From folding screen mobile phone to car, humanoid bionic robot, Xiaomi's brand of high -end brand

"China Economic Weekly" reporter Zhou Qi | Beijing report

On the evening of August 11th, the 2022 Lei Jun's annual speech was held in Beijing. This is the third time the founder, chairman and CEO of Xiaomi Group made an annual speech. New smart hardware new product.

In addition to the new -generation flagship mobile phone MIX FOLD 2 and Redmi K50 Extreme Edition released at this press conference, what is also concerned about Xiaomi has disclosed the latest progress of self -developed autonomous driving technology for the first time, and launched the first full -size full size Cyberone, bionic bionic robot. Lei Jun said that Xiaomi's R & D expenses this year are expected to reach 17 billion yuan, a significant increase of 13.5 billion in the previous year. In the next 5 years, Xiaomi's total investment is expected to exceed 100 billion yuan.

People in the industry believe that the continuous investment in R & D will bring more breakthroughs to Xiaomi's future high -end development.

Folding screen, a new opportunity for domestic mobile phones?

In recent years, "high -end" has been one of the most frequently mentioned vocabulary in domestic mobile phone brands, but there are few successful people. Apple, the most profitable company in the global technology industry, has also become the target of domestic mobile phone brands that want to surpass.

After recent years of hard work and attempts, some domestic mobile phone brands have realized that it is difficult to gain a foothold in the high -end market only on the hardware level and the so -called "super" configuration. The folding screen mobile phone leads the technological innovation of the mobile phone industry in an innovative form, allowing domestic brands to see the hope of surpassing Apple and standing steadily.

According to data from market research institutions (IDC), global smartphone shipments have declined for four consecutive quarters. In the second quarter of 2022, global smartphone shipments were 286 million units, a year -on -year decrease of 8.7%, compared to 8.7%, compared to 8.7%, compared with It is expected to decrease by 3.5%. However, folding screen products have maintained a trend of high -speed growth. In the first half of 2022, domestic folding screen mobile phone shipments exceeded 1.1 million units, an increase of about 70%year -on -year.

On August 11, Mix Fold 2 launched by Xiaomi is exactly a folding screen flagship phone. Lei Jun said at the press conference that the problem of poor experience and heavy feel is the "last mile" that folded screens towards practicality. Xiaomi MIX FOLD 2 successfully brought a thin user experience with Xiaomi's self -developed micro -drip shaft structure, so that the folding screen was made to make the folding screen. Mobile phones are more likely to become mainstream choices.

Some media commented: "If the success of the Xiaomi 12S series before is a Great Leap Forward in the high -end market, then the launch of MIX Fold 2 this time represents Xiaomi has the opportunity to lead the high -end market."

One month ago, Xiaomi and Leica, the "luxury brand" in the photography industry, launched the flagship mobile phone Xiaomi 12S Ultra. This can't help but remind people of Lei Jun's pride: "Our goal is to compete with Apple completely in terms of products and experience, and will become China's largest high -end brand in the next three years."

On July 7, 2022, in Shanghai, citizens experienced Xiaomi Mi 12S Ultra in Xiaomi and Leica's professional image flagship mobile phone in Xiaomi.

In Lei Jun's view, the road of high -end is the only way for Xiaomi's growth and the battle for life and death of Xiaomi's development.

In fact, Xiaomi has groped for more than two years in the high -end market. In January 2019, Xiaomi proposed the development strategy of double brands on mobile phones. Among them, the Redmi brand focuses on the cost -effective mass market and the Xiaomi brand sprint high -end market.

The achievements brought by entering the high -end market are significant. According to the financial report, in 2021, in the case of global cores, Xiaomi's global mobile phone shipments and market share have increased again, with annual shipments of 190 million units and a market share of 14.1%. Among them, high -end smartphones worldwide shipments exceeded 24 million units, achieving double growth.

For Xiaomi's high -end route, the industry has different prospects for its future. However, from the perspective of Huawei's development path, it also experienced a long time before the high -end mobile phone market competes with Apple and Samsung on the same stage. Until Huawei's series of independent and controllable hard technology formed a brand voice, Only being recognized by the market.

In order to make up for the shortcomings, self -developed chips and joint development have always been the focus of Xiaomi. In recent years, Xiaomi's self -developed ISP (image signal processing) chip surging C1, fast -charging chip surging P1, battery management chip surging G1, etc. have been put into the market, Xiaomi's chip map has been initially established.

Anxin Securities analyst Jiao Juan analyzed that according to Xiaomi 2021 annual report data, benefiting from high -end strategies, Xiaomi's gross profit margin of the Internet of Things business has been slightly improved, and the gross profit margin of Internet services has increased significantly by 14.5 percentage points to 76.1%. The number of monthly living users of the Mijia APP reached 63.9 million, an increase of 42%year -on -year; the number of "little love classmates" monthly living users was 107 million, an increase of 23.3%year -on -year; 430 million, a year -on -year increase of 33.6%.

Constant scientific and technological scenes

For Xiaomi, the brand must really go to the high -end, relying on the single market of mobile phone hardware slightly. Even if Apple does not include ecological hardware such as wearable devices, software revenue alone has reached nearly half of the iPhone hardware income.

For 12 years, Xiaomi has been building a continuous extension of scientific and technological scenes, from smartphones to wearable devices, smart homes, and then to the first disclosure of autonomous driving technology, the first full -sized human bionic robot Cyberone, Xiaomi already owns Very rich smart terminal.

In recent years, "Auto+Mobile" has become the "standard standard" mentioned by more and more Internet manufacturers. The two industries that were clearly distinguished now have unprecedented integration. From Apple, Huawei to Tesla, Weilai, the ecology of mobile phones+cars, allowing mobile phone manufacturers and car manufacturers to produce many "ideas", and it has also become another fusion of mobile phones and cars to high -end.

However, among many manufacturers, there are many sounds of their sounds, and there are few people who can really land.

It is reported that in the field of intelligent electric vehicles, Xiaomi chose to cut into the field of autonomous driving in the most difficult technical difficulty, adopts a full stack self -development algorithm, and develops autonomous driving technology. At present, it has achieved excellent progress. The scale of the exclusive team has exceeded 500, and it is expected to exceed 600 by the end of the year. And if you add upstream and downstream enterprises such as autonomous driving solutions, core sensors, core actuators, and domain controllers, Xiaomi's total investment and related investment in the field of autonomous driving has exceeded 5.3 billion yuan.

Recently, there are media reports that Xiaomi has finalized two main new energy vehicle battery suppliers, namely the Ningde era Kirin battery and BYD blade battery. Previously, according to Lei Jun disclosed at the press conference, it is expected that in 2024, Xiaomi Motors can achieve offline and mass production.

The bionic robot Cyberone fully presents the technology ecosystem of Xiaomi. As the "Pearl of the Crown of Manufacturing", humanoid bionic robots have always been recognized as the ultimate goals in the field of robotics.

"The intelligence and mechanical capabilities behind Cyberone are all developed by the Xiaomi Robot Laboratory. There are countless software, hardware, and algorithms behind it. The carrier is Xiaomi's exploration of the future technology ecology, and it is also a new result of Xiaomi's diversified fusion technology system.

"Xiaomi is building a brand new 'technology ecology' to continuously integrate and evolve technology systems, through all smart scenarios and terminals, and closely connect people and everything." For Xiaomi's future Essence From smartphones, to wearable devices, smart homes, to smart manufacturing, smart electric vehicles and bionic robots, Xiaomi is building a continuous extension of scientific and technological scenes and provides rich smart terminals. Focusing on human life and work, it is better to serve others and closely connect people and all things. This is the core idea of ​​Xiaomi technology ecology.

Responsible editor | Guo Yiyao

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