Bitauto original article mentioned that companies in many industries have crossed over to build cars. Today, let’s talk about car companies crossing over into other industries. The most typical one is making mobile phones. According to the latest news, Weilai mobile phone has selected the first batch of internal test quotas in the country. Combined with Geely’s earlier acquisition of Meizu, it also registered a mobile phone company; the most popular one is the Tesla mobile phone, which is said to be named Model π. It is linked to Starlink satellites, supports solar charging, and comes with its own brain-computer interface... Why are mobile phone manufacturers busy building cars across borders, but car companies still want to build mobile phones across borders? Are they really just food for others? Does it smell good?

NIO mobile phone has started internal user testing

In early February this year, a blogger broke the news that NIO City Event has begun to select the first batch of NIO mobile phone internal testing quotas in the country. Moreover, NIO mobile phone renderings were also exposed on social platforms.

Lenovo has previously stated that NIO’s co-founder and president Qin Lihong said that NIO’s mobile phone will start internal testing in the second quarter of this year and is expected to be officially released to the public in the third quarter of this year; and NIO Automobile has applied for The registration of the "NIO PHONE" trademark and the application for registration of the "NIO BUDS" and "NIO WATCH" trademarks all mean that NIO mobile phones may be officially launched soon.

It can be seen that the research and development progress of NIO mobile phones is still very fast. It has only been half a year since the establishment of NIO Mobile Technology Co., Ltd. in August 2022. As for product plans, Li Bin said at the NIO Day2022 event held in December last year that NIO plans to develop a new mobile phone every year, like Apple.

When asked about the purpose of NIO’s mobile phones, Li Bin also said, “We do not want to (compete with) Xiaomi and Huawei when making mobile phones. The logic is different. You can understand it as NIO With NIO Life, we are not going to be a clothing company or a food company, but focus on user needs and meet their usage scenarios based on our connection with users.”

Qin Lihong, President of NIO, also said. He emphasized, "We will never put ads in NIO phones, and we will never make money from advertising." I also believe this, because NIO has always put user experience first.

Regarding his views on building mobile phones, Li Bin also said frankly that Weilai is still not as good as mobile phone companies with annual sales of 100 million units, but "it is not difficult to build a mobile phone." The challenge is "how to make a useful one" cell phone". Judging from the current public information, NIO seems to have chosen the path of complete self-development and self-production. Although mobile phones are not as complex as cars, manufacturing them from scratch also requires a lot of investment.

However, high investment means high returns. With NIO’s brand tone and user class, the quality of mobile phones will not be too low. It is expected that the first mobile phone will be positioned as a high-end flagship, and the price will most likely exceed 5,000 yuan, or even 7,000 yuan.

Geely acquires Meizu to create an immersive car experience

Geely’s acquisition of Meizu occurred in July last year. Geely’s subsidiary Hubei Xingji Times Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Xingji Times) and Zhuhai Meizu Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Meizu Technology) jointly held a strategic investment signing ceremony in Hangzhou. Xingji Times holds a 79.09 controlling stake in Meizu Technology and becomes the actual controller of Meizu Technology.

According to the press conference, Xingji Times intends to develop high-end smartphones, XR (including AR/VR/MR, etc.) products, wearable smart terminal product research and development and ecological construction. The company has strategically invested in Meizu After technology, both parties will collaborate in depth and give full play to their respective advantages.

It goes without saying that Geely has advantages in car manufacturing, but it has always been a shortcoming in the software field. From Lynk & Co to Jikrypton, Geely's high-end brand models have never matched their performance in terms of car and machine experience.

The greatest value of Meizu is undoubtedly its operating system. As early as 2012, Meizu released Flyme 1.0, a smartphone operating and cloud service system based on Android. Until it was acquired by Geely, Flyme had always been It is Meizu’s core competitiveness.

Taking into account the trend of intelligence in the automotive industry and Meizu’s advantages in operating systems, Meizu Flyme Auto is likely to become Geely’s carrier for vehicle operating systems.

Li Shufu, chairman of Geely Holding Group, also said that currently, a new round of technological and industrial revolution has spawned a large number of new business formats and new models, and technological innovation and ecological integration in the consumer electronics industry and the automotive industry are imperative. . In the future, the tracks of the two industries of smart cars and smartphones will no longer be monotonous. They will no longer go their own way, but will form an integrated relationship with multiple terminals, full scenarios, and immersive experiences for all users. Geely’s acquisition of Meizu is precisely to bring users a “multi-terminal, full-scenario, immersive experience.”

The immersive experience here is likely to include Meizu’s XR technology application. For example, Meizu has applied for an invention patent titled “Risk Prompt Method, Device, AR Glasses and Storage Media”. That is, the risk warning information sent by the vehicle's machine is received through AR glasses; based on the risk warning information, the corresponding display method of the risk warning information is determined; and the risk warning information is displayed according to the display method to conduct risk assessment for the driver of the vehicle wearing AR glasses. Tip: Risk warning information can be displayed to drivers wearing AR glasses through AR glasses. The driver can see the risk warning information without moving his eyes, which can improve driving safety and user experience.

It is worth mentioning that some time ago, Shen Ziyu, vice chairman of Hubei Xingji Times Technology Co., Ltd. and chairman of Meizu Technology Co., Ltd., publicly stated in an interview: "Xingji Meizu mobile phone project, Meizu mobile phone headquarters project All businesses are progressing smoothly, and new high-end mobile phones and AR glasses are expected to be available to everyone in the first half of the year." It is reported that this high-end mobile phone is likely to focus on the high-end price range of more than 5,000 yuan. In the future, it will be integrated with Geely Automobile's ecology to realize the interconnection between the car and the mobile phone.

It has only been about a year and a half since Geely first announced the production of mobile phones. Compared with NIO starting from scratch, Geely's direct acquisition of Meizu is equivalent to "taking a shortcut" and can not only save a lot of upfront costs. R&D costs are also more stable and progress is faster. Let us look forward to Geely's performance in immersive car experience in the future.

Tesla Phone: Will the braggart’s promise be fulfilled?

Tesla’s making of mobile phones is something that many people are looking forward to, because it has many advantages, such as strong self-development capabilities in software and hardware, and an experience comparable to Apple; it is also good at charging, and even has solar power; There are also Starlink satellites all over the earth, which can provide global communication services without blind spots. Especially the last two are advantages that Apple does not have. So everyone is looking forward to the emergence of Tesla mobile phones.

Musk seemed to be responding to netizens’ suggestions. After acquiring Twitter last year, he said that he might produce a mobile phone himself. The reason is of course that Apple and Google want to remove the "unruly" Twitter App from the App Store. Musk responded: "I hope the situation will not become like that, but if it does, when there is no other choice, I will produce my own smartphone as a replacement.”

So there is a rendering video of the Tesla mobile phone “Tesla π” made by a netizen later, with an angular body and a The large area of ??metal material inherits the essence of our own electric pickup truck Cybertruck.

In terms of configuration, it will be equipped with a Snapdragon processor, run the PIOS operating system, have a 100-megapixel main camera lens, and up to 2TB of memory. It will also have a 4K resolution screen with a refresh rate of 144Hz. , supports LTPO adaptive refresh rate, battery capacity is only 4000mAh, but supports 200W wired charging and 100W wireless charging, surpassing all currently mass-produced models, and will also support solar charging and brain-computer interface...

Of course, the above is purely for the entertainment of netizens. In fact, the Tesla π mobile phone has not yet been revealed, but Tesla’s plan to build a mobile phone is not groundless.

As early as 2017, Tesla leaked a mobile phone concept map for the first time. Once released, it caused a sensation in the industry. Many people even claimed to "scare iPhone X to tears."

But at that time, Tesla was in a debt crisis and the plan was shelved.

In 2019, Telstra CEO Andy Payne revealed that Tesla has signed agreements with some of the world's largest smartphone parts manufacturers and intends to launch 5G mobile phones.

In 2021, Musk claimed that he did not like the existing two mainstream mobile phone systems, iOS and Android, and wanted to build his own system to provide users with an unprecedented user experience. There are even so-called insider reports that the first phone will be released as early as 2024.

In March 2021, a promotional video suspected of being a Tesla mobile phone also appeared on the Internet. According to the video, this mobile phone will be able to connect to Tesla cars and support functions such as connecting to brain-computer interfaces. It can even be mined, which looks very sci-fi.

Before acquiring Twitter, Musk also posted a message at the top of Twitter, to the effect that he was seeking technical personnel related to smartphones or smart watches to join the Neuralink brain-computer company.

Although the plan may be blocked again due to the three-year epidemic and chip issues, judging from Musk’s unconstrained thinking and strong action power, Tesla’s manufacturing of mobile phones is very likely to be true.

As for why Tesla wants to build mobile phones, is it just to give Twitter credit for not competing with others? The answer is obviously not that simple, and it is still related to the intelligence of the car. The car of the future will not only be a means of transportation, but also a part of our lives. However, Tesla lacks a carrier like the iPhone that can connect smart hardware such as cars, computers, watches, and homes in series. It is not even comparable to the many smart cars in China that currently use Android phones as carriers.

So, Model π is an indispensable part of the ecosystem for Tesla. In Musk’s product blueprint, mobile phones may be able to carry SpaceX Starlink and Neuralink brain-computer devices. , an important link connecting Tesla cars and other smart ecosystems.

Editor’s comment: It used to be said that there was a mountain between two lines, but now cars and mobile phones are connected intelligently, and the gap between the two parties is getting smaller and smaller. In the future, the smart car and smart phone industries will no longer go their separate ways, but will instead build an intelligent ecosystem around "car phones". Xiaomi's cross-border manufacturing of cars and NIO's cross-border manufacturing of mobile phones are just microcosms of the industry, but it is imperative to build its own smart ecosystem. To put it bluntly, it means comprehensively and deeply binding users. For example, I used to use a Xiaomi mobile phone when I was young. Later, all the smart home appliances at home were replaced by Mijia products. Although I no longer use Xiaomi mobile phones, the cost of replacing a house full of Mijia appliances is probably too high. Set for a lifetime.

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Note: The pictures in this article are from the Internet