Article丨Lanshuo Technology
This is a well-known but full of doubts. It is well known that there are many factors why domestic mobile phone manufacturers do not develop chips, among which in addition to technical threshold and In addition to the two major difficulties of related technical talents, they are also inextricably related to the long-term operation routes of major brands. In short, if you ask domestic mobile phone manufacturers why they do not develop chips, they have many reasons, and these reasons cannot be refuted by the public and even professionals! Although everyone has heard about the difficulty of developing chips through the popularization of Internet information, I still see many people on social platforms wondering about this. How can a small chip become the development path of major manufacturers? stumbling block? What conditions must be met before major manufacturers are willing to start developing chips?
In fact, such doubts did not arise overnight. When Apple’s A-series chips began to shine and start to scare Qualcomm, some relevant people in China made predictions, “A-series bionic chips will become Apple’s A powerful weapon! "The success of Apple's self-developed chips will form an abyss, and this abyss will isolate other competitors, thereby creating an empire of Apple's own!" The details will not be uploaded because of its age. All in all, it was roughly at this stage that some "unfounded" people analyzed that Apple's A-series bionic chips are like a fortress, firmly protecting Apple. Apple will have unique advantages in the future competition, so Domestic mobile phones should actively follow suit and build their own fortress and ecosystem! However, such remarks were completely classified as bad-mouthing at the time, and they were soon submerged in the whirlpool of saliva!
The past is like smoke and time flies by. I believe whether the analysis at that time was correct should be verified today. However, the past is the past after all, and it is too late to mention it now! However, Apple’s success is enough to prove that the path of self-developed chips is correct. So today, when the level of technology is not what it used to be, why have no other mobile phone manufacturers except Huawei developed their own chips? Have they started developing chips? In fact, no one has thought about developing chips, such as Xiaomi and OPPO. According to information, they have all had the same idea. Among them, Xiaomi has developed and installed it, but there is still no news about The Paper 2 until now. In addition, the time interval is too long. Although Lei Jun has always emphasized that it is in research and development, netizens have lost patience and regarded it as a joke.
Xiaomi’s self-developed Pengpai chip seems to be a knot in Lei Jun’s mind. Although he has publicly expressed his difficulties, it is still regarded as a joke by netizens, but I believe it is definitely not a joke in the eyes of industry insiders. Most of them will be tears and sadness. For comparison, here is an example from Apple. I believe everyone has heard that Apple plans to develop its own baseband chips. As a newbie in the field of baseband, Apple does not have advantages in related fields like Huawei, so Apple wants to develop its own. Baseband chips need to start from 0, but if you really start from 0, you will definitely miss the opportunity and competitive advantage. Therefore, we found two certain and two pieces of information that I am not sure about among various revelations and information. There are 4 numbers involved in this information, one is 1 billion euros (approximately 7 billion yuan), one is 1 billion US dollars (approximately 6.5 billion yuan), one is 16 billion US dollars, and the other is 430 billion US dollars!
With an investment of 1 billion euros, Apple plans to invest 1 billion euros in Munich, Germany, to build a European chip design center. This new R&D center will focus on the development of 5G and future wireless technologies. For $1 billion, Apple acquired Intel’s smartphone 5G baseband business and gained approximately 2,200 Intel employees, intellectual property and equipment. US$16 billion is Apple’s R&D investment in 2019, and this figure is close to Huawei’s R&D investment of 100 billion in the same period. 430 billion U.S. dollars is Apple’s R&D expenses that it plans to use to develop and promote the 5G semiconductor industry (baseband, rumors) within 5 years. From these sets of numbers, regardless of whether the baseband is true or false, if you add them together, those who understand mathematics can do the math. How many millets is it equivalent to?
All in all, Apple has paid so much for a baseband, which still requires the consent of companies that have established advantages in other related fields, such as Qualcomm. Qualcomm has many key patents in related fields, so if it violates Qualcomm's patents , Apple may have to spend more money.
As the saying goes, talking about money hurts feelings, so let’s not talk about whether Xiaomi has money or not. Apart from Apple, there are probably only a handful of people who dare to be so arrogant! This is not the point. The point is that if you plant a tree, it may not bear fruit! This is also a factor why major domestic mobile phone manufacturers plan to develop chips but are hesitant! In addition, there is another factor that is very important, and that is the previous relationship with local companies. Although saying this may touch some people’s hearts, I also believe that everyone should be well aware of certain things! Why did no one stand up to speak for Huawei when it was sanctioned? Almost all local companies choose to remain silent, while foreign companies "speak" for Huawei because of their interests. Why is this?
I remember a famous person once said this, a person who is good at calculating, everyone is a villain in his eyes! I think this should be the most realistic portrayal of the relationship between major local companies! They are all smart and calculating, and they have all found a shortcut to "success", which is to climb higher by stepping on other people's corpses! Although the fact that Huawei was sanctioned is really disturbing, do you know? When Texas Instruments and MediaTek issued invitations to major mobile phone manufacturers to learn from each other's strengths and jointly develop chips, they all chose to turn a blind eye. As a result, Texas Instruments, which could overlook Qualcomm, withdrew from the stage, and MediaTek was forced to choose foreign countries. And the indifference of many domestic mobile phones has directly led to Qualcomm becoming stronger and bigger, and even blocked the way out for latecomers!
Chip research and development is an industry that requires continuous investment and will not pay off in a short period of time. In addition to continuous investment of funds, you also need a large number of talents. Take Jim Keller, who is known as the "Silicon Fairy" in the industry. (He is the founder of Apple's A series, AMD Zen series and Tesla FSD chips). Although his annual salary has always been a mystery, according to folk rumors, it is at least tens of millions of dollars in annual salary! If such a person chooses to train, it will also be a heavy burden for the company. The key point is that he may still be poached! Of course, this may be due to euphemism and does not give a positive result, because this is also a well-known result in everyone's mind. If such a talent is cultivated in a local company, I guess there is no need to wait for him to become a talent, and he may be halfway through. Kill a Cheng Yaojin!
Although the phenomenon of poaching is very common, even Apple often has employees poached, but Apple has a huge foundation after all. If it were other small and medium-sized enterprises, the loss of talent would undoubtedly be a fatal blow. In the development process of our science and technology, many companies with great potential have perished in the long river of history! Regret and sympathy are nothing but a joke to "friends and businessmen"! Therefore, domestic mobile phone manufacturers will not touch the development of chips if they can, and avoid them if they can. If they cannot be avoided, I think most people will choose to transform and not touch this thing! So is it possible to follow Apple's example and raise funds and use other investors' money to do this? Haha, people who have this idea are probably too young! A small leader in the marketing department of Alibaba founded by Jack Ma still needs female employees to understand human resources to do their jobs. So if they want to become investors, shouldn't they be treated as ancestors? Finally, I want to say that the essential reason why domestic mobile phone manufacturers do not engage in chip research and development is that local companies know too much about human nature!