Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 274 Welcome to the Big Fireworks

In late June and early July, the global consumer electronics market was in a state of turmoil because of the release of the S13 series of mobile phones by Zhiyun, followed by the release of the new generation of Fruit 5S and 5S Plus by Fruit.

The mobile phones of these two companies are highly consistent this year, and even their appearance is similar.

In terms of systems, although the systems are different, the underlying logic, or the goal, is similar. They all focus on the smoothness of the current task, and various methods are adopted to limit multi-threading for this smoothness.

IOS uses tombstone mode, while Yun OS forces background killing.

The Fruit Mall ecosystem has a strict access system to ensure the health of the ecosystem; Zhiyun Mall is similar, and is even more stringent in many aspects, such as forcibly prohibiting associated startup and automatic jumps when clicking on ads.

Then the systems of these two companies were upgraded to 64-bit systems, and they also promoted and supported the 64-bit upgrade of the ecosystem in all aspects.

In order to ensure the smoothness of the system, the mobile phone SOCs of both companies have coincidentally chosen the high-performance single-core mode. The A7 chip of Apple is a simple dual-core mode; while Zhiyun, for the sake of battery life, adopts dual large cores plus dual small cores, plus dynamic main frequency technology to ensure a balance between battery life and performance.

However, the core concepts are similar. The design purpose of SOC is mainly to continue to ensure the system's procedurality and support for current tasks.

In terms of other hardware configurations, both sides are similar... After all, both are rich, and both are positioned as high-end mobile phones, so they push all kinds of hardware that can be added.

The running memory is LPDDR3, which is the most advanced technology at present. However, Apple has some advantages in system mechanism. At the same time, in order to control costs, their running memory capacity is smaller. 5S has 1GB, and 5S plus has 2GB...

In comparison, the standard version of Zhiyun 13 is 2GB, and the Pro version is 3GB... This is because the Yun os system consumes more memory than the IOS system. More importantly, the hardware cost of Zhiyun is actually lower than that of Apple.

Fruit's LPDDR3 memory needs to be purchased from outside. Although large quantity can lower the price, it is still not as low-cost as Zhiyun's memory that is produced and used in-house.

The same cost gap is also reflected in other hardware, such as flash memory. The maximum flash memory capacity of the Apple 5S is only 64GB, and only 5GB is used in the 128S Plus. It uses Six-Star 3D NAND flash memory particles, which are more expensive than Jiangcheng flash memory particles under Zhiyun Semiconductor.

There is also a core component, which is the screen. The screen sizes of both are the same, which is 16 inches by 9 inches, and both have an aspect ratio of :.

Zhiyun uses screens from its own controlled company Huaxing Technology, while Fruit uses screens from LG and Sharp.

In fact, strictly speaking, the screen technology of both parties comes from the same source, and the technical specifications are similar, with no obvious differences... Huaxing Technology's advanced high-end LCD screen technology also comes from LG and Sharp.

The Zhiyun S13 series and the Fruit 5S series have slightly different memory, but are highly similar in system and hardware.

There is no way. They both have similar market positioning and are both made based on current technology. It is difficult to have a big difference in quality.

Apple hasn't developed a dual-camera yet, but this thing doesn't have any very high technical barriers. It's too late for Apple to develop it this year, but it will definitely be able to do it next year.

The two sides launched highly similar mobile phones into the market one after another, which immediately triggered fierce competition in the global market.

This fierce competition is not only reflected in the purely commercial aspect, but also in the non-commercial aspect.

On July 16, a hearing that had been delayed several times but finally could not be avoided was held in Washington.

Schmidt, vice president of Zhiyun and president of Zhiyun North America and an American executive, attended the U.S. congressional hearing on behalf of Zhiyun Group.

At the hearing, US lawmakers questioned the information security of Zhiyun Group's products in a rather impolite manner, especially in areas such as leaking the privacy of US citizens and leaking US national defense and security data.

These are routine operations and questions.

When pressed, Smith, vice president of Zhiyun Group, strictly adhered to the response strategy formulated by the group's public relations department, and either avoided or made excuses when asked some sensitive questions.

But not all congressmen are so rule-abiding. One newly elected congressman was not very rule-abiding and even asked some questions that should not have been asked in this occasion, such as whether Zhiyun provided technical support to China for military use and whether Zhiyun provided confidential information of US institutions or citizens to China.

In response, Smith remained silent... He was somewhat unable to understand the other party's train of thought. How dare you ask such a question? Do you want to quit your job?

At this moment, he looked at the congressman who asked the question as if he was a fool!
There were so many councillors present, but no one asked Zhiyun these questions. There was a reason for that: things hadn’t turned sour yet, and everyone was still playing by the rules…

You are a newbie, you come up here and ask such sensitive questions without knowing everything. You are breaking the rules and you want to die.

Smith knew with his toes that the group's public relations and lobbying department would contact his opponent today, if not tomorrow... and then spend a lot of money to push his opponent to the top no matter what.

This is still the routine operation. If the routine operation doesn’t work, then there are unconventional operations.

Their Zhiyun Group is not a soft persimmon. Not counting the group headquarters, even the North American branch is very large. This person treats Zhiyun as an ordinary Chinese enterprise. Either he was cheated by their own people, or there is something wrong with his brain!

This kind of conversation should not occur between him, an ordinary executive of the group, and the other party's junior congressman.

Instead, it should appear between Xu Shenxue and the helmsmen of those big conglomerates!

To put it bluntly, neither of them is qualified!

However, this was a public occasion, so Smith was silent for a few seconds before saying, "Our Zhiyun Group has long been committed to using technology to benefit all mankind, and all of its products are civilian products."

"Zhiyun Group never develops military technology, let alone provides military technology."

"Zhiyun Group condemns any use of Zhiyun products for military purposes!"

Smith is also good at calling people blind... Nowadays, large manufacturing companies, especially those like Zhiyun that deal with basic technologies, basically have some relationship with their country's defense industry.

To say no is simply fooling fools!

Well, Smith just treats the other party as a fool...

Sure enough, the other party was very dissatisfied and continued to ask questions...but Smith would not give him any answer he wanted.

After a questioning session, this news also attracted some attention. In particular, many netizens in China were very dissatisfied with the questioning of this young congressman after seeing the relevant news.

Even Xu Shenxue was concerned because there was something wrong with this matter.

The questioning had been arranged long ago and was finalized in April... At that time, Xu Shenxue also called an older man at the helm of a large consortium who had invested more than 2 billion US dollars in Galaxy Life. After a brief chat, he learned the whole story.

What the other party meant was that Zhiyun has been going a little too far recently, and some people hope that Zhiyun can calm down a bit. The market is so big, you can't always get involved in everything.

For example, the Pangu computer project of SOP, the X86 computer project, and the electric car project.

You are a mobile phone developer, so don’t change your career… It’s okay to change your career, but you can’t leave us alone and eat the food!

Later, Xu Shenxue had some more phone calls with some people from the other side, and then reached a partial verbal agreement, such as Zhiyun would not force Pangu computers into the civilian market.

Zhiyun X86 computers continue to be compatible with the existing X86 ecosystem and will not restrict X86 ecosystem products from companies such as Intel and NVIDIA in the Chinese market.

In the field of electronic consumer products and electric vehicles, we have maintained restraint in some markets, such as the Chinese market... Apple was suppressed too much by Zhiyun in the Chinese market; Tesla also wanted to enter the Chinese market, but was blocked by Zhiyun...

In return, the other party tacitly allowed Zhiyun to continue purchasing advanced DUV immersion lithography machines, core semiconductor equipment, consumables and other advanced equipment, while continuing to allow Zhiyun's core products, such as mobile phones and other smart devices, to enter the European and American markets on a large scale.

This is actually a temporary verbal agreement to exchange markets for markets!
How should I put it? Zhiyun, a newly emerging consortium, has had some conflicts with some old consortiums in Europe and the United States, but the two sides cannot simply abandon each other and go their separate ways... Neither of them is a good bird. Do you think you can just abandon the other? That's not going to happen.

In the end, they could only make concessions and compromise with each other.

The matter had come to an end at this point, and the subsequent questioning session was just a formality.

But a young man came out and started causing trouble.

For this reason, Xu Shenxue made another call across the Pacific Ocean...Then the other party said helplessly that this person suddenly appeared on his own and they had not had time to control him. However, Mr. Xu, don't worry, our temporary agreement is still valid, and as for this young man, I will give you an explanation later...

As a result, within a few days, without Zhiyun Group having to do anything, the congressman’s huge tax evasion scandal broke out on the other side. After resisting for a few days, the congressman was forced to resign.

This was an accident!
Under the current environment, the competition between Zhiyun Group and many large foreign companies is still in the stage of ordinary business competition that is legal and compliant. They have not yet completely fallen out, and sometimes they even engage in a tacit war with each other.

The competition between Zhiyun and Fruit fully reflects this situation. The two sides are fighting for their lives in the global market, while at the same time conquering cities and reaping the benefits of other countries.

Zhiyun's sales volume continued to increase, and its market value once reached 590 billion US dollars, but the market sentiment subsequently calmed down and gradually fell back to 580 billion US dollars.

Apple is not to be outdone. Its new generation flagship phones are extremely popular worldwide and are in short supply worldwide. Also, because it is an asset-light company, its price-to-earnings ratio is higher than Zhiyun's. After its market value fell below the 400 billion US dollar mark in the first half of the year, it has gradually rebounded to more than 400 billion US dollars.

As for the cost, the stock price of Four Star has continued to fall. After the release of Four Star Galaxy 4, the sales volume was far from expectations. The stock price has continued to fall by 13% in the past few months. After the release of Zhiyun S5 and Fruit S, the stock price of Four Star has fallen further.

Of course, overall, the stock prices of the three giants in the consumer electronics field, namely Zhiyun, Fruit and Sixing, have all fallen since last year.

It's just that Zhiyun relies on the strong sales of S13 mobile phones, the continued strength of its semiconductor business, and multiple successful investment cases in its investment department, and holds a large number of high-value shares in Internet companies. Its stock price has been fluctuating, but it has not fallen too much. Instead, it has continued to fluctuate between US$ billion and US$ billion, and there has been a rebound in the past month.

The fruit price fell too sharply before, and has rebounded in the past month, but it is still not as good as expected. But at least it has stopped the downward curve and started to slowly rise again.

As for the four-star rating, there is no support point to stop the decline yet...

The sales of the four-star Galaxy 4 are far below expectations. Even though a Galaxy NOTE4 will be launched in the fall, no one thinks that this phone can grab much market share from Zhiyun and Fruit.

This year's four stars are even worse than last year's four stars.

Except for the four major mobile phone manufacturers, other traditional giant mobile phone manufacturers are basically dead.

Nouya is finished, HTZ is finished too.

Motorola, Sony Ericsson, LG, etc. are almost dead.

Even many of the former domestic mobile phone brands are gradually disappearing, not to mention the second- and third-rate ones. Even among the first-rate manufacturers, there are gradually some manufacturers that cannot keep up with the pace.

After several years of continuous reshuffle, the mobile phone industry has undergone tremendous changes.

This change gave birth to giants such as Zhiyun, Fruit and Sixing, as well as emerging first-class manufacturers such as Weiku Electronics, Huawei and Zhongxing.

In the future, this change will continue... because the major reshuffle in the mobile phone industry is still ongoing, and it depends on who can't stand it and falls behind.

In response to the fierce market competition, Weiku Electronics held a press conference in mid-July to launch its new flagship Xiaolan MAX5, releasing their brand new flagship mobile phone to the market.

A 2-inch domestically made large screen, GB of RAM, Lan OS, a close brother of Yun OS, and finally, fingerprint recognition, which is the first time it appears on a non-Zhiyun brand.

It uses the new generation export chip W706 from Zhiyun Semiconductor, a -nanometer process, and a quad-core top-level chip.

Then there is the dual camera... Although its dual camera, the main camera is only 1200 million pixels, and the secondary camera is just a -megapixel wide-angle camera, and the photo quality is slightly worse due to hardware limitations, but it is still a dual camera after all.

All these make the Little Blue MAX5 from Weiku Electronics very attractive.

When this phone was put on sale online, it was snapped up and sold out...

This is quite rare. You should know that Weiku Electronics does not play any tricks and has always taken the route of shipment first. This MAX5 has a stock of more than one million units. This stock volume is actually quite sufficient for the brand appeal of the Little Blue MAX series.

But I didn't expect people to be so enthusiastic about fingerprint recognition, dual cameras, and large-screen mobile phones.

After the Bluemax 5 was launched, many domestic mobile phone manufacturers also released their mobile phones one after another, trying to get a piece of the pie, but they were not as extreme as Bluemax 5, so the response was not great. However, Dami Technology, as always, seized the opportunity and hurriedly released their Dami 3 in advance, becoming the world's second mobile phone using the W706 flagship chip.

The W706 chip is a high-end quad-core chip specially launched by Zhiyun Semiconductor for its partners such as Wecoo Electronics, Dami Technology, and Sixing Electronics. Its CPU main frequency is quite high, reaching 2.1GHZ, and it comes with Bluetooth 4.5 communication protocol.

However, the SOC performance of a mobile phone is not simply determined by the main frequency, but also by many other parameters, such as L2/L3.

The Zhiyun S13 mobile phone is equipped with an S403 chip with a main frequency of only 1.8GHZ, but this S403 is currently recognized as the most powerful mobile phone SOC, even more powerful than Apple's A7.

The overall performance of the Zhiyun S403 phone equipped with the S13 chip can surpass the Xiaolan MAX5 in all aspects.

Both are not on the same level.

However, despite this, the W706 chip is also quite powerful and is one of the current top-notch flagship chips. Otherwise, a large number of domestic flagship mobile phones, and even the domestic version of the mobile phones produced by Four Star Electronics, would not use this chip.

Well... they have no choice, because among the chips they can buy that support full network access, the only ones are Zhiyun's W600 series and W700 series, among which W706 is already the best.

As for Qualcomm, their chips still do not support TD-FTE mode, which is too limited in the domestic high-end chip market. They can only use 3G mode. Using this chip means basically giving up the mobile user market.

While the outside world was clamoring over the fierce competition among mobile phones, Xu Shenxue had already withdrawn his attention from the mobile phone market.

One day in late July, Xu Shenxue received a report saying that a secret subsidiary of Zhiyun Investment had received a new special mission: to cooperate with a research institute to develop an onboard ultra-high computing power chip for a certain type of advanced aircraft.

It is called cooperation, but in fact the other party makes the requirements, and then Zhiyun designs the chip according to the requirements, and then provides a full set of processes including lithography and packaging.

This level of top-level computing power chips is not something that just any company or organization can produce. Looking around the world, there are only a few companies that can produce chips with such ultra-high technical specifications. The others are either American companies or companies controlled by the United States.

In fact, it’s only in the past few years that Zhiyun Technology has emerged, otherwise they wouldn’t have this idea… If it can’t be done, there’s no point in having this idea.

In addition, even those chip companies in the United States are not as good as Zhiyun in the field of professional computing chips. After all, they have not done much and have no such demand.

On the contrary, Zhiyun Semiconductor is working on AI chips every day and has accumulated rich experience in this field.

It may even be exaggerated to say that at present, the only company that can develop this kind of chip in a relatively short period of time is Zhiyun. Even Intel and NVIDIA would have to figure it out for several years and accumulate a lot of technology before they can do it.

Because this task was rather special, Xu Shenxue personally convened a secret meeting of relevant personnel.

In addition to assigning tasks, what is more important is to ensure confidentiality and prevent information leaks... and to ensure isolation at the same time.

Just like before, just set up a shell company and get a bunch of former employees to work there. After the task is completed and the project is handed over, the relevant personnel will be re-hired back to the company.

This is also what many large companies, not just Zhiyun, do when many foreign companies undertake some unconventional businesses, mainly to avoid commercial risks.

This is basically the case for Zhiyun Group whether it is in China or abroad. Any business involving risks will implement this set of isolation measures and use shell companies that apparently have nothing to do with Zhiyun to carry out the business.

There is already a complete set of very mature processes.

This time, Xu Shenxue personally presided over the project because it is rather special and extremely important, and is directly related to the performance of a certain type of core advanced aircraft.

Ordinary flight control systems do not need a top-level computing chip specially made by Zhiyun. The reason they need such a good chip is that they are preparing to use a wave of super upgrades to significantly enhance the perception, information processing, and decision-making capabilities of the onboard system.

To do this, we must use a top-level computing chip that far exceeds the norm as the brain... At least currently on the market, including in the United States, there are no chips that meet this technical requirement.

Just by looking at the technical requirements, Xu Shenxue vaguely guessed what this chip was used for...

At the end of the secret meeting, Xu Shenxue instructed: "This time your semiconductor department has faced a real challenge. You must do your best while maintaining confidentiality."

The person in charge of the secret subsidiary said: "Don't worry, we have also carried out many projects in the past few years. It's hard to say about other things, but we still do a good job in confidentiality."

"In recent years, some new aircraft flying in the sky, new vehicles on the ground or other integrated systems in China have all been equipped with our Zhiyun chips, but the outside world still knows nothing about it!"

These chips are not only designed by Zhiyun, but also manufactured by Zhiyun Microelectronics...

After all, apart from Zhiyun Microelectronics, there is no other chip foundry in China that can produce these advanced high-specification chips!
In today's China, when it comes to semiconductor technology capabilities, Zhiyun Group is far ahead of other domestic companies.

However, few people know that the reason why the electronic level of some domestic armed terminal equipment has been greatly improved in the past two years is closely related to Zhiyun Group.

In order to avoid foreign sanctions and take international influence into consideration, Zhiyun Group never publicly undertakes these businesses.

It's just hiding and going around in circles...

However, it is only concealed from some ordinary people. Some high-level people, including foreign dignitaries, basically know the truth: because this is an obvious fact, just like Zhiyun Group's tax evasion abroad.

But this kind of thing is actually very normal, and it is even a global practice. Giant companies in countries around the world do this.

It is impossible for a giant enterprise of this size to avoid being involved in such things. In fact, such a giant enterprise itself is one of the driving forces behind the advancement of national defense technology.

When an enterprise reaches a certain level, without a strong force to protect it, how can you continue to do business outside?

The gorilla uncle can blackmail you with an AK, but he insists that Africa's mineral resources belong to him...

This is absolutely ridiculous, those are clearly the assets left behind by Zhiyun in Africa!

------

After a secret meeting, Xu Shenxue also took the opportunity to check the progress of some secret projects.

The research and development of the distributed AI system and the matching mobile terminal AI system has been relatively smooth overall.

Specifically, the robot dog under the whole system is not as stupid as it was a year ago... its movements are slightly more sensitive and its recognition accuracy is higher.

But there is still a lot of room for improvement...

This is not a problem of mechanical design. As far as carriers such as robot dogs and drones are concerned, the technology is actually quite mature and can at least be used.

The problem is that the computing power of the chips in mobile terminals cannot keep up, and the computing power of the servers cannot keep up either, making AI training very difficult, resulting in the AI ​​model being immature.

It's still too stupid. We still need to continue to invest billions of resources to improve it.

This is the limitation of basic technology, and Xu Shenxue doesn't have a better solution for the time being. The performance gap between the computing chip with a 28-nanometer process and the various chips in the original time and space that are 7-nanometer, 5-nanometer, or even more advanced 3-nanometer and 2-nanometer chips is huge.

There is no other way but to continue to work on semiconductors...

Xu Shenxue doesn't need to worry too much about other fields, as there are naturally other institutions and companies to take care of them, but the underlying technical foundation such as semiconductors has to be handled by Xu Shenxue himself.

After secretly inspecting these secret projects, Xu Shenxue appeared in public again in early August, but not in Shenzhen, but on Qiongzhou Island.

Xu Shenxue went to Qiongzhou Island to watch the rocket launch again, and was photographed by a group of media reporters with a suspicious expression on his face when the rocket's recovery test failed at sea.

Soon, another group of people outside began to criticize Nanmen Aerospace and Xu Shenxue's unrealistic illusions... saying that offshore recovery technology was a pipe dream.

"Nanmen Aerospace has failed four consecutive sea recovery tests. Is the sea recovery technology really feasible?"

"Xu Shenxue finally encountered setbacks, and the offshore recovery test failed again!"

"The once amazing Xu Shenxue is also helpless in the face of real high technology."

"Offshore recycling says NO to Xu Shenxue's money-spending method!"

"The biggest loser in history, a firework worth 60 million US dollars, and Xu Shenxue blew up four of them!"

Especially in foreign media, a large group of people, whether they are from the media industry or ordinary foreign netizens, mostly come with a mocking attitude.

Who made everything go so smoothly for you, Xu Shenxue? You made the world's best mobile phone, the world's best drone, and even made an electric car with an autonomous driving function that made people despair.

Then he went into aerospace and even developed reusable rocket technology.

Now, offshore recycling is no longer possible, it’s a disaster!

You've been showing off every day, and now you're miserable!

Even many people in China think that Xu Shenxue is too ambitious. The land recycling technology has just been developed and not yet fully matured, but he is already working on marine recycling. If you don't fail, who will fail?

However, not to mention Xu Shenxue, even Deng Feiyue, the chief designer of Nanmen Aerospace, had an indifferent attitude towards this.

It’s only been four failures, this is just the beginning!
When they were working on land recovery technology, they failed more than twenty times, and there were explosions every two or three days, all kinds of explosions, so much so that the Nanmen Space Launch Center on Qiongzhou Island was nicknamed the Nanmen Fireworks Field, which was used specifically for fireworks.

But it was despite these explosions that Nanmen Aerospace was able to continue improving and finally succeed in its recyclable technology.

Today's offshore recovery technology is even more difficult, and we must be prepared for failure. Besides, netizens outside said that the cost of Nantianmen's offshore recovery test is very high, but in fact the media deliberately distorted the facts. They directly included the cost of the entire Nantianmen-5 rocket.

But in fact, these test rockets all carried out the launch mission first, and only the first-stage rocket was subjected to the sea recovery test, so the overall cost was not that high.

Among the four tests, only this one was the sea recovery test of the Nantianmen-5 rocket.

The three times before this were actually small test rocket No. 4, which cost much less.

At Nantian Aerospace, Xu Shenxue and a group of core senior executives and technical personnel of Nantian Aerospace were not disturbed by the outside world, but simply held a symposium. At the meeting, the technical department reported some basic problems of the recovery failure. It was initially determined that there were some problems with the docking procedure between the rocket and the receiving ship.

"Our first-stage rocket completed all the established steps according to the procedure, but in the final stage, the system misjudged the altitude, resulting in excessive descent speed, and the hull directly hit the receiving ship and exploded."

Xu Shenxue said: "Now that we have found the problem, let's solve it. After we solve it, we can try again!"

Deng Feiyue said: "For offshore recovery technology, we have already had sufficient basic technical reserves. Now we just need to solve various details. These small problems are usually difficult to find, and we can't even predict the problems before the failure."

"So, we will continue to experiment until all the details are exposed, and then solve them one by one!"

"At the same time, in order to reduce costs, we will continue to use the No. 4 small test rocket for repeated tests. The problem exposed this time is not serious. We can complete the modification within this month. After solving the connection problem between the landing platform and the rocket flight control system, we will launch an improved No. 4 rocket next month to see the situation!"

The cost of bombing a Type 5 rocket is quite high, tens of millions of dollars. If possible, some lower-cost Type 4 small rockets would be used for testing.

However, many things cannot be tested using small rockets, so we have no choice but to use Rocket No. 5 for the tests.

The failure of the sea recovery of Rocket No. 5 this time was an experiment under such circumstances... Everyone had already expected it to fail, but they had to try it in order to collect data.

Xu Shenxue said: "It's good to have such a steady mentality, keep working hard!"

After that, Xu Shenxue continued to walk around the rocket factory, and then took a photo of multiple rockets standing in the distance with his mobile phone and posted it on Weibo, with the caption: "Nanmen Aerospace's sea recovery test next month will proceed as usual. Everyone is welcome to come and see the big fireworks!"

(End of this chapter)