The internal letter entitled "A New Journey of One Plus" announced that "under the unanimous suggestion of the core management team of One Plus and OPPO, we decided to merge the one plus team and the OPPO team". "
Secondly, the letter mentioned that "one plus needs to make changes" and "more powerful platforms and resources are needed to support the process of building more product lines, entering more product categories and building an Internet of Things ecosystem".
It is confirmed that at the beginning of June, there were a lot of news that OPPO registered the "OCAR" trademark on the Internet, and there were more inferences about the speculation that OPPO built a car.
Regarding how OPPO builds cars, as early as 20 19 OPPO INNODAY conference, Chen Mingyong once said, "Even if you build a car, you will focus on the areas where OPPO can do well." Similar to other mobile phone companies involved in building cars, OPPO may also be involved in automotive intelligent networking and autonomous driving technology by virtue of the advantages of the Internet of Things, software and hardware.
The news that OPPO Automobile Division has settled in Chengdu and OPPO has obtained a number of automobile-related intellectual property rights has been floating and spreading.
This is just one of the "series" stories of another mobile phone manufacturer and another Internet technology company.
Since the beginning of this year, Huawei, Xiaomi, Meizu and mobile phone manufacturers have successively announced their entry into the automobile industry. Internet giants such as Alibaba, Baidu and 360 have also taken many practical actions in building cars, and the ways of participating in building cars are also different, with different degrees of development.
Among them, Huawei has the largest volume, the widest influence and the most heated discussion. At the just past 202 1 Shanghai Auto Show, Huawei and Polar Fox jointly launched the Alpha S HI version of Polar Fox. At the same time, it also introduced a new generation of automotive intelligent components and solutions, including imaging radar, AR-HUD and high computing platform MDC8 10.
On June 5438+ 10, 2020, Huawei launched its own brand HI of smart car solutions, aiming at deep cooperation with car companies in an innovative mode through full-stack smart car solutions to create a boutique intelligent networked electric car.
Although in public, Huawei has repeatedly clarified that "Huawei does not build cars, but only makes incremental parts suppliers for smart cars. Help car companies build good cars. " There are still some doubts about the outside world's pre-judgment of its ability to build a car with soft and hard integration.
During the auto show, HI's new car went on the market, and Huawei continued to push the announcement of "no car" to a climax.
At the same time, Huawei began to sell cars. It is estimated that cars will be sold in 200 existing Huawei experience stores before the end of July, and the number will increase to more than 65,438+0,000 by the end of the year. Next year, Yu Chengdong has set a sales target of 300,000 units within the company.
Another company officially announced in March this year that it would build a car, which is the mobile phone manufacturer Xiaomi.
On March 30, Xiaomi officially announced the establishment of a car-making project. On April 6, Lei Jun launched a live webcast, revealing the details of the car-making project for the first time. He talked about Xiaomi logo, brand, Xiaomi model and pricing. These details are all "research" conclusions produced by online voting of rice noodles.
Xiaomi's public plan is to set up a wholly-owned automobile subsidiary, with Lei Jun as CEO, with an initial investment of 654.38+0 billion yuan and an investment of 654.38+0 billion US dollars in the next decade. "I hope to use high-quality smart electric vehicles to let users around the world enjoy the ubiquitous smart life."
On the strength of making cars, Xiaomi has a good starting point: an engineering team with more than 1 10,000 people, the third mobile phone business support in the world, the most perfect intelligent ecology, the cash balance of108 million, and most importantly, CEO Lei Jun.
Recently, it has been reported that Xiaomi has been in contact with many car companies including BYD and Great Wall to further implement the next car-making plan. Recruitment of personnel has begun.
There were Huawei and Xiaomi before, followed by Meizu and OPPO. Mobile phone manufacturers seem to have created an industry awareness, and they are convinced of the possibility of new business growth brought about by the prospect of building a car. Most of this possibility stems from the interoperability of mobile terminals in the intelligent era, such as network connection and automatic driving.
Those digital giants in the scientific and technological circles have been deeply involved in the field of car-making through the Internet in the initial embryonic stage.
Zebra Zhixing was founded on 20 14, which is a strategic cooperation between Alibaba and SAIC. At that time, it was announced to create a new category of Internet cars. Zebra Zhixing fully cooperates with Ali's technological and ecological advantages in the fields of voice, vision, chips, IoT, cloud computing, maps, payment, e-commerce and so on. And redefine the car with the car company. July 20 16, the world's first mass-produced roewe RX5 internet car was successfully released.
In mid-2020, Zebra Zhixing was reorganized and Ali became the largest shareholder. Zebra Network, in turn, owns the complete ownership and right to use the underlying architecture code of YunOS, which can be authorized by the automobile brand or its designated partner. This adjustment makes the new zebra brand equipped with AliOS technology further move towards the "ecological empowerment" mode of the car.
Then in June of the same year 165438+ 10, Zhiji automobile was launched, which is a vehicle enterprise jointly built by SAIC, Ali and Shanghai Pudong New Area.
Ali got the status of automobile manufacturer as he wished.
Baidu's popularity in the automotive field was originally started by the Apollo autopilot system.
This new plan was released in April, 2065438+2007. It aims to provide an open, complete and safe software platform for partners in the automotive industry and autonomous driving field, and help them to quickly build their own complete autonomous driving system by combining vehicles and hardware systems.
In September 2020, Apollo announced the official opening of the self-driving taxi service Radish Run in Beijing. Beijing users can make an appointment at Baidu Map and Apollo official website to experience Robotaxi, and the commercialization of Baidu Apollo autonomous driving has entered a substantial and rapid development period.
Today in April this year, 35 "Apollo" self-driving cars developed and manufactured by Baidu obtained commercial operation licenses for the first time.
In June, just a few days ago, Baidu held a conference to enjoy unmanned vehicles on the Apollo moon. The fifth generation of Baidu Apollo Robotaxi was officially unveiled. The new car is based on Extreme Fox Alpha T and named Apollo Moon.
Baidu's business related to vehicle manufacturing is realized in a joint venture with Geely.
In June of this year, 65438+ 10, Baidu announced the formal establishment of a smart car company, and entered the automobile industry as a vehicle manufacturer. Geely Holding Group became a strategic partner of the new company.
Baidu announced that it plans to invest 50 billion yuan in vehicle manufacturing in the next five years.
If capital and technology are invested, the technology giants are serious about building cars, which at least reflects their commitment to long-term investment in a protracted war.
This is also why the external communication of making cars has increasingly evolved into a declaration of strong investment in flag.
If we trace back to the source and trace back to when these enterprises started to set foot in the automobile field, I'm afraid it will really take some time to figure it out. It is common sense to say that it is difficult to build a car. So what changes have big factories and small factories experienced from obscurity to official high-profile announcement?
I can't help but think of the HarmonyOS OS recently released by Huawei. HarmonyOS OS, as a new generation of intelligent terminal operating system built by its own brand, can realize intelligent, interconnected and collaborative full-scene interactive experience of different devices. The design with mobile phone as the control center makes "interconnection" more concise, smooth and continuous.
Extreme Fox Alpha S Huawei Edition, embedded with HarmonyOS system 20.3 inch 4K touch widescreen lathe, can be interconnected with other intelligent devices of HarmonyOS system.
In fact, as early as July 2020, when BYD Korea went public, the OS system was already in the car.
Huawei HiCar system provides services based on HarmonyOS OS, and it is a vehicle-mounted platform for Huawei's intelligent efforts in vehicle networking. At that press conference, Huawei talked about the services provided by technologies such as 5G, AI and IoT in smart car travel, including the NFC car key function of mobile phones.
It is worth mentioning that the cooperation between mobile phone companies and car companies in the function of car keys is very typical. In addition to Huawei and BYD, there are Xiaomi and Xpeng Motors, OPPO and Li.
Although this is only one of the small scenes of the integration between mobile terminals, with the continuous progress of intelligent networking technology, the intelligence and convenience brought by the integration of mobile phones and cars are enough to give people imagination space for the "Internet of Everything".
In August of 20 19, Huawei released the "White Paper on Huawei HiCar Ecology", claiming that Huawei HiCar provides a seamless interconnection solution for people, cars and homes, combining the ecology of the whole intelligent terminal with cars and homes, and turning cars into the third living space.
Technically, the parts that can be landed include hardware mobile phones, as well as cockpit parts such as car central control big screen, dashboard and HUD. The core part is the software and operating system that support the system operation.
This white paper initiated the popular trend of mobile terminal convergence and became one of the car-making concepts adopted to varying degrees.
It should be said that Huawei gives a concrete example of mobile terminal convergence. At the present stage when smart cars enter the accelerated growth period, it is a more convincing definition mode of ecological products.
It is reported that at present, more than 20 hardware manufacturers and more than 280 application manufacturers have participated in the ecological construction of HarmonyOS system ecology. It is estimated that in 20021year, there will be more than 40 mainstream brands and more than 65,438+billion devices, which will become the new entrance of HarmonyOS OS experience.
Mobile phone+car shows the most timely entry point in the business opportunities of the Internet of Things.
The most timely means that the development of smart cars has reached a critical stage of reshaping product definition, usage scenario definition and even ecological definition, which is almost acquiesced by the industry as a subversion of the leading characteristics of product hardware in the past.
What product characteristics should be used to embody "intelligence" and digitalization, what network connection properties the new mobile terminal has, how to shape the corresponding services, and how to rebuild and consolidate the software and hardware, especially the software technology, determine the future business model of the automobile as a new mobile terminal.
With the all-round development of 4G to 5G networks, smart phones have enough samples for reference in software and hardware fields such as chips, cameras, sensors, operating systems and display screens. Even in the supply chain system, they share resources with smart cars.
Although vehicle manufacturing and mobile phone manufacturing still belong to different fields, compared with other industries, smart phones and smart cars are indeed more practical.
Digital giants often occupy the commanding heights of technology collections based on big data, and data is the "blood" of networked systems and autonomous driving products. Products based on digital technology, no matter what definition or feature system they present, are essentially the running-in and evolution process between data and product features.
This is a brand-new product logic and definition paradigm. Imagine how to achieve machine learning without data and how to achieve automatic driving?
Therefore, being able to control the dominance of the data value chain in the digital age is the core of future business logic and a necessary strategic choice.
For car-making enterprises, for example, Zhizao Automobile declared at the beginning of its establishment that the brand will be based on building the world's first enterprise form, creating future companies with users, driving value creation with user data, and creating product value and brand value with users.
Users will become the drivers of the whole business chain of R&D, production, manufacturing, marketing and other enterprises. Through data interaction with users, enterprises will build a brand-new ecology with users.
Smart cars with Ali genes have the advanced thinking power of technology companies: data is the basis of value production. At the same time, use data to establish close contact with users, and generate and enjoy data value. It has laid a unique brand ecology of "user * * *".
It is conceivable that in the future, as the holders of mobile terminal systems, with the deepening of user education, such as stricter data usage norms and data security legislation, the standards for judging data value will become higher and higher. In the whole life cycle of product use, users will inevitably participate in more initiative and creativity in the use of data.
In the business model of intelligent car-building, there is enough value creation potential of digital drawing, which depends on how to define the "third space" with numbers.
When 360 made a joint car with Nezha Auto, it claimed to "continue to pursue the concept of Internet users first, the ultimate experience, and products are king, and then build cars for the people."
The concept of building a car is "guided by the thinking of the Internet, empowered by the concept of the Internet, and assisted by the technology of the Internet".
As the primary productive force, scientific and technological innovation in internet plus era has released an unimaginable huge driving force for value creation.
The difficulty is that to completely reshape the product form of a brand-new software-defined automobile requires highly integrated scientific and technological potential and innovative ideas. What's more, this new thing needs innovation in many fields such as energy, transportation and manufacturing.
It's not easy to talk about the road when building a car. There is no ready-made model, or any product can be called a model, even if it can be compared with the existing product definition, manufacturing level and commercial format of fuel vehicles.
The century-old history of fuel vehicles has also experienced the evolution of manufacturing technology from workshop production to large-scale industrial mass production, and the maturity of value chain is cultivated in time.
According to industry analysis, at present, the new energy automobile industry has crossed the initial wild era and entered the so-called lead-in period, which is the development and elimination period of hard power competition.
As Li described in his 2025 strategy, this will soon become a knockout match like the football World Cup, and each brand will face a group match and a knockout round.
The fundamental change of ideas, self-sufficiency of resources and practical methods need to be further explored and tested. Mobile phone companies and internet companies keep claiming that the opportunities to build cars in the market seem great, and the challenges are endless. To sum up, some thresholds determine the player's "magnitude".
First, referring to the market volume and market segments of fuel vehicles, the market concentration of new energy vehicles varies greatly. The head effect has been highlighted, and the head car enterprises and technology car-making enterprises that have entered the market will accelerate the occupation of superior resources and push up the entry cost of the whole industry;
Second, high-end brands are the overall choice, but in the case of unclear product technology definition roadmap, at least there are no overwhelming product features, especially software differentiation, and there are more problems. The market will have a long test period on how to standardize and benefit users who approve or disapprove;
Third, the question of Qian Qian's money. The whole raw material supply chain is rising in price, and the cost of building a car will be higher and higher. In the increasingly fierce competition, the possibility of profit is even more worrying and the payback period of investment is longer.
Fourth, user-centered means redefining "experience", and users will participate in decision-making to a great extent. Enterprises will face more market uncertainty and complexity in products, technology and management.
Fifth, it is difficult to match the problems of talent, organization and ability in a short time. On the one hand, new skilled talents are scarce, and the demand for people with high cross-border knowledge such as data, autonomous driving and artificial intelligence has greatly increased, which cannot be solved at once for a long time to come. New ways of digital work organization and cooperation also need time to match and train.
In addition, in addition to the above internal and external environmental considerations, whether the car-making enterprises are aware of the key to mode selection. For example, the problem faced by Xiaomi is the realistic path of how to build a car in the future.
Whether to build your own factory, or find a foundry company, or a joint venture with a car company. Once a huge investment is made in building a car, a lot of time and resources are needed for technology selection, product definition and supply chain determination. And the cost of trial and error is extremely high. Money is on the one hand, and time is the biggest consumption.
I believe that, in general, both mobile phone manufacturers and Internet technology enterprises with existing resource advantages have a chance to succeed: it is the goal of * * * to build cars with the least cost, the most superior resources and capabilities, the most agile organizational form and the fastest speed.
As the reference system of traditional automobile enterprises, scientific and technological enterprises have a high starting point: they have created successful business models, internet genes and efficient internal driving forces, and internalized them into their own unique management models, products and customer service systems.
But at the same time, the changes of the times have also created higher goals.
This series of stories about making cars may be just the beginning. I don't know who the next new entrant will be or what to do next.
Say so much, is it really a car? Seeing in the future is believing.