Chapter 1284 Full Screen (4k)

Is mobile important?

It seems that it is indeed important.

This year’s smartphone shipments will officially exceed PCs according to estimates from international organizations.

However, unlike Baidu's previous understanding, the mobile search engine market did not spread naturally from the PC market like a stream, but emerged from a moth like Sogou.

According to everyone's thinking, Baidu provides the best search content in China, and then it will be naturally transplanted to the mobile terminal, using our engine.

Even if manufacturers don’t use it, users will.

Therefore, Baidu is not so early and not so eager to transform the mobile terminal.

Facts have also proved that in the smart mobile market in the past few years, the company has not exerted much effort and still occupies the largest share. Users have continued the inertia of use.

However, as Yike began to really focus on the entry-level market, the situation seemed to be getting a little tricky.

Lu Zhendong was recently in charge of negotiating with mobile phone manufacturers about the default search engine. He looked back completely and had to find Li Yanhong to report on the current situation and budget improvements.

500 million US dollars a year, which is at least 3.2 billion Chinese coins.

This is Google’s launch into the global market.

According to Samsung, in the Chinese market, if Baidu wants Samsung phones to be equipped with the default search engine, the annual cost will be 600 million Chinese coins.

Zhang Yuanji, President of Samsung China, calculated that in the first eight months of this year, China’s smartphone shipments accounted for 26% of the global market. The overall fluctuation for the whole year will not be too large. Compared with Google’s investment in non-China areas , Baidu’s amount should be calculated on a scale of 1 billion.

In addition, Samsung's sales in China this year are expected to exceed 30 million units. Regardless of the model, this is the number one smartphone market in China.

And, most importantly, Baidu needs Samsung, not Samsung needs Baidu.

Zhang Yuanji personally used a computer to do the calculations, which effectively proved that 600 million was already a discounted amount.

"Baidu is the most popular search engine for users. Even if it is not the default, users will still add it back by themselves." Lu Zhendong and Samsung China President stated their attitude.

"It's precisely because of this that if Sogou came to us, it wouldn't be at this price. It would have to be 1 billion anyway." Zhang Yuanji relaxedly showed off competing products.

"Do you think Sogou will spend 1 billion to buy Samsung's default engine?" Lu Zhendong questioned.

Zhang Yuanji shook his head: "I don't know, maybe 1 billion is too expensive for Sogou?"

He asked rhetorically: "If we give it a 60% discount, will it be willing to bite the bullet?"

There is no answer to this question yet.

Lu Zhendong also put this issue in front of the boss.

Sogou has always relied on YMS series mobile phones in the mobile market. Will it spend money to buy positions from Samsung and Apple?

Sogou is a small company, and it is difficult for an existence of this level to make such a decision, but there are big investors behind it.

After hearing the latest feedback from the vice president, Li Yanhong asked twice: "Is it really $500 million that Google gives Yike a year?"

Lu Zhendong nodded, looking at Robin's surprise, he suddenly felt a lot of comfort in his heart. Look, he was not the only one who was shocked. Wasn't the Forbes rich man also shocked?

When he thought of the word "Forbes rich", another thought flashed through his mind subconsciously. There is a difference between rich and rich.

It's like, just like... giants and giants are also different.

Li Yanhong frowned and looked through the summary report of this period of work.

Domestic smartphone shipments last year reached 118 million, of which Android accounted for 53%. This year’s shipments and Android market share will obviously continue to increase.

Samsung has always developed its entire range of high, middle and low-level products. Yike used to develop an ecosystem on a separate level. This year, it also started to implement a similar strategy, which is bound to continue to increase the influence of its ecosystem in the next few years.

Search engines have now become an affected part.

It’s not that Baidu didn’t see the wave of hardware trends, and it also launched its own OEM mobile phone, but... there was no splash at all.

Similarly, because of Penguin's failure in the communications field, it has greater enthusiasm and intensity in investing and supporting new mobile phone brands. However, this kind of attack on Yike's core business has failed.

Li Yanhong flipped through the documents and didn't speak for a long time.

He thought of Mr. Fang two years ago. The reason why Sogou was separated from Sohu was because of that person's efforts.

Sogou's transformation from a challenger to a powerful challenger today is not an instant success.

"Do you think Sogou will compete for this default engine?" Li Yanhong put down the document and asked Lu Zhendong's opinion.

"In the mobile search market, Sogou has exceeded 25%, and its growth is very, very fast. It is also the second opponent we have encountered to exceed this level of market share." Lu Zhendong talked about the data, "Google used to have the highest domestic market share of 09. 33% in 2017, no matter what, Sogou is increasingly becoming a challenger that we need to prepare for.”

Sogou has not grown to the same level as Google in the past, because the PC market is quite huge, but Baidu does not have as many advantages in the mobile market as it does over Google, with a market share of 40% today.

This year's Baidu has made progress on the mobile side compared to last year. On the one hand, it benefits from the growth of the overall mobile market, and on the other hand, it also loses the share of Yisou, which once occupied the second place in mobile.

Li Yanhong wanted to hear a more precise answer: "So, Sogou will compete with us for more default positions?"

Lu Zhendong wanted to say that he was not the vice president of Sogou, but when he recalled his contact with Yike Qihe and the information he had obtained during this period, he still made a straightforward judgment: "Yike did not hide their intentions. Sogou has announced that it will challenge us since the day it was founded. Since they have reached the current level of market share, there is no reason not to continue. If we don’t take it, our opponents will definitely take it.”

He prefers to promote cooperation with Samsung.

"Then the decision is very simple. If it wants to take it, we won't let it take it." Li Yanhong agreed to increase the intensity of competition in the mobile market. "Let's talk with Samsung and Apple together."

He stood up and walked a few steps, and said with some emotion: "Sogou will definitely increase its investment. Fang Zhuo, over the years, he has done what he does to the end."

Lu Zhendong also had a similar feeling. When looking at Sogou, you should not only look at Sogou, but also Yike and Mr. Fang.

"Let's talk, Yike is indeed very powerful, but there are also Samsung and Apple. The future pattern of smartphones is probably relatively stable. If we get it, we will get it." Li Yanhong glanced at the vice president.

Lu Zhendong nodded. The pattern was stable and the money spent would produce results.

Li Yanhong made a joke: "In the past, international giants like Google came to compete with us. Now there is no need to be afraid. We have our own international giants to compete with us."

An international giant that is not very relevant in the field but is also powerful and has great style.

But Li Yanhong is very confident that Baidu is also a giant today.

…

On September 29, Yike held an overseas press conference in Silicon Valley as usual, and this year it was still hosted by co-founder Yu Hong.

After hosting press conferences continuously, both the media and consumers paying attention are quite familiar with this female CEO.

In the past three months, Yusanjia has released new mobile phone products one by one. Today, the last one, Yike, finally arrived.

This time, not only foreign businessmen and consumers are paying attention, but the domestic attention is more intense than any previous press conference, because the controversy over the restriction of ice cores has made everyone more aware that the core parts manufacturers of Yike products may face more difficulties. Serious problem.

Will the constraints on ice cores continue to deepen?

This is a very real risk.

It is precisely for this reason that titles such as "swan song" and "sustainable masterpiece" will be given to this flagship phone.

The press conference time is 7 pm in Silicon Valley and 7 am in China. Many people in China got up early to get a glimpse of the true face of Yike's flagship Lushan this year.

Yu Hong did not have as many tricks as Mr. Fang in hosting the press conference. In addition, news had been leaked one after another before. Therefore, after she briefly greeted the guests and the live audience, Yike’s Selfy3 this year appeared in front of the camera. , did not cause much surprise.

Compared with the previous generation of Selfy, Selfy3 has only undergone regular upgrades and is also equipped with Qualcomm’s flagship chip that has been unveiled on other mobile phones.

It is worth mentioning that just yesterday, Texas Instruments officially announced its withdrawal from the mobile phone chip market. This player that once divided up the world's high-end mobile phone chips has completely lost its luster.

Today's high-end mobile phone chip designers are Qualcomm, Apple, Yike and Samsung.

However, as a chip design company, Qualcomm's two major customers, Yike and Samsung, both have independently designed chips that are not inferior to Qualcomm. This is a huge uncertainty in the business.

Yu Hong talked about Selfy's still excellent photography ability on the stage, and repeatedly mentioned and thanked the supplier guest present this time - Sharp's president Okuda Takashi who just took office this year.

Since the iPhone 4S adopted Retina display, Samsung and Yike have also increased their requirements for screens. Fortunately for Samsung, it has been mass-producing OLED since October 2007, and Trump quickly followed up on the screen.

Yike only installed Sharp's OLED on Mars last year.

In Yusan's family, Samsung produces and uses its own products, Apple's screen supplier is LG, and Yike is Sharp. Everyone has their own circle.

"We have always had a pleasant cooperation with Sharp, and this time it also gave us great support." Yu Hong mentioned Sharp again.

This frequency of thanks has left many people a bit puzzled. Selfy does not seem to have received much upgrade on the screen this year.

Soon, Yu Hong revealed her intention to express her gratitude and took out the flagship products Mars 6 and Mars 6 Pro, which caused a commotion at the scene.

The press conference was presented on a large screen, and the contrast between the two products on the huge screen was very sharp.

As early as when the first generation of Mars was released, many media praised Yike for putting the entire screen on the body. However, the camera on the top and the function buttons on the bottom separated the size of the screen - the forehead. , screen, chin.

Now, without Yu Hong's explanation, everyone is keenly aware of this year's changes - the forehead and chin have disappeared, and only a hole is left on the entire screen.

"Yi Ke and Sharp have made great efforts and many attempts this year. Finally, they adopted an LCD screen based on IGZO technology, punched holes in its backlight layer, removed the display elements of the LCD panel layer corresponding to the holes, and realized the presentation of a full screen."

Yu Hong smiled and invited the new president of Sharp to come on stage to introduce how to achieve the screen supply this time.

Mars 6 still uses OLED screen, but Mars 6 Pro can only use LCD screen to achieve a full screen. It is not to condone the cost, but Sharp still cannot come up with an effective solution for digging holes in OLED screens.

Just the black border and beautification problems caused by blind holes and through holes, Sharp and Yi Ke have repeatedly studied and verified. If they want to make OLED in the future, it may take a lot of time.

Okuda Takashi came on stage with a smile on his face and talked about the technology used by Sharp this time.

He just took office in June this year. He was very happy to be invited here this time. Well... However, although Sharp has a very close cooperation with Yi Ke, its overall development in recent years has been quite sluggish.

Sharp also wanted to seek additional investment from Yike, but unfortunately, due to the large-scale financial fraud of Japanese companies this year, Yike was extremely shocked and called a halt.

Okuda Takashi hopes that this full-screen will boost some businesses and restart the negotiations with Yike.

Sharp's president talked endlessly, but everyone's attention was on Yu Hong who kept showing her phone to the camera. She silently compared the Mars 6 and Pro versions...

Let alone the aesthetics, the difference in screen utilization was immediately revealed.

When Okuda came down, Yu Hong smiled and said: "This year, our mobile phone design is a bit more radical, and it has taken a lot of time and cost. We named this one the Pro version. It is equipped with our latest quad-core Zhurong processor, which carries our expectation of opening the era of full-screen."

The screen behind released various information about the Mars 6 and Pro versions. Both are equipped with the same processor, but the front camera of the standard version is only 3 million pixels, and the Pro version also cancels the fingerprint function...

It seems that the specifications of the standard and Pro versions should be changed.

But... the Pro version has a 5-inch full screen.

As Yu Hong talked, the product purchase time was also released. Mars 6 and Slefy 3 are now available for pre-order, and can also be purchased from major channels a week later. The Mars 6 Pro version is currently only available for pre-order, and is expected to be officially launched in mid-November, which is one and a half months later.

Yike's press conference lasted for an hour and a half. In addition to the product introduction, Yu Hong also talked about the product planning for next year and officially announced a wave of tablets and smart home ecosystems.

However, when all the products were unveiled, the head of Baidu, who was also paying attention to Yike's new products, had no intention of listening to the following chatter.

"Samsung will not be defeated by Yike, right?"

Li Yanhong thought about the full-screen mobile phones he saw today, and an idea came to his mind. The market structure of the three major companies is stable, but it seems... not so stable.

He casually clicked on the website and saw a report that had already released news about Yike's new products. The title used the words "Yike's full screen is coming" in a very conspicuous way.

Li Yanhong pondered again. Samsung should be able to hold on. It won’t suffer a Waterloo just after we signed the contract…