We have collected 4 years of data to analyze what will happen if Weilai does not make mobile phones
Interestingly, the phrase "charge for 5 minutes, talk for 2 hours" was written by Shen Yiren and has been rewritten by major car companies into a description of charging speed.
There is a lot of negative public opinion on the Internet about the news that Weilai is making mobile phones. Similarly, I also think that Weilai's first mobile phone is difficult to sell better than Apple and Huami OV, and even the user experience is average, and there is a high probability of losing money. However, I agree with Weilai to make mobile phones. This is a difficult and correct way. Maybe making mobile phones does not make money, but doing a good job in mobile phones can provide a better car interconnection experience. The system creates more diverse traffic portals and realizes traffic monetization through other services .
Before the analysis, we picked up the public reports related to mobile phones of Weilai in the past 4 years , and there is a lot of interesting information.
- December 15, 2018: At the NIO Day 2018 scene, Lei Jun, as the owner of the ES8 founding version 0062, was on Li Bin’s platform, teasing the imperfection of NIO’s NOMI, which seemed to imply that Xiao Ai, a classmate who is not as good as Xiaomi’s mobile phone
- On March 31, 2019, on March 31, 2019, Li Bin spoke at the 2019 China IT Leaders Summit, thinking that autonomous driving will gradually become popular in the next 10 years, and the currently popular apps will die one day in the future
- February 21, 2022: New energy vehicle supply chain blogger @roge scout broke the news that NIO had set up a mobile phone business team in Qianhai Zhuoyue Building, Shenzhen. Disclosed Information
- February 22, 2022: 36 Krypton reported that Yin Shuijun, the former president of Meitu, led the NIO mobile phone business. Weilai has tried to poach Honor mobile phone executives, and the plan to make a mobile phone has already started before April 2021, when Lei Jun announced that the car will be built
- March 31, 2022: In the talk show @cheng YaochengShow, Li Bin pointed out that NIO will look at mobile phones from the perspective of the car, and make mobile IoT devices centered on the car. On the other hand, in the WeChat chat records uploaded on the Internet, Li Bin said that after Huawei was restricted by the United States, the proportion of NIO users using iPhones increased, and the NT2.0 models were equipped with UWB digital keys as standard, but Apple did not open the interface, and it will be difficult in the future. Tackling the Apple Car Challenge
- July 28, 2022: During a user meeting in Fuzhou, Li Bin revealed that Weilai mobile phone, like Apple, only releases one flagship model a year, but it is not as good as the top mobile phone manufacturers for the time being, and it is difficult to make a good mobile phone
- July 31, 2022: According to the blogger @TONXAN that the battery is not fat and summarized the news revealed by Li Bin face-to-face in Changzhou, Weilai mobile phone does not have a folding screen for the time being, and has the same color as the body. The chip is first launched, the price is cheaper than the iPhone, and the Android users of Weilai can not change their mobile phones in the next year (it seems to imply that they will be launched in a year)
However, what if NIO doesn't make mobile phones?
With limited car interconnection functions, Weilai faces the "Apple tax"
According to information previously disclosed by Li Bin, before Huawei was restricted by the United States, the proportion of car owners using Huawei and Apple mobile phones was 40% and 50% respectively. After that, more and more Weilai car owners switched back to iPhone mobile phones, which is equivalent to "the key to the house is in the inside the opponent". Assuming the release of Apple Cars in 2025, Weilai users find that the interconnection between iPhone and Apple Cars provides an excellent experience. At this time, I believe that many users want to replace Weilai Cars with Apple Cars.
We all know that Weilai car owners are highly loyal, but even if everyone sticks to this brand, Apple may not open the interface to Weilai at that time, resulting in limited interconnection between cars and mobile phones. However , the UWB digital key of the NT2.0 model is currently restricted by Apple, and the other party has not opened the interface .
On the other hand, if the Weilai App in the iPhone wants to add some paid services, it may also be charged an "Apple tax" . Currently, Apple has a certain degree of commission for paid apps.
In addition to the service and power exchange system, Weilai lacks more moats
Service and power exchange are to NIO what logistics are to JD. They are an important moat for NIO. However, in the face of the fiercely competitive new energy vehicle track, in addition to the power exchange system, Weilai needs to build a deeper moat.
In 2015, Apple's current COO Jeff Williams once said that the car is the "ultimate mobile device", and in WWDC 2022, the major revision of CarPlay shows us Apple's ambitions for car connectivity. Similarly, at the Hongmeng 3.0 conference on July 27, 2022, He Gang, president of Huawei Mobile Phones, believed that "the Hongmeng 3.0 system is like putting four wheels on a mobile phone, allowing the interconnection between the car and the mobile phone to land."
On the other hand, Geely has also officially teamed up with Meizu to make mobile phones, while Musk the Martian is even more ruthless, and even said that he intends to develop a new mobile operating system to replace Android and iOS systems.
Without mobile phones, important traffic portals will be lost
According to Dong Chehui’s understanding, mobile phones are not the first technology hardware that Weilai has made. The foreign investment announced by Weilai Capital shows that it has already laid out the AR/VR field as early as early 2021. The NIO ET5, which will be delivered at the end of September 2022, can realize in-car AR/VR panoramic experience. The product is jointly developed by NIO and NIO Capital member companies Nreal and NOLO.
Here is a key point for everyone. Li Bin pointed out in the interview program @cheng YaochengShow on March 31, 2022 that Weilai's idea of making mobile phones is to make mobile IoT devices centered on cars, which is similar to making clothes and snacks. , Weilai hopes to make appropriate expansion from the user's perspective to enhance users' trust in the brand and community.
Obviously, mobile phones, AR/VR and cars are all mobile IoT devices in Li Bin's eyes. However, for IoT manufacturers like Midea and Haier, it is difficult to have a good Internet experience without making mobile phones. Seeing this, do you think of Xiaomi Department Store?
Mobile phones are the most important traffic entry for Xiaomi department stores, and mobile phones x AIoT have become the core strategy, but they are currently encountering certain bottlenecks. Smart cars are a new generation of mobile space, and Xiaomi's car manufacturing is to create new increments and open up the link of the IoT system. Although Xiaomi's comprehensive hardware profit does not exceed 5%, through the expansion of the ecological chain layout, more diversified traffic entrances are created and the profit ceiling is increased.
Similarly, for Weilai, making mobile phones may not make money in the short term, but it will become an important traffic entrance to the Weilai system. After the traffic is available, it can be monetized through other businesses, which should not be missed.
Summary: Weilai is a mobile phone, and it is most likely to want to make friends
Just like the service and battery swap system, NIO’s mobile phone is likely to be a short-term unprofitable business. It aims to provide a better connected experience through NIO’s mobile phone, promote car sales, and realize other value-added services on mobile phones .
Imagine that one day, the owner of the car told NOMI of Weilai mobile phone that he wanted to go to a certain restaurant for dinner. NOMI reserved the location in advance, and after the car owner got in the car, the automatic driving system sent the car owner to the designated restaurant according to the address information sent by the mobile phone. Such an experience should be better than that of Xiao Ai? Let's see if Dong Chejun is a prophet.
By the way, many netizens ridiculed in the comment area of the "Dong Chehui Official Account" article, adding the "battery swap" function to NIO mobile phones. Did NIO executives hear it?
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