in the next few years as the interests involved are too great.

From mobile phone SOC to communication baseband, these are important conflicts between Apple, Samsung, Qualcomm and other manufacturers and Zhiyun, and are also one of the important factors that triggered a series of disputes.

In addition to these, Zhiyun Technology also has a strong control over some other supply chain products, which imposes significant restrictions on other mobile phone manufacturers.

If you work honestly as an assembler, Zhiyun will naturally not make things difficult for you. You can buy whatever you want and there will be discounts on the prices!

But if you want to compete with Zhiyun on a global scale and want to use unconventional means such as sanctions, Zhiyun will retaliate by raising prices or even strangling you.

This is the competition between big companies, which is very complex and contradictory.

It’s not as simple as right or wrong!
----

The situation in the high-tech industry continued to be turbulent in June. The patent wars between Zhiyun and Fruit, Sixin, Qualcomm and other companies spread from China to the United States, from the United States to Europe, and even in some emerging markets.

It has contributed a lot of news headlines to netizens from all over the world.

Against the backdrop of the patent war, Zhiyun Technology also officially held a flagship phone launch conference on June 15.

Because there have been so many news about Zhiyun recently and the popularity has remained high, the word "Zhiyun" has never come down from the hot search list on Weibo and has been staying at the top recently, with various topics becoming popular.

In addition, Zhiyun is already well-known and popular, so this year's flagship phone launch conference attracted greater attention than in previous years.

Many video websites opened live broadcasts of the Zhiyun flagship phone launch conference, and a group of netizens rushed in to watch.

It has attracted much attention not only in China but also abroad, with a large number of overseas netizens watching on many overseas video websites.

In the field of product launches, Zhiyun has always loved playing marketing that day!
When other mobile phone manufacturers, or even manufacturers in other industries, hold press conferences, they are just ordinary press conferences, but Zhiyun is different... Zhiyun's press conference itself is a large-scale marketing event that affects the whole world.

Before the press conference even started, a massive amount of advertising and marketing funds had already been spent, and an intensive advertising campaign was being carried out around the world!
In this year's press conference, Zhiyun Technology also changed the pure product launch session of previous years and organized several performances right after the press conference started.

It's not about inviting celebrities to sing and dance or perform...these celebrities are not qualified.
The opening performance of Zhiyun Technology's press conference used naked-eye 3D technology. It directly used virtual 3D technology to introduce a sci-fi promotional short film. The short film was a future urban scene. The protagonist used a Zhiyun mobile phone to call an unmanned vehicle, then took the vehicle on his balcony and flew directly into the sky, then crossed the city and the deep forest in the suburbs, and then arrived at the rocket launch site, and flew directly into space on a spacecraft, and finally headed straight for the sea of ​​​​stars!
The short film ends with a white cloud slowly rotating in the starry sky, the classic startup screen of Zhiyun Technology!
In fact, not many people paid attention to the short content, but the large-scale naked-eye 3D full of science fiction attributes was deeply memorable.

In Zhiyun’s previous press conferences, there was also a short film at the opening, but it was just an ordinary video clip. This time, Zhiyun Technology used high technology and directly implemented naked-eye 3D technology.

It can make a group of onlookers on the Internet exclaim with excitement... This thing is more shocking than watching a science fiction blockbuster.

After the short film, the stage lights up and Xu Shenxue walked from one side of the stage to the center.

Xu Shenxue was still wearing casual black trousers and a white shirt, and the same old domestic black leather strap watch that many ordinary people are already familiar with.

"We welcome all new and old friends to attend our flagship launch event, and we also welcome all friends who are watching the launch event online to watch. Believe me, today's launch event will not disappoint you!"

“We have some huge, groundbreaking innovations as always!”

"I also know that many friends are here for our flagship phone, but before that, please wait a moment while I introduce you to some very interesting and high-tech products!"

"The first is our artificial intelligence home system 'Yun Home OS1.0 system."

"This is an operating system installed on various smart home products, including our new generation of smart TVs, refrigerators, washing machines and other smart home products!"

"In addition to being fully compatible and coordinated with our mobile phone systems, this system also has some unique features!"

"For example, the intelligent voice system allows users to perform various operations through the built-in voice assistant of the system. For example, our new smart TV can perform various operations through the built-in voice assistant of the system!"

"Like now!"

At this time, a staff member brought up a smart TV behind him. Xu Shenxue directly woke up the smart TV through voice commands, and then opened the video APP to play the video content.

After a brief demonstration, Xu Shenxue said: "Of course, this alone is not enough. What we want to do is a whole smart home, not just a smart appliance, so we developed a special smart home host.

As he spoke, something resembling a mini console appeared on the big screen behind him.

"In addition to the internal systems and voice assistants in these smart home terminals, these smart home appliances can also be connected through our exclusive home host, which is what you see now!"

"This home smart host has a powerful chip built in and is equipped with our 'Yun Home OS1.0' system motherboard system. Through this system, you can connect various smart homes via Bluetooth or data cables, and then control them in a unified way!"

"At present, all smart home ecological chain products under our Zhiyun have added corresponding interfaces and are controlled."

“And the home host can be controlled directly by voice at home, or it can be controlled manually or remotely by direct voice control through the smart home software built into our Zhiyun mobile phone!”

“It’s very convenient to control!”

"If the user gives authorization, the system can also automatically control the system according to certain situations. For example, if you navigate home through the Xiaoyun system on your Zhiyun phone, the system will contact the home host at home and turn on the air conditioner in advance and turn on the lights before you get home, etc."

"Of course, we at Zhiyun Technology strictly respect the privacy of users, and all these actions require separate additional authorization from users."

“At the same time, we strictly declare that all interaction data between users and AI, including users’ cloud storage data, will be stored in local data centers and subject to local supervision in strict accordance with the legal standards of each country!”

"At the same time, we once again strictly declare that all user data, including interaction data with AI, personal cloud storage data, etc., will be randomly encrypted by the local security function core. No one, no organization, including our Zhiyun, can crack this data!"

"Because we directly block data at the hardware level!"

Of course, although Xu Shenxue said so, how many people believe it is another matter. In any case, the judicial institutions of many countries do not believe it and force Zhiyun to decrypt the mobile phones of special users and obtain their data every other day.

Zhiyun’s attitude towards this is the same as always: There’s nothing I can do!

Even if you fine me, make things difficult for me, or ban me from entering the market, there is nothing I can do!
This thing has passed through the security function core and has been randomly encrypted and locked at the hardware level. No one can use it unless the user enters the correct password himself!
In fact, Zhiyun has been fined many times in many countries for this matter, but Zhiyun refuses to change... and the more Zhiyun refuses to change, the more users trust it!
Of course... In fact, there are some data cracking companies on the market that specialize in decryption, data preservation and other businesses. Some of them can also decrypt Zhiyun's old mobile phones, but ordinary people cannot access them.

----

This smart home system is actually a super-castrated version of Xu Shenjia’s home AI.

On the one hand, various controls can be performed through voice, and on the other hand, remote control can be performed through the APP on the mobile phone.

But the core is to use the artificial intelligence system to control electrical equipment and other devices that have been connected to the system interface.

For example, a sweeping robot!
"Now let me demonstrate something really fun, and it's also my personal favorite part!"

"Sweeping robot!"

Following Xu Shenxue's operation, a silver-white sweeping robot soon appeared on the stage!

"By the way, this is one of the products we are going to release today, the second generation Zhiyun sweeping robot. It has powerful hardware performance and a very smart brain. It is a good helper to help with cleaning!"

"It has a separate operating system, a lidar and a camera that can identify stationary and moving objects."

"This second-generation sweeping robot, under the control of our home host, will achieve even more amazing features!"

“Including real-time 3D modeling, obstacle avoidance, adjusting task priorities, and more!”

"Very clever!"

Xu Shenxue was demonstrating as he spoke, and a group of people at the press conference were stunned, while many netizens who were watching the press conference were also getting excited.

After being started, the silver-white sweeping robot actually came down from the platform in a separate channel. The precise control of the whole process was amazing.

Although the previous naked-eye 3D looked good and had a sci-fi feel, it was nothing compared to the small sweeping robot in front of me.

Many science and technology people who are familiar with high-tech technology can tell at a glance that this thing is AI!

Even if technology continues to advance, it will have a lot in common with the smart cities and super AI that Xu Shenxue has been advocating.

It is a super AI that controls numerous AI mobile terminal devices and then brings out amazing features.

To some extent, this is the prototype of the unmanned transportation system in future smart cities.

Of course... nowadays, this kind of system and hardware combined is just a very expensive toy. The price of the second-generation sweeping robot starts at 15,000 yuan, and the home host starts at more than 20,000 yuan... most people can't afford it.

Xu Shenxue also briefly introduced other smart home products.

Then we skipped smart home products and started to move on to the highlight of today: the release of new mobile phones and new systems!
Unlike previous press conferences where the focus was on appearance and some novel and unique functions, at this year's press conference, Xu Shenxue started by introducing the flagship product: the self-developed S303 chip!

"As a smart device, the core of a mobile phone is undoubtedly the chip!"

"An excellent mobile phone SOC chip can bring powerful operating performance to the mobile phone, which is directly related to the performance of the mobile phone!"

"As many of you know, we launched our first self-developed chip, the S100 series, to the market two years ago, followed by the S200 series last year. The S200 series is installed in our A11 phones and S11x, and has very powerful performance."

"This year, we used a brand-new design framework and more advanced manufacturing technology to finally design and manufacture the S300 series chips!"

"The tablet-specific S304 chip was first used in the new generation of tablets in the spring, and it has shown very powerful performance, even comparable to that of PCs!"

"And now, please let me introduce to you the top flagship chip S300 in the S303 series, which is specially designed for S series mobile phones."

"It is difficult for me to describe the power of this chip in simple words. I can only describe it with a few simple data."

"Compared to the chip used in the previous generation S11 mobile phone, the number of transistors in the new generation chip has reached an unprecedented twice, using the most advanced production technology at present. In the end, we have integrated a large number of functional cores in this chip of only more than square millimeters!"

"Including our exclusive co-processor core, security function core, smart camera core, power management core and more!"

"The core is two CPU cores with a main frequency of 1.8GHZ. The frequency of the CPU core is dynamic and can be actively reduced or increased according to task requirements to reduce power consumption and extend the battery life of the phone!"

"The powerful 1.8GHZ main frequency and L2 and L3 cache far surpass those of its competitors are enough to meet the running requirements of large-scale software and games... I can say that the single-core performance of this chip has no rival at the moment!"

"It is paired with 2GB of memory using the most advanced production technology, the latest architecture of LPDDR2 technology, and our latest 3D flash memory technology."

"What do these three combined bring us? Yes, super smooth speed. When using the phone, you can't feel any lag at all. Everything is so smooth!"

"Creating a smooth and convenient mobile phone has always been our pursuit, and now is no exception!"

"And the new S12 series of mobile phones have this ultimate experience!"

"At the same time, our new SOC also has four GPU cores, which is enough to bring the current top-level graphics processing power and support all games on the market, bringing the ultimate gaming experience!"

"As for gaming performance, I will let our partner Yihai Network introduce it later. I believe it will not disappoint you. Now let's continue talking about this mobile phone SOC!"

"According to our laboratory tests, our new SOC has doubled the overall performance of the previous generation, reduced power consumption by 30%, and increased battery life by 25%!"

"I can say that our S303 chip is the most powerful mobile phone SOC on the planet, bar none!"

"With our specially developed Yun OS5.0, the S12 phone brings an extremely smooth experience that exceeds the limits of this era!"

"Our S12 mobile phone has no rivals on this planet in terms of overall performance. It is the undisputed number one, and it is a cliff-leading number one!"

Xu Shenxue boasted about his own chips in a more shameless way than he did about other things in previous press conferences. He even said things like "leading by a huge margin."

We didn’t brag about the chips before because they were all from other companies and there was no point in bragging about them. But this year’s S12 phone is different. It is equipped with its own chip, so we have to brag about it!
(End of this chapter)