BlackBerry, which has not been in the public eye for a long time, suddenly became a hot topic in the news for selling 90 patents to Huawei.
According to a British media report, on January 12, BlackBerry sold 90 U.S.-registered and security-related communication technology patents to the Chinese company Huawei, and received the approval of BlackBerry CFO Steve Rai. confirmed.
This news sent a signal and also raised a question mark.
One signal is that BlackBerry has finally begun to deal with its discontinued mobile phone business-related assets. A brand that once captured 20% of the global market and 50% of the North American market with its full-keyboard mobile phones. Although it stopped its mobile phone business a few years ago, its pre-planned acquisitions during its peak period allowed it to subsequently expand in smart devices and network security businesses. Show off your skills. Especially before the outbreak of the new crown epidemic in 2020, BlackBerry, which made a big bet on corporate network security, caught up with the general trend of remote working. After selling nearly a hundred mobile phone patents this time, BlackBerry is considered to continue to "soften." ”, moving closer to enterprise-level businesses and services.
Another question mark is that Huawei, the focus of the Sino-US game, purchased 90 patents from a company that once provided mobile phones for the US president. What does this mean? How will these 90 patents work? Will it be related to Hongmeng system?
In this regard, Zijinshan Technology consulted several industry insiders, but their opinions were different.
The first BlackBerry device "BlackBerry 850" launched by RIM in 1999, although it did not support calling functions, it gained frequent popularity due to its convenient and real-time mobile email service and ultra-low energy consumption. Favored by business people on business trips. Looking at its history, it is not difficult to find that its first major customers were Merrill Lynch (one of the world's leading securities retailers and investment banks) and Salomon Brothers (a famous Wall Street investment bank), which played a significant role in opening up a larger market. influence.
By 2000, RIM had raised more than $1 billion in funding with this mobile email service and began investing in mobile phone research and development. There are reports that even during the September 11 incident in 2002, when some mobile phone and pager networks completely collapsed, BlackBerry terminals were still able to maintain email services slowly but steadily.
Since 2003, a series of BlackBerry mobile phones have been launched. Its iconic full keyboard design and real-time and convenient email functions have become the two most prominent features of BlackBerry mobile phones. With these two features, as well as its safety and reliability, it even became Obama’s exclusive mobile phone when he was president of the United States.
Leveraging the president’s influence and unique positioning, BlackBerry once captured 55% and 20% of the US mobile phone market and the global mobile phone market respectively.
After Apple launched the first iPhone in 2007, the smartphone era quietly began. This was the heyday of BlackBerry. According to foreign media reports, BlackBerry management believed that the iPhone’s battery life, The full-screen virtual keyboard is not as good as the BlackBerry, and it consumes power (it needs to be charged if it cannot last 24 hours, which is far lower than the battery life of the BlackBerry), and it will cause a huge increase in network traffic (it is even thought that the operator's network will be overwhelmed) , so we are not sufficiently alert to the impact of the smartphone trend.
In the following years, the rapid growth of smartphones based on iOS and Android systems turned the traditional mobile phone market upside down. Various APPs emerged in endlessly, higher bandwidth mobile networks and more convenient APP experiences. BlackBerry, which has a full keyboard and mobile email as its specialty, has been pushed out of the market.
In 2012, BlackBerry's share of the global mobile phone market had dropped from 20 to 5. So much so that in order to reverse the decline in performance, BlackBerry had to abandon its iconic full keyboard design and switch to the Android camp.
The most well-known of its Android models in China is the BlackBerry KEY2. Its main feature is "the most secure Android phone". Users can encrypt all account information on the phone and store it in a high-strength local password box. , enter your fingerprint to call up the password in the password box and use it conveniently in the application. The keyboard adopts a redesigned and highly efficient QWERTY full keyboard, and even introduces the iFlytek voice input method. Users only need to hold down the MIC key for voice input.
However, its not-low price combined with other comprehensive features makes it considered more suitable for professional business people and loyal BlackBerry fans.
Obviously, the small market failed to support BlackBerry's big ideals. After BlackBerry licensed its mobile phone brand to TCL, its focus shifted to the fields of enterprise, Internet of Things, and security software.
During this period, the acquisition of QNX was regarded by the industry as BlackBerry’s wisest move. Originally used for industrial control systems, QNX later became the basis for many electrical systems in automobiles, supporting applications such as entertainment systems and driver assistance systems, as well as air traffic control and medical equipment.
With continued investment in network security, in 2019, by spending US$1.4 billion to acquire Cylance, an artificial intelligence network security company, BlackBerry's total revenue in the second quarter of 2020 reached US$244 million.
Today’s BlackBerry has become an intellectual property and Internet of Things software company, and is trying to become a giant in the field of network security.
In the public news, there is no mention that the 90 communication technology patents from BlackBerry purchased by Huawei will be related to its development of Hongmeng. But privately, many people believe that BlackBerry once "put down its posture" and used compatibility with Android applications as a transitional stage in the process of building its own ecosystem, "which is similar to Huawei's Hongmeng system."
Regarding whether these patents will be used for the development of Hongmeng and Huawei’s Hongmeng technical route, Zijinshan Technology consulted several different people from inside and outside the circle.
In the opinion of "Sun Dasheng", the person in charge of the well-known KOL "stupid", the BlackBerry was compatible with Android and the Huawei Hongmeng is now compatible with Android. There are indeed similarities in "one-click transplantation". Like BlackBerry, Hongmeng is developed for Android. The author gave the function of "developing Android applications requires only one or two or three steps to be compatible with this system." However, if there is no source code, it remains to be considered whether such a large number of transplanted Android applications will involve intellectual property issues. The acquisition of BlackBerry patents can reduce such risks to a certain extent.
He explained that on the developer side, BlackBerry's support for Android apps is achieved through repackaging. BlackBerry provides developers with Android Runtime. The APK package must be recompiled into a BAR file and submitted to App World. This process must be completed by the developer himself. He also owns the copyright of the source code in his hand, so it is not easy to transplant the things he develops. Break the law.
However, BlackBerry’s support for Android applications is implemented through virtual machines. Doing so will inevitably mean sacrificing performance. For example, in applications that are directly related to user experience, such as games, the user experience will be somewhat different or even obvious. decline, "Since users want to buy an Android phone, why not buy a phone that supports native Android applications?"
In addition, Android applications will lose most of their hardware functions after being converted into BlackBerry applications, such as Bluetooth, microphone, camera, NFC, VoIP, etc., we do not rule out the possibility of BlackBerry improving its technology to map the above interfaces to its own devices, but the process will be difficult.
"Unless the result of conversion or compatibility is achieved, manufacturers can achieve the same experience or better functions as Android native, but this is almost impossible. For example, the four cameras supported by Android system Function, it is difficult to achieve the same support in transplanted or compatible systems. I think this is also a key to the success of the Hongmeng ecosystem. ”
However, in the view of the technical director of Baiyou Factory, Hongmeng. The main target customers are not mobile phone manufacturers. How to take the technical route is secondary. First, establishing a firm foothold in business is more important.
This is also a practical consideration for Hongmeng to be led by the marketing and sales department rather than the development department. On the one hand, if the development process and development route are led by the development department, the cost is very, very high. The Chinese have not made any achievements in operating systems for many years. The main reason is that this process is difficult to complete. No matter what kind of investment takes this process, At most, there will be a few prototype versions, similar to college student homework or research projects, "and then there will be no more."
Therefore, if you want to successfully develop a product with relatively high technological content, you must first target target customers, be able to sell it, collect money, and continue to develop it. This is somewhat technological. Only products can survive and gradually grow.
“If we compare Huawei’s operating system development capabilities with foreign open source foundations, Google and other companies, the gap may still be relatively large (although Huawei is now an important developer of Linux), but Huawei’s market comparison with them The layout, sales execution, market share operation, etc., can probably be at least evenly matched."
As for how Huawei starts from the home appliance operating system market and how to reach the mobile phone operating system market, this is the middle ground. How the process goes is probably a market issue.
“At least, this is not an absolute technical issue.”
Just as whether Hongmeng will leverage BlackBerry’s dozens of patents has aroused curiosity and heated discussions in the industry, there is another The news in 2020 was "revealed" by netizens:
In August 2020, Onward Mobility, which took over the BlackBerry mobile phone brand (BlackBerry) after TCL, announced that there will be a model that supports 5G networks in 2021. A BlackBerry-branded smartphone is born, running Android and even retaining the iconic physical keyboard.
It is said that this BlackBerry mobile phone, which still focuses on security and is aimed at business people, will be produced by FIH Mobile, a subsidiary of Foxconn, and is expected to be launched in North America and Europe in the first half of 2021.