From knock-off old-man's electric vehicles to industrial giant

Chapter 318: Is there any potential for smartphones to take on mirrorless cameras?
Xingchen's attempt to build a mobile phone from scratch was described by industry insiders as an extremely difficult undertaking, requiring overcoming technological and supply chain hurdles and having a very low success rate.

Therefore, it is widely not favored.

It's 8102 already, and people are still plunging headfirst into red ocean markets?
That's absolutely insane!

Luzhou Industrial Park.

Xingchen Mobile Company started its development quietly after its establishment, but the public information shows that its registered capital reached one billion yuan.

This number surprised many people who had been quietly following the story.

A registered capital of one billion yuan is not a large amount in today's fiercely competitive mobile phone market, but it is not a level that can be easily ignored.

Whether it's Black Shark Technology, established last year, or Realme, a sub-brand launched by OPPO, their initial startup capital was only 1-5 million yuan, which is considered top-tier among startups in the past two years.

Take new energy vehicles as an example. As a modern industrial heavy-duty vehicle, the whole vehicle has thousands of parts and involves an extremely complex supply chain. When Xingchen enters the mobile phone industry, it is dealing with an even more deeply rooted patent pool.

Licensing of communication patents, radio frequency, antennas, various conformance and certifications, camera ISP algorithm patents, etc. These are all unavoidable tasks.

In the first two months, the Xingchen mobile phone team was mainly busy with the establishment of the R&D team, ID design, hardware solution selection and other work plans. Through repeated communication, the project establishment and product definition of the prototype new phone were confirmed.

—"Vehicle-machine collaboration, original system, flagship imaging"

With these three core elements identified, the price range and target audience for the first model were determined.

After all, StarCraft didn't go into this business with the goal of creating a phone priced around 1,000 yuan.

Otherwise, they wouldn't have assembled such a large R&D team of four or five hundred people right from the start.

Since Xingchen is a car manufacturer that excels in intelligent technology, taking the "vehicle-machine collaboration" route is the easiest for them.

Li Nan, who was initially a little apprehensive when he joined the Star Mobile team, gradually gained more and more confidence afterward.

Because Star Auto's sales are getting better and better.

This led to his expectations for the Starry Sky phone becoming increasingly inflated.

Upon closer examination, Xingchen's advantages in making mobile phones far surpass those of most startups, and to this day, Xingchen has 403 sales outlets.

In first- and second-tier cities, more than 120 large-scale brand experience centers have been established.

Thanks to the concept of "people, cars, and home," the Starry Night stores inside major shopping malls have high customer traffic, and being able to test drive and enjoy a meal is just one aspect of this.

When Li Nan was browsing around offline, she even saw a separate parent-child area in the Xingchen experience center.

That's fucking insane.

A large SUV sits there, with six seats, spacious enough for all ages, and a refrigerator in the back that can warm milk, a small table for eating and doing homework, and a large TV for watching cartoons... You can even bring your kids to the store.

He's a middle-aged man, he can't understand this.

At the same time, I understand why so many middle-class people chose the Starry Night L7.

Even if it means waiting two or three months to pick up the car.

If Xingchen wants to launch mobile phone products, these people are ready-made traffic entry points. With a little modification, the brand center can become an excellent mobile phone sales channel.

Simultaneously.

Xingchen Auto's "peripheral products" are also operating quite healthily, ranging from phone holders and tissue boxes costing tens of yuan to camping tents, car covers, and car films costing thousands of yuan. This continuous cash flow proves the success of Xingchen Community's unique ecosystem.

Even manufacturing a simple power bank can achieve monthly sales of 80,000 units. As a magnetic power bank priced at 298 yuan, its profit margin surpasses that of high-end power bank products with monthly sales of 300,000 units at the same price point.

At worst, we can just "buy a car and get a free phone".

These words, which started as a casual joke, made Li Nan increasingly feel that they were "correct".

With the incredible spending power of these car owners, they can really provide a safety net for the mobile phone business!

...

Yang Yan's resignation was quickly approved.

The reason it went so smoothly was because it had been planned in advance.

After posting a farewell message on WeChat Moments, I said goodbye to each of my colleagues and completed the handover procedures.

That same weekend, after completing his resignation process, he flew directly to Star Mobile Company to investigate.

He was first received by Bai Yongxiang and Li Nan.

The three musketeers reunited after leaving their respective jobs, but in a completely new environment, and the underlying emotions in their eyes were quite complex.

During this process, Yang Yan passively accepted this explanation.

"StarCraft's mobile phone manufacturing isn't without its advantages. Take the technology and patents for mobile phone batteries, for example; they're unmatched in the market. As long as the system scheduling and power consumption aren't ridiculously bad, we can definitely build a phone with the longest battery life and the fastest charging speed on the market..."

We had just exchanged a few pleasantries.

Li Nan then took out a sample of a Polestar A2 battery cell to show off, with the 5000mAh capacity unit clearly marked on it, which was particularly eye-catching.

"Currently, several flagship Android phones in China use Polestar batteries. This level of battery life was unimaginable in the past. Apple and Samsung have their own national circumstances and have no intention of purchasing Polestar batteries for the time being, but they have begun to put pressure on the supply chain to increase battery energy density."

He said with a slight chuckle.

The mobile phone industry is changing very quickly. In the past, domestic Android phones followed Apple's iterations. This time, the Android camp was able to force Apple and Samsung to take the lead, which shows that they have indeed put competitive pressure on each other in terms of battery life.

"And this isn't the limit for the stars. The next generation of Polaris batteries focuses on enhancing charging capabilities, employing a dual-cell design, and achieving a peak fast charging speed of 120W, fully charging in 30 minutes. Samples are already available in the lab..."

Li Nan dropped another bombshell.

Star Group's battery technology always possesses a kind of mindless beauty, full of numerical data.

The next generation of consumer batteries has temporarily encountered a minor bottleneck due to issues with silicon doping technology, but this does not prevent breakthroughs in other areas.

"Holy crap... 120 million?!"

Yang Yan, being new to the place, couldn't help but pause for a moment.

Last year, the charging speed of flagship phones was only around 22.5W.

As far as he knows, most Android flagship phones this year cost around 50 RMB. Even if some phones haven't been released yet, everyone knows that.

It takes two hours to charge an iPhone.

What do you mean by making 120 million in one go?

"With this charging power and capacity, it should be able to handle even a 2K screen and a flagship chip at full power, right?"

Yang Yan was amazed by the technological prowess of Xingchen Group.

Even without any other selling points, he probably wouldn't be able to resist buying one of these phones to play with.

"But will the dual-cell design affect battery life and cycle life?"

He paused for a moment and then asked again.

This design is unprecedented in the mobile phone industry. Its most significant feature is that dual-cell batteries can bypass the power limit of single-cell batteries. However, the series design that results in this often leads to a doubling of the output voltage. Even with a step-down module, there will be additional energy loss. While the charging power is certainly faster, the battery life is not as solid as it appears on paper.

In short, the battery level appears unreliable, and the heat generated also increases.

"Xingchen has designed a special parallel discharge structure to avoid voltage issues. The specific effects will have to wait for the next stage of sample verification. I think other aspects certainly won't be a step backward..."

Li Nan pondered for a moment.

He was also unaware of the full picture of the Polaris battery during its research and development phase.

The new charging protocol and structural design involve numerous technical patent details, as well as new safety certifications.

However, this confidence is not hindered in the present moment.

After all, if StarCraft can't do this well, other battery manufacturers will only perform worse.

Yang Yan nodded.

Suddenly, I felt that compared to the gradually decaying Meizu, Star Group might really be a promising starting point.

Xu Yi arrived at the Xingchen Mobile Technology Building at 1 p.m. and took the elevator to the 13th floor, where he went to the president's office.

He met with Yang Yan, the former chief designer of Meizu's system, immediately and conducted background checks and evaluations. He generally recognized the abilities of this "soul figure" of the Flyme system.

Starry Sky is not developing a replica of the Flyme system, but rather building a completely new Starry Sky OS system from scratch. An experienced system development president can take full responsibility for coordinating the daily processes of system development, and can also quickly lead the team to promote the engineering implementation of scheduling strategies and architecture, thus relieving him of a lot of energy.

"President Xu, what kind of mobile phone system does Xingchen Group want to develop..." Yang Yan was curious about what specific requirements this leading figure in the new energy industry had for the mobile phone system, and how much he knew about the digital industry.

If there are no specific requirements, and you simply benchmark against the top few Android companies to develop an Android system, then both the functions and features will be very similar.

"Smooth, easy to use, and solves user pain points."

Xu Yi indirectly explained.

The Android system has been developing for so many years and includes too many elements, but for daily use, these are the main points that cannot be ignored.

"Xingchen itself is a car manufacturer, and like the car's infotainment system, our goal is to focus on a pure experience and create a mobile phone system without built-in ads."

Currently, advertising is rampant in the domestic Android system.

Whether it's the negative one screen, weather, calendar, app store...

It's no wonder that iOS users discriminate against Android all the time. At present, Android systems don't even have a button to turn off ad recommendations from the system.

For manufacturers, this part of the profit is extremely high.

After all, few manufacturers can refuse the prospect of making money while lying down by writing just one line of code.

However, this is also the reason why it is widely criticized by users.

It wasn't until 20 years later, with industry competition and regulations from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, that companies "reconstructed their advertising push frameworks," and Huami, VO, and others finally developed the "one-click system-level ad-closing function."

Xu Yi's idea was simple.

The feature to block system-level ads on Android phones has only been around for the last two years.

StarChip is operating with a streamlined approach, both in terms of scale and other aspects. Since it can't generate much profit from this level, it's better to take the lead in achieving "purification," retaining only some ecosystem recommendations, and laying a good foundation for the future group ecosystem.

In fact, regarding in-car infotainment systems, due to the surge in Starry Sky car owners, some manufacturers have even approached Starry Sky offering advertising fees in hopes of securing advertising space when the in-car applications are launched.

Xu Yi found this behavior amusing.

If we really do that, I'm afraid that in just a few days, the public opinion against "hitting the brakes to watch ads" will hit us hard.

I directly rejected them and blocked them.

"At the system level, I've only raised a few requirements for now, including finer-grained control over functions like the gyroscope, more refined system-level privacy permission controls, and raising the standards for malicious splash screen ads and privacy security. User experience and privacy are the top priority..."

If we're going to create a "clean system," then we can't just talk about built-in ads.

Putting aside built-in system ads, the biggest problem with Android at present is the abuse of application permissions and the emergence of some outrageous advertising features.

To give a simple and straightforward example—the shake-to-open ad.

This thing really took off around 15, after the "shake to grab red envelopes" feature.

Now it has developed into something like psoriasis.

The principle is to trigger the ad redirection by adjusting the value of the phone's gyroscope, i.e., the speed sensor.

But what's rather embarrassing is...

This thing ran rampant in China for several years until it was exposed on 315 in 2020. Only then did Android manufacturers begin to optimize permission management and add the function of globally disabling all apps' gyroscope permission calls.

During this period, whenever there are e-commerce festivals like 618 and Double 11, the experience for mobile phone users can only be described as dark and chaotic!
The management of privacy permissions is even more of a mess. The current privacy permission management of Android system is quite rudimentary. System-level functions such as privacy sandbox, behavior recording, and automatic blocking have not yet been developed.

Since other Android manufacturers are not doing it.

If we have to wait a few years to be forced to "progress" by the environment, then we might as well let Xingchen be the one to take the lead!
...

Yang Yan was slightly shaken after listening to President Xu's opinions.

obviously.

Mr. Xu is a seasoned Android user and a charismatic boss.

How can such a successful person know so much about the Android phone system?
Is this true love?

Or is it true love?
Take the "shake-to-play ad" for example.

It's extremely disgusting from the user's perspective.

However, major manufacturers and software vendors are tacitly aware of the deep-rooted profit chain behind it all.

Without government intervention, it would be extremely difficult to prevent such practices from happening on their own. Neither Meizu nor the current Huami VO can refuse a free source of income.

For Xingchen, which is making its first mobile phone system, it has to start from the bottom layer of privacy and advertising control, and give users privacy functions and sensor permissions separately. If it can really sell to the size of the other top companies, it will definitely be a meritorious deed worthy of being enshrined in the Imperial Ancestral Temple.

Of course, you can't just look at the system to achieve good sales.

The phone itself also needs to be able to make calls.

Yang Yan felt that the "pure system" selling point was very appealing, and if it could be combined with other distinctive flagship configurations, it would definitely be able to differentiate itself from other brands.

The subsequent internal meeting confirmed his idea.

Xu Yi only treated the system's features as an appetizer, focusing his main efforts on the "ISP chip".

This is also known as an "image coprocessor".

To work on imaging, you can't just talk about lens hardware and CMOS.

With flagship image sensors from various manufacturers already pushed to their limits, computational photography has become the key to breaking through.

"Mr. Xu, we have established an internal R&D lab with a team of 100 people to fine-tune the imaging. We have now acquired a batch of Qualcomm SoCs. In the early stages, we will focus on ensuring the consistency and fine-tuning of the sensors, lenses, and modules. We will also acquire the imaging algorithms from the intelligent driving department to create a combined solution."

Song Cheng, the director of imaging R&D, described the project's current status.

He was originally one of the heads of image algorithms within Samsung Group, but was recruited to Star Group on Wu Zheng's recommendation.

Because of its research and development of intelligent driving, Xingchen has accumulated experience in night vision and noise reduction algorithms, and some of its basic technologies can be adopted.

But that's not enough.

Computational photography solutions on mobile phones are quite complex.

Qualcomm's flagship SoCs come with a powerful ISP (Image Signal Processor) interface. For example, the Snapdragon 845 this year integrates the Spectra 280 ISP image subsystem, which is designed to enhance photography and video capabilities.

The first thing StarCraft needs to do is to fully utilize the ISP capabilities built into the SoC itself.

Based on this, a programmable image coprocessor was designed to specifically enhance capabilities such as night scene rendering, multi-frame fusion, video HDR, and real-time preview.

“Unlike communication SEP, the image ISP field does not have a mature and unified patent pool. In the early stages, we can use the patent packages of several small image companies as leverage and backup plans through mergers and acquisitions or equity investments. The coprocessor route can also reduce the probability of direct conflict with SoC ISP patents.”

Song Cheng, being experienced, then offered practical advice.

The ISP architecture patents of major manufacturers are very strong.

Let alone newcomers like Xingchen Group, even the leading domestic mobile phone companies are not capable of directly competing with the ISP patents of existing platforms. Most of these algorithm and sensor patents are held by giants such as Qualcomm, Samsung, and Sony.

Fortunately, image sub-chips are a new approach, a way to bypass high-density patent areas.

Thinking about it this way, he actually got a little excited.

While the ISP algorithms built into the SoC of existing flagship phones are certainly well optimized for photography, they are ultimately based on a universal platform.

If StarCraft can develop its own professional imaging chip, it can establish its own brand style based on this, and also implement features such as real-time night scene preview and high frame rate stable video HDR. At that time, it will truly have its own moat.

Add another set of imported custom optical lenses.

Is it feasible for smartphones to compete with mirrorless cameras?
……

(End of this chapter)