On September 28, Hubei Xingji times Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Xingji times), which is 55% owned by Li Shufu, the helmsman of Geely Automobile, signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone, officially announcing its entry into the mobile phone industry and benchmarking the global market. In an era when capital scrambles to enter the automobile industry, it seems puzzling that Geely, a traditional automobile enterprise, acted against the trend. There are various speculations in the industry: some people put it in the same school as Gree and think that Geely's mobile phone is a loss making business of "laymen"; Others believe that Geely's entry into the mobile phone industry is a defensive attack on mobile phone manufacturers. On October 13, sun Yanbiao, chairman of Xuri big data, exclusively disclosed to the IT times that he had just met Geely's mobile phone team. Many members are "familiar faces" in the mobile phone industry. According to his understanding, Geely has a firm attitude towards making mobile phones, and does not take the OEM method. After preparing for full independent R & D, the mobile phone R & D center is located in Shanghai. The reporter of it times searched qixinbao and found that on September 8, a company called Shanghai platinum Star Technology Co., Ltd. was established. The legal representative is Wang Yong, and Li Shufu holds 72% of the shares. The equity organization and legal representative are similar to that of Xingji era, and the establishment time is even earlier than that of Wuhan company. On the same day, the reporter of it times learned from local people in Wuhan that the headquarters of Geely mobile phone project is located in Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone, and the factory should be in the preparatory period. Many professionals in the mobile phone industry are not surprised that Geely makes mobile phones. In the opinion of Li Nan, founder of Meilan brand and with many years of mobile phone experience, the focus of the whole industrial pattern in the future is interconnection. There is no "well water does not offend river water" between mobile phone manufacturers and car enterprises, and even "if mobile phones are not made well, smart cars may not be made well". Will the mobile phone be an idle child on Li Shufu's "chessboard"? Up to now, Li Shufu has at least been in addition to cars, but also satellite, chip, flying car, and smart wear closely related to mobile phones are also in the "legend". However, compared with Lei Jun, who publicly said that he would start a second business "building a car", Li Shufu did not show the same radicality on mobile phones. Savage "laymen" are knocking on each other's doors. Who will eventually enter the house? Geely mobile phones have begun to recruit It has to be said that Geely's desire to make mobile phones is very urgent. Various signs show that Geely has begun to recruit troops long before the official announcement. A programmer who just got Geely's mobile phone offer told the IT times that the team has just been established and the working hours have not been confirmed. The news from the interviewer is that the initial idea is to combine with the car, but it is not clear how to call. In the initial stage, the product may be made first according to the traditional mobile phone method, thinking and doing at the same time. Technically, Geely should build a mobile cloud platform, but it is also in the stage from 0 to 1. On the recruitment website 51job, two recruitment notices of Geely mobile phone Wuhan Factory show that "Geely mobile phone Wuhan factory recruits ordinary workers, whose Posts involve recruitment of digital product assembly, machine operation, digital product quality inspection, digital product packaging, logistics and transportation, etc." the salary is higher than that of ordinary electronic factories, reaching 8000-12000 yuan per month, and provides food and accommodation. Source: 51job However, an intermediary in charge of recruitment told reporters that at present, the recruitment of Geely mobile phone factory has been suspended, and it should still be in the preparation period of the new factory. It is not known when to resume. Another intermediary revealed that Geely's mobile phone factory had recruited a number of equipment management workers before, and then stopped. However, he said that Geely had high requirements for new employees, and the interview pass rate was very low, "it's difficult to enter". On October 10, in the second round of centralized land supply activities in Wuhan, plots P (2021) 097, 098 and 099 located in the eco smart city of economic development were won by Wuhan Zhongda Fengding Technology Service Co., Ltd., Wuhan Huanfu Industrial Co., Ltd. and Wuhan lutes Technology Co., Ltd. Some media pointed out that these three plots are the supporting land for lutes headquarters to land in Wuhan. Previously, on August 31, Lotus Cars officially announced that its global headquarters was located in Wuhan Economic Development Zone. Source: microblog Lutes is a super running brand acquired by Geely in 2017. On August 13 this year, according to Changjiang Daily, lutes intelligent factory, which will be completed and put into operation this year, is located in the core area of Wuhan Economic Development Zone and is committed to building a world-class R & D and production base of ultra-high-end intelligent vehicles. Lutes intelligent factory covers an area of 1526 mu. Lutes will accelerate innovation in three electric technology, intelligent driving, intelligent manufacturing and other fields, and build ultra-high-end pure electric intelligent vehicles for the world. Some local media in Wuhan speculated that Geely mobile phone may settle here from the perspective of vehicle machine integration. The reporter asked Geely mobile phone for confirmation. As of press time, no accurate reply had been received. What is the intention? To be a high-end mobile phone, you have to climb three "mountains" From the currently known information, Geely mobile phone is still in the stage of making strategy, setting up a team and investigating the market. However, "Geely's attitude is very clear," Sun Yanbiao said. "It is to nibble at the high-end market share vacated by Huawei." However, it is not easy to nibble at Huawei's empty high-end market share. Xiaochong (a pseudonym), a senior mobile phone industry practitioner, told reporters that after Huawei was limited by chips, several large mobile phone manufacturers wanted to take over the domestic high-end mobile phone market, but almost all failed. "Only Xiaomi has won a little share," he said. "Vivo and glory have not been successful." "But it's not completely without opportunities," said the bug, who has been working on mobile phones for more than ten years. Success depends on the team. In his opinion, the reason why LETV mobile phones, which were popular in the early years, were once popular was that Lenovo dug up a complete mobile phone team at that time. If it were not for the subsequent collapse of LETV ecological chain, it might not have been successful. This time, Li Shufu hired Wang Yong as the helmsman of Geely mobile phone brand, which is still very "sincere". In the 3G era, Wang Yong was once the vice president of ZTE, known as one of the leaders in the era of "China cool union". Later, he also served as the deputy general manager of ASUS China. Xiaochong believes that Wang Yong should still have mobile phone resources in his hand. A former ZTE employee who once worked with Wang Yong told reporters that Wang Yong was mainly responsible for the market department of ZTE and made great achievements in PHS, 3G mobile phone card and TD mobile phone. From his resume, Wang Yong may not be deeply involved in mobile phone R & D, "but he has a keen sense of smell for the market". Sun Yanbiao, who has just communicated with Geely's mobile phone team, said that he saw many familiar "traders" in the company. "Some acquaintances have worked in the mobile phone industry for nearly 20 years, but it is not easy to disclose their names." Compared with the team, the biggest obstacle for Geely to build high-end mobile phones may be the lack of core. In the past two years, high-end mobile phones generally lack cores, especially flagship chips. As a newcomer to the mobile phone industry, it is still unknown whether Geely can win the favor of Qualcomm and get the latest chip at the first time. You know, Xiaomi almost lost in the supply chain until Lei Jun "came out of the mountain" himself. Source: Oriental IC The third mountain is brand positioning. "Low end mobile phones can compete for price performance, but high-end mobile phones can't compete for price performance." Xiaochong believes that high-end mobile phones can only compete for brands. The easier way is to play the secondary brand. Vivo and oppo have had successful cases before, such as oppo find and vivo nex. But as a pure novice, Geely has no brand premium and no brand matrix to rely on. What else can it spell? What you can spell may be unique. "The so-called high-end brand is to make consumers accept your uniqueness." Li Nan said, "if you don't have uniqueness, why do others buy you? What makes you a high-end brand?" what's more, in the domestic mobile phone market, even if you can find some uniqueness, other mobile phone manufacturers can keep up immediately. On this point, sun Yanbiao revealed that Geely's idea is to combine mobile phones with cars, but it may not be called Geely mobile phones, but target Geely's high-end car brands, "such as Volvo and lotus." According to the quarterly mobile phone tracking report of International Data Corporation (IDC), the top five brands in mobile phone shipments in the second quarter of 2021 were vivo (23.8%), oppo (21.1%), Xiaomi (17.2%), apple (10.9%), glory (8.9%), and the market share of the five brands was close to 82%. In the high-end market, domestic mobile phones are more difficult to break through. The market share table of China's high-end smart phones in July 2021 shows that Apple accounts for 63% of the market share in the price range of more than 5000 yuan, and the highest share of domestic mobile phones is vivo's nex, accounting for 14%. How much space is left for Geely's mobile phone? Li Nan compared Geely's entry into the high-end mobile phone market to Geely's desire to "discuss the sword with Huashan" with several other major mobile phone manufacturers. "If you can succeed, that's the best. If you can't succeed, it's also good to learn something from other brands." "The goals of mobile phone manufacturers and car companies are actually the same. They are all aimed at mobile phone communication interaction ability, automobile safety, electric vehicle manufacturing ability and automatic driving ability." Li Nan believes that the boundary between electric vehicles and mobile phone manufacturers may not be so obvious in the future. Li Shufu's chess game: Unity of heaven, earth and man All kinds of signs show that Li Shufu's mobile phone may have a greater connection with Li Shufu's own business territory, not just the automobile territory. More than one person in the industry told reporters: Li Shufu intends to build a science and technology ecosystem. Source: Oriental IC Just the day before Geely announced the manufacture of mobile phones, the first commercial satellite factory built by Geely went offline. So far, Geely's commercial aerospace business covers the industrial chain of satellite design, R & D, manufacturing, operation and maintenance services. In addition, Geely has also arranged the field of flying cars. Just two days ago, Geely's Wofei Changkong announced that it would jointly establish Wolong kongtai (Chengdu) Technology Co., Ltd. with the German small aircraft design company volocopter. Wolong kongtai will be responsible for the production and operation of volocopter products in China. This marks Geely's official entry into the field of flying cars. Qixinbao shows that the registered capital of Shanghai platinum Star Technology Co., Ltd. is RMB 100 million, with the major shareholder Li Shufu holding 72% and the second shareholder Shen Ziyu holding 13%. Shen Ziyu is the actual helmsman of Wuhan Yikatong, which is an automobile intelligent technology company under Geely; The third shareholder is Haining Wanxin technology partnership, with a shareholding of 10%. Zhang Yadong and Wang Yong are the major shareholders of the company. Both of them have mobile phone experience. Source: qixinbao The legal representative of Shanghai platinum star technology is Wang Yong, whose business scope is very wide, including the sales of satellite television broadcasting ground receiving facilities; Class I value-added telecommunications services; The second category of value-added telecommunications services; Technology development, transfer and service in the field of mobile communication; Sales of mobile communication equipment; Satellite technology integrated application system integration; Even including wearable smart device sales, smart home consumer device sales and other projects. Only from the perspective of business scope, Li Shufu's "chessboard" has already been settled in many ways. This has also been confirmed by sun Yanbiao. He believes that making mobile phones may not be the end of Geely. As far as he knows, Geely is clearly going to march into wisdom