The content of the post is very long, I have summarized the key points:

1. With HiSilicon chips, you can directly connect with HiSilicon colleagues to solve problems quickly when you encounter problems;

2. With a Qualcomm chip, if you encounter a problem, you must first pay $1,000 before submitting the problem, and then there will be repeated and long communication, and the problem cannot be solved for a long time;

3. HiSilicon and Qualcomm, one of the efficiency in the sky, the other in the ground;

4. HiSilicon slowly caught up with Qualcomm back then, precisely because of the rapid optimization and solution of the problem;

5. Qualcomm is like a “big man”, you will have to pay a fee of $1,000 to raise a case (it should be Qualcomm’s consulting service charge);

6. Exclamation: When can I use my country’s chips? !

   

In Song Zongguang’s Shaoxing three years, Lu You returned to his hometown, watching the beautiful rivers and mountains of the country fall under the iron hoof of the golden man, sorrow appeared between the lines, and he wrote “The deceased’s tears are all in the dust, and the king is looking south for another year.” , Depicting the scene of the people in the occupied areas eagerly looking forward to recovery. The people in the enemy-occupied area groaned in pain under the iron hoof of the golden man. Their tears have drained. How much they want to return to the embrace of the motherland. The posts of Glory employees are not as magnificent as Lu You’s rhetoric, but they express the same emotions.

In this regard, I would also like to talk about some of my views:

First, HiSilicon is really awesome, and its awesomeness is built on the basis of Huawei’s development!

The post mentioned that “HiSilicon slowly caught up with Qualcomm back then because of the rapid optimization and solution of the problem.” As a chip design company, HiSilicon’s subsequent success was based entirely on the symbiosis with Huawei’s several major product lines. Based on.

Let’s take a look at the growth history of HiSilicon chip——

In 2004, Huawei established a wholly-owned subsidiary, HiSilicon, and began to conduct chip research and development more systematically. In 2006, the development of mobile phone chip solutions was officially started. In 2009, HiSilicon launched its first mobile phone application processor, named K3V1. As the first-generation product, K3V1 is quite “rough”, using 110nm process, while mainstream chips at that time have adopted 65nm or even 45nm, a full generation of performance gap, naturally no one in the market cares.

How to do? At that time, all mobile phone manufacturers were lining up to buy Qualcomm chips, and no one wanted to be a guinea pig for Huawei. At that time, Ren Zhengfei gritted his teeth and used his mobile phone! Improve while using. Of course, if you have thunder, you must carry it yourself.

Subsequently, the mobile phone chip business was transferred to Huawei Terminal Company, and the mobile phones produced by Huawei directly use its own chips. As a result, the K3 processor was able to continue development. In 2012, an improved version of K3V2 was born. It adopted the mainstream ARM quad-core architecture and supported the Android operating system.

Of course, things have not been smooth sailing. K3V2 was born with a 40nm process, which is one generation behind the mainstream Qualcomm and Samsung processor processes at the time. The performance cannot keep up, but the power consumption is much larger. These problems led to the fact that Huawei’s flagship D1 and D2, which used K3V2, were frequently complained by users as soon as they were released-“Hand warmers” and “Tractors”.

By June 2014, Huawei chip took a big step-finally realized the integration of application processor and self-developed baseband processor Baron 720 on a single chip to form an independent system on chip (SoC, System on Chip) After surpassing the mountains and ridges, Huawei named this chip Kirin 920.

Why is it called “Kirin”? According to a source from Huawei, it is hoped that Huawei’s mobile phone chips will be more vigorous and vigorous through the guardianship of the beasts. The reality is far beyond the expectations of the Huawei people at the time-the Kirin series of chips helped Huawei’s mobile phones to completely achieve Nirvana.

Subsequently, Huawei upgraded the Kirin 925 and applied it to its own flagship Mate7 mobile phone. In the end, Mate7 created the history of domestically produced flagship mobile phones of more than 3,000 yuan, with global sales exceeding 7.5 million units.

The great success of Mate7 greatly encouraged Huawei’s chip team. Since then, Huawei has been out of control on mobile phone chips, and has continuously released upgraded Kirin 960, 970, 980, 990 and other mobile phone processors. Almost every Huawei Mate, P and Honor series mobile phones equipped with these processors are selling well, successfully establishing Huawei’s position in the mid-to-high-end mobile phone market and becoming a smart phone giant alongside Apple and Samsung.

Along the way, the success of Huawei mobile phones is actually largely based on the Kirin chip. Through the continuous upgrade of the Kirin chip, it has continuously output technical and performance support to Huawei mobile phones, and the continuous innovation of mobile terminals is driven by chip technology. , And formed a virtuous circle between the two.

Therefore, HiSilicon’s success is not for no reason, but standing on the shoulders of the giant Huawei!

Second, Qualcomm is indeed hegemonic, but it won’t be long before it’s “jumping”

Qualcomm is definitely a phenomenon in the chip market!

Qualcomm’s main business is divided into two parts, one is QCT (Qualcomm Semiconductor Business), and the other is QTL (Qualcomm Technology Licensing Business). QCT mainly researches and develops integrated circuit products and system software products based on cellular communication technology, connection technology, multimedia technology, multimedia technology, smartphones and terminal A, such as Snapdragon chips; QTL is Qualcomm’s licensing of a large number of its own patented technologies The method is open to the industry, and a certain percentage of the “patent licensing fee” (Qualcomm tax) is charged from the equipment shipped by the manufacturer. These two businesses actually complement each other. The more QCTs are sold, the higher the corresponding QTL income will be. The current ratio of these two businesses is about 3:1.

Qualcomm’s “Qualcomm tax” has long been notorious. Qualcomm has threatened Huawei that if it does not sign a license agreement and pays the license fee on the basis of spending money to buy chips, it will stop supplying chips. What’s even more annoying is that if Huawei buys chips from other chip manufacturers, then it needs to pay a higher so-called “loyalty tax” like Qualcomm to obtain its patent authorization on CDMA and other topics.

In addition to Huawei, smart phone giants including Apple have also suffered the same “threat.” Domestic manufacturers with large shipments such as Xiaomi, OPPO, and vivo are also struggling under this unequal agreement.

It is precisely because of the supply-demand relationship between the two parties that Qualcomm is particularly “arrogant” in front of Chinese mobile phone manufacturers. I just think about it, which company will charge “opening fees” because of customer feedback? !

However, Qualcomm’s arrogance will not last long. The international patent protection period is generally 20 years. Qualcomm has collected a large amount of patent fees within these 20 years by virtue of CDMA. And because of this patent barrier, Qualcomm’s mobile processor has basically formed a monopoly.

With the expiration of Qualcomm’s CDMA patents, and the number of its patents in the 4G/5G field is not enough to suppress other chip design companies, the entire mobile chip field has the possibility of flourishing development.

From the current point of view, in the high, middle and low end of 5G mobile processors, Qualcomm has to face challenges from many companies including Huawei HiSilicon, MediaTek, Samsung, and Spreadtrum. That is, Apple, which has always had to rely on Qualcomm, has now begun to acquire Intel’s baseband division in an attempt to develop its own chips. VIVO began to cooperate with Samsung, and OPPO also began to develop its own chips. It can be said that in the 5G era, the monopoly of Qualcomm’s mobile chips is in jeopardy.

Finally, let’s summarize in one sentence. The position in the market has always been based on strength. When strength is strong, even when Party B is able to oppose customers, this sentence applies to Qualcomm, and it also applies to Huawei and HiSilicon. So, come on. , Improve your strength as soon as possible, regain lost ground as soon as possible!

Author: Gong Jinhui

Due to well-known reasons, Huawei’s semiconductor company HiSilicon has been hit hard. According to the latest report of Strategy Analytics, the global smartphone processor market in Q1 this year increased by 21% year-on-year to US$6.8 billion, but HiSilicon’s performance was not satisfactory, and its smartphone processor shipments plummeted 88% year-on-year.

In fact, as early as August last year, the United States initiated the third round of sanctions on Huawei chips, making Kirin’s high-end chips a swan song, and the pessimism of the outside world continued to spread. Some people can’t help but sweat for the prospect of HiSilicon, saying that it was born for the chip. The Kirin chip is gone. Is HiSilicon still necessary?

At that time, news of HiSilicon’s staff resignation came one after another, which seemed to indicate that Qilin was no longer and HiSilicon would also be disbanded. In fact, this kind of worry is unnecessary. As for HiSilicon’s positioning in Huawei’s future system, as early as May 2019, Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei gave his own answer.

“HiSilicon is a support team of Huawei. It follows Huawei’s main battle team, just like the tankers, bridge erectors, and stretcher teams in the tank team. It is positioned like this.” The implication is that if there is no HiSilicon. , Huawei’s future road will be difficult to follow. It is not difficult to see that the mission that HiSilicon will shoulder in the future is even more arduous.

It didn’t take long for Ren Zhengfei to talk about Hisilicon again in an exclusive interview with CCTV. When the host mentioned that “Hisilicon is almost like a hero in everyone’s mind”, he immediately echoed that they were originally heroes, but they were unknown. Although unknown, they have won many medals, high ranks, and a lot of income. According to a joke, as long as “a lot of money”, that’s fine.

Recently, Huawei director Chen Lifang rarely disclosed the latest status of HiSilicon. She revealed that HiSilicon has more than 7,000 employees in 2020, so maintaining this part will be a serious financial burden for Huawei. However, Chen Lifang emphasized that Huawei is a privately held company and is not affected by external forces. Its management has made it clear that it will retain HiSilicon.

In other words, Huawei continues to develop world-leading semiconductor components internally, and the HiSilicon department will not make any reorganization or layoff decisions. Chen Lifang said that despite the sanctions, even if TSMC is unable to produce, Huawei HiSilicon will continue to develop semiconductors, which is expected to continue for two to three years, and Huawei can cope with it freely.

She believes that other countries are working hard to promote their own semiconductor industry upgrades, which will help HiSilicon to obtain new supply chain partners that do not rely on American technology. Chen Lifang predicts that this situation (Huawei chips will be seen again) will be seen in a few years.

In my opinion, the pain of broken cores in 2020 has plunged HiSilicon into the darkest moment, revealing that it is good at chip research and development, but chip manufacturing is a major weakness. Without TSMC’s foundry, SMIC’s technology cannot meet the requirements of HiSilicon Kirin chips, and cannot enter the production line. HiSilicon’s high-end chips can only stay on the drawings. The developed chips cannot be produced, and the future of HiSilicon has become the focus of attention from the outside world.

For Huawei, HiSilicon plays a key role in occupying the strategic high ground of technology. No matter how difficult it is, it cannot be easily given up. Although the United States continues to suppress it and has experienced the deepest suffering since its establishment, among Ren Zhengfei’s options, “We have nowhere to go except victory.”

Huawei’s rotating chairman Xu Zhijun also bluntly said that Huawei has no profit appeals to HiSilicon and supports the HiSilicon team to continue chip research and development to prepare for the future. “As long as Huawei can afford it, it will keep HiSilicon’s chip team.”

Today, HiSilicon’s mission is more arduous and greater. It not only shoulders the future life and death of Huawei’s terminals, but also represents the breakthrough power of China’s chip manufacturing. Get up from where you fall, and break where you get stuck. It is imperative for Huawei to build its own chip R&D software and chip manufacturing equipment, break through basic innovation, and win the next era.

At the critical juncture of life and death when the core components are stuck, Huawei led by Ren Zhengfei remains firm in its direction and has become a banner of Chinese technology companies with the courage to “root down and pierce the sky up”. Come on Huawei! Come on Haisi!

Author: Gong Jinhui

Due to well-known reasons, Huawei’s semiconductor company HiSilicon has been hit hard. According to the latest report of Strategy Analytics, the global smartphone processor market in Q1 this year increased by 21% year-on-year to US$6.8 billion, but HiSilicon’s performance was not satisfactory, and its smartphone processor shipments plummeted 88% year-on-year.

In fact, as early as August last year, the United States initiated the third round of sanctions on Huawei chips, making Kirin’s high-end chips a swan song, and the pessimism of the outside world continued to spread. Some people can’t help but sweat for the prospect of HiSilicon, saying that it was born for the chip. The Kirin chip is gone. Is HiSilicon still necessary?

At that time, news of HiSilicon’s staff resignation came one after another, which seemed to indicate that Qilin was no longer and HiSilicon would also be disbanded. In fact, this kind of worry is unnecessary. As for HiSilicon’s positioning in Huawei’s future system, as early as May 2019, Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei gave his own answer.

“HiSilicon is a support team of Huawei. It follows Huawei’s main battle team, just like the tankers, bridge erectors, and stretcher teams. It is positioned like this.” The implication is that if there is no HiSilicon. , Huawei’s future road will be difficult to follow. It is not difficult to see that the mission that HiSilicon will shoulder in the future is even more arduous.

It didn’t take long for Ren Zhengfei to talk about Hisilicon again in an exclusive interview with CCTV. When the host mentioned that “Hisilicon is almost like a hero in everyone’s mind”, he immediately echoed that they were originally heroes, but they were unknown. Although unknown, they have won many medals, high ranks, and a lot of income. According to a joke, as long as “a lot of money”, that’s fine.

Recently, Huawei director Chen Lifang rarely disclosed the latest status of HiSilicon. She revealed that HiSilicon has more than 7,000 employees in 2020, so maintaining this part will be a serious financial burden for Huawei. However, Chen Lifang emphasized that Huawei is a privately held company and is not affected by external forces. Its management has made it clear that it will retain Hisilicon.

In other words, Huawei continues to develop world-leading semiconductor components internally, and the HiSilicon department will not make any reorganization or layoff decisions. Chen Lifang said that despite the sanctions, even if TSMC is unable to produce, Huawei HiSilicon will continue to develop semiconductors, which is expected to continue for two to three years, and Huawei can cope with it freely.

She believes that other countries are working hard to promote their own semiconductor industry upgrades, which will help HiSilicon to obtain new supply chain partners that do not rely on American technology. Chen Lifang predicts that this situation (Huawei chips will be seen again) will be seen in a few years.

In my opinion, the pain of broken cores in 2020 has plunged HiSilicon into the darkest moment, revealing that it is good at chip research and development, but chip manufacturing is a major weakness. Without TSMC’s foundry, SMIC’s technology cannot meet the requirements of HiSilicon Kirin chips, and cannot enter the production line. HiSilicon’s high-end chips can only stay on the drawings. The developed chips cannot be produced, and the future of HiSilicon has become the focus of attention from the outside world.

For Huawei, HiSilicon plays a key role in occupying the strategic high ground of technology. No matter how difficult it is, it cannot be easily given up. Although the United States continues to suppress it and has experienced the deepest suffering since its establishment, among Ren Zhengfei’s options, “We have nowhere to go except victory.”

Huawei’s rotating chairman Xu Zhijun also bluntly said that Huawei has no profit appeals to HiSilicon and supports the HiSilicon team to continue chip research and development to prepare for the future. “As long as Huawei can afford it, it will keep HiSilicon’s chip team.”

Today, HiSilicon’s mission is more arduous and greater. It not only shoulders the future life and death of Huawei’s terminals, but also represents the breakthrough power of China’s chip manufacturing. Get up from where you fall, and break where you get stuck. It is imperative for Huawei to build its own chip R&D software and chip manufacturing equipment, break through basic innovation, and win the next era.

At the critical juncture of life and death when the core components are stuck, Huawei led by Ren Zhengfei remains firm in its direction and has become a banner of Chinese technology companies with the courage to “root down and pierce the sky up”. Come on Huawei! Come on Haisi!

Author: Gong Jinhui

Due to well-known reasons, Huawei’s semiconductor company HiSilicon has been hit hard. According to the latest report of Strategy Analytics, the global smartphone processor market in Q1 this year increased by 21% year-on-year to US$6.8 billion, but HiSilicon’s performance was not satisfactory, and its smartphone processor shipments plummeted 88% year-on-year.

In fact, as early as August last year, the United States initiated the third round of sanctions on Huawei chips, making Kirin’s high-end chips a swan song, and the pessimism of the outside world continued to spread. Some people can’t help but sweat for the prospect of HiSilicon, saying that it was born for the chip. The Kirin chip is gone. Is HiSilicon still necessary?

At that time, news of HiSilicon’s staff resignation came one after another, which seemed to indicate that Qilin was no longer and HiSilicon would also be disbanded. In fact, this kind of worry is unnecessary. As for HiSilicon’s positioning in Huawei’s future system, as early as May 2019, Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei gave his own answer.

“HiSilicon is a support team of Huawei. It follows Huawei’s main battle team, just like the tankers, bridge erectors, and stretcher teams in the tank team. It is positioned like this.” The implication is that if there is no HiSilicon. , Huawei’s future road will be difficult to follow. It is not difficult to see that the mission that HiSilicon will shoulder in the future is even more difficult.

It didn’t take long for Ren Zhengfei to talk about Hisilicon again in an exclusive interview with CCTV. When the host mentioned that “Hisilicon is almost like a hero in everyone’s mind”, he immediately echoed that they were originally heroes, but they were unknown. Although unknown, they have won many medals, high ranks, and a lot of income. According to a joke, as long as “a lot of money”, that’s fine.

Recently, Huawei director Chen Lifang rarely disclosed the latest status of HiSilicon. She revealed that HiSilicon has more than 7,000 employees in 2020, so maintaining this part will be a serious financial burden for Huawei. However, Chen Lifang emphasized that Huawei is a privately held company and is not affected by external forces. Its management has made it clear that it will retain HiSilicon.

In other words, Huawei continues to develop world-leading semiconductor components internally, and the HiSilicon department will not make any reorganization or layoff decisions. Chen Lifang said that despite the sanctions, even if TSMC is unable to produce, Huawei HiSilicon will continue to develop semiconductors, which is expected to continue for two to three years, and Huawei can cope with it freely.

She believes that other countries are working hard to promote their own semiconductor industry upgrades, which will help HiSilicon to obtain new supply chain partners that do not rely on American technology. Chen Lifang predicts that this situation (Huawei chips will be seen again) will be seen in a few years.

In my opinion, the pain of broken cores in 2020 has plunged HiSilicon into the darkest moment, revealing that it is good at chip research and development, but chip manufacturing is a major weakness. Without TSMC’s foundry, SMIC’s technology cannot meet the requirements of HiSilicon Kirin chips, and cannot enter the production line. HiSilicon’s high-end chips can only stay on the drawings. The developed chips cannot be produced, and the future of HiSilicon has become the focus of attention from the outside world.

For Huawei, HiSilicon plays a key role in occupying the strategic high ground of technology. No matter how difficult it is, it cannot be easily given up. Although the United States continues to suppress it and has experienced the deepest suffering since its establishment, among Ren Zhengfei’s options, “We have nowhere to go except victory.”

Huawei’s rotating chairman Xu Zhijun also bluntly said that Huawei has no profit appeals to HiSilicon and supports the HiSilicon team to continue chip research and development to prepare for the future. “As long as Huawei can afford it, it will keep HiSilicon’s chip team.”

Today, HiSilicon’s mission is more arduous and greater. It not only shoulders the future life and death of Huawei’s terminals, but also represents the breakthrough power of China’s chip manufacturing. Get up from where you fall, and break where you get stuck. It is imperative for Huawei to build its own chip R&D software and chip manufacturing equipment, break through basic innovation, and win the next era.

At the critical juncture of life and death when the core components are stuck, Huawei led by Ren Zhengfei remains firm in its direction and has become a banner of Chinese technology companies with the courage to “root down and pierce the sky up”. Come on Huawei! Come on Haisi!

Nowadays, when you mention HiSilicon, everyone will think of Kirin chips. However, in addition to Kirin chips for smart devices, HiSilicon also has Kunpeng series service CPUs for data centers; AI chipsets for artificial intelligence, Ascend series Soc ; Used to connect chips such as Barong baseband chips; other dedicated chips (security, Internet of Things, etc.). HiSilicon, which has always been unknown, turned from the “spare tire” to the right at the juncture of Huawei’s huge survival crisis.

Relying on the escort of HiSilicon Kirin chip all the way, Huawei slowly gains a foothold in the mobile phone field and gains a foothold in the high-end with self-developed chips. Today, there is no TSMC’s production capacity to support smartphone processor shipments that have dropped by 88% compared to the same period last year. Although the most expensive in the 21st century is talent, the salary costs and various expenditures of 7,000 engineers are still a huge burden for Huawei. Faced with various doubts in the industry, Chen Lifang, director of Huawei, once again stated that HiSilicon continues to develop world-leading semiconductor components, and HiSilicon will not make any reorganization or layoff decisions.

Give up the fantasy to make chips! Huawei HiSilicon is “forced to operate”, and these 7,000 people “cannot be less than one”! Despite the sanctions, Huawei HiSilicon will promote more product upgrades. On the other hand, it will accelerate the “de-beautification” process. This will promote the emergence of Huawei’s new supply chain partners. The rebirth of Huawei’s chips will be in the near future. arrival.

Not long ago, industry chain news said: In order to compete for the initiative in chip manufacturing, HiSilicon is developing 3nm process chips. Even if Huawei loses TSMC in the field of chip foundry, this does not affect HiSilicon’s advanced manufacturing process. There are not a few manufacturers that can “burn money” in the chip field. Perhaps Huawei should pay more attention to employee movements to prevent HiSilicon’s talent loss. What do you think of this?

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Vice Chairman of Huawei, Rotating Chairman Xu Zhijun

He believes that as long as the HiSilicon team is still there, continue to do chip research, develop and accumulate for the future, one day it will still be able to solve the current dilemma.

Xu Zhijun also shared the performance of Huawei in 2020 at the analyst conference. Huawei’s 2020 sales revenue was 891.4 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.8%, and its net profit was 64.6 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.2%.

Xu Zhijun said that in 2021, Huawei will still face challenges, including US sanctions on Huawei, repeated epidemics, and uncertainty caused by geopolitics. For Huawei, it needs to optimize its industrial portfolio and enhance its resilience.

HiSilicon’s self-developed IP, precipitation technology

Due to U.S. sanctions, TSMC and other foundries will not be able to produce chips for Huawei since September 15, 2020. No matter 5nm, 7nm mobile phone chips or 16nm, 28nm (including HiSilicon’s self-developed TWS headset Bluetooth chip), they will Production is prohibited.

Regarding the current status of the Huawei HiSilicon team, Huawei announced its 2020 performance in Shenzhen on the afternoon of March 31. Huawei’s rotating chairman Hu Hou said that the HiSilicon team is still stable.

At the Huawei Global Analyst Conference on April 12, Huawei’s vice chairman and rotating chairman Xu Zhijun bluntly stated that the chips currently designed by HiSilicon cannot be produced, and Huawei’s positioning of HiSilicon is not a profitable department, so it will Continue to raise HiSilicon and continue to do research on chip design until it breaks through the predicament.

A chip design practitioner told reporters: “Huawei HiSilicon still has a lot of measures to deal with sanctions, including the outsourcing of HiSilicon, or the establishment of a production line not restricted by the United States by a company within the United Nations, or waiting for the domestic semiconductor ecosystem. Mature. Combine more points and seek breakthroughs.”

“Hisilicon has subdivided departments, which are divided according to the process nodes and product positioning used. Some departments are less affected, and some departments have a greater impact.” The chip designer said.

A HiSilicon insider Zhang Jun (pseudonym) revealed that HiSilicon transferred the 2020 freshmen who originally designed the chip directly, and most of them went to the computing product line. “HiSilicon’s business contraction is affirmative, and the new employees of the Kirin chip department after July 2020 will also be transferred.” Zhang Jun told reporters.

However, Zhang Jun pointed out that the core strength of the HiSilicon team is still stable. It only transfers some freshmen or new employees to businesses that are not significantly affected by the sanctions based on the volume of business. The core strength of the original team is still doing the key. The basic IP research and development.

“It is expected that in the coming years, the workload of HiSilicon employees will be heavier, and the income may also be reduced to a certain extent. The reason is that under US sanctions, many IPs purchased in the past will need to be redesigned by themselves, and the short-term workload will increase. Great, but this is also an opportunity for employees to improve their abilities.” Zhang Jun explained the reason.

The impact of sanctions on HiSilicon is still relatively large. The decline in business volume will inevitably bring about certain insider changes, and the increase in salary ranks will slow down, and the workload will increase. This cannot be denied.

However, from the perspective of employees, working in HiSilicon is still the best choice to obtain good ability enhancement and career development prospects. “As long as the company is willing to continue to sign a contract with me, I will continue to do it!” Zhang Jun expressed The voice of most HiSilicon employees.

At the Huawei company level, Xu Zhijun also expressed his determination to continue to support and “provide” HiSilicon. Even if HiSilicon’s business has fallen sharply in recent years, relying on Huawei’s revenue and volume in other areas, there will be no major problems in maintaining HiSilicon’s operations.

In addition, I took advantage of this opportunity to immerse myself in self-developed IP, optimize the platform, settle the research and development results and experience, and wait for the opportunity to break through.

Mobile phones are out of stock, Hongmeng IoT is on the top

In 2020, limited by the U.S. ban, Huawei’s mobile phones face coreless usability, and the Honor brand will be split and independent.

However, looking at Huawei’s finances in 2020, Huawei’s consumer business will still generate 482.9 billion yuan in revenue in 2020, achieving a year-on-year growth of 3.3%. This was mainly due to the rapid growth in sales of PCs and tablets, which offset the decline in sales of mobile phones.

“All-scenario IoT devices equipped with the Hongmeng system will become a new growth point for Huawei in 2021.” said Liang Ming (pseudonym), a Huawei dealer.

Huawei’s consumer business still adheres to the “1+8+N” full-scenario smart life strategy. It will focus on the “1” of mobile phones and focus on the “8” (tablets, PCs, wearables, HD, AI speakers, headsets, VR, cars). Machine) and “N” (Pan IoT) growth potential.

Since chips cannot be produced, Huawei relies on inventory to maintain its mobile phone business, and it cannot supply large quantities to the market. Liang Ming told reporters: “There are many popular models that are out of stock, such as the Mate 40 series, which is out of stock for a long time.” However, many dealers have turned to customers to recommend Huawei’s smart ecological products, such as smart watches, PCs, and tablets. Wait.

“The growth rate of consumer business last year did not meet expectations. Huawei’s terminal business has been advancing by leaps and bounds, but last year due to supply problems, mobile phone sales were affected and sales declined.” Huawei’s rotating chairman Hu Hou said, consumer business The slowdown in growth is mainly due to supply issues.

According to data from the research organization CINNO Research, in January this year, Huawei, after the spin-off of Honor, only ranked fourth in domestic shipments. According to the forecast of Strategy Analytics, in 2021, Huawei’s global shipments will not even enter the top five and will be classified as “other”.

Source: Couterpoint

According to Counterpoint’s latest statistics, in February 2021, Huawei’s global market share was only 4%, but it should be pointed out that in the past, Huawei’s mobile phone global market share was calculated together with glory. When Honor is split, the chip is still in short supply. Huawei must plan to increase the volume so as to maintain its voice and popularity in the flagship mobile phone market.

From the perspective of consumer business, despite the decline in mobile phone shipments, Huawei’s wearable device shipments in 2020 increased by 50% year-on-year to 43.5 million units, ranking third in the world and first in China. In addition, sales of products including PCs and tablets also increased by 65% ​​year-on-year. Hu Hou pointed out that this partly offset the decline in mobile phone sales.

Hu Hou pointed out that this year’s supply situation is still not clear and it is difficult to predict what will happen to the mobile phone business, but the flagship model originally planned to be launched will not change. The implication is that the P50 series and even the Mate 50 series in the second half of the year are already in the plan. I believe it will still be equipped with the Kirin 9000 chip, and the Hongmeng system will be used for the first time.

In the coming time, Huawei still believes that its flagship high-end mobile phone will maintain a certain lead. In addition, Huawei’s consumer business includes not only mobile phones, but also other consumer products, and it has always created a full-scene experience.

The Hongmeng system is the key to the software for building a full-scene ecosystem. It is a distributed operating system oriented to full-scenarios. It has been used in large screens, cars, and other fields, and will also be logged on to mobile phones this year. Hu Hou revealed that more than 20 hardware manufacturers and more than 200 software manufacturers have participated in the relevant R&D cooperation of Hongmeng System.

“It is believed that Huawei’s mobile phone-based business structure will undergo certain changes to preserve the roots of mobile phones, based on ICT connection technology, and relying on the development of the Hongmeng system to gradually build multiple IoT scenarios such as PCs, bracelets, and smart screens. Ecology.” Liang Ming put forward his own opinions.

Looking forward to the global restoration of industrial chain cooperation

In 2021, Huawei’s two major business directions will not change: one is to focus on ICT infrastructure and act as an enabler of social digital transformation; the other is to focus on consumers and create a full-scenario smart life experience. Huawei is still stuck with the US sanctions and bans, and it also calls for the resumption of global industrial cooperation.

Hu Hou said that in the past two years, in response to sanctions, Huawei has invested considerable resources in purchasing chips to meet customer needs, especially the chip inventory required by TO B users. He pointed out that the industry chain situation based on global cooperation will still be the mainstream of the industry, and Huawei will insist on open cooperation and innovation.

Regarding the current lack of order in the semiconductor supply chain, Xu Zhijun believes that the current shortage of chips and rising prices are due to the de-globalization of the semiconductor supply chain, which has led to an increase in the cost of the global chip industry.

In the past three years, the United States has imposed three rounds of sanctions on Huawei, which have continued to affect and hurt Huawei. The sanctions not only harm Huawei, but also have an impact on global semiconductors, destroying the performance of the global industrial chain, and allowing more countries and individuals to consider semiconductor supply chain security issues. For example, many countries such as Europe are taking measures to increase the autonomy of semiconductors. U.S. sanctions have caused all companies to change from “hoping to achieve zero inventory” to now hoarding stocks under panic, causing tension in the supply chain.

Xu Zhijun believes that the current price increase of chip foundry, the price increase in the next few years (chips, electronic products) is a predictable thing. Sanctions are evolving into global and industry-wide supply shortages, and the future economic crisis caused by it is still unknown.

The current global shortage of automotive chips appears to be caused by the imbalance between supply and demand caused by the epidemic, but the more internal reason is that the system stability of the global supply chain is gradually being eroded. “In the future, it is possible to split the supply chain into the US system and the non-US system. Of course, this is a situation that no one wants to see.” Chen Yuenan, a senior analyst at Jiwei Consulting, analyzed.

Therefore, whether the supply chain can be improved in the future still depends on the cooperation and repair of the international chip industry chain, and it is the essence of restoring the global industry chain cooperation.

(Proofreading/SKY)