At the "2016 Xiaomi Tiantian Palace" annual meeting held on January 15th, Lei Jun announced that he would build a millet exploration laboratory this year to study the most cutting-edge technology and direction. He will first enter the field of VR (Virtual Reality Technology) and robotics. Analysts believe that the millet robot or the old millet mobile phone, unless the genetic level of self-revolution.
Entrance resource
Lei Jun believes that the core of the fun of technology lies in imagination and curiosity. Xiaomi needs to focus on the existing business and continue to develop, grasp the pulse of the times, and be the coolest product of the next era. Therefore, Xiaomi decided to start the establishment of Xiaomi Exploration Lab and enter the field of VR and robotics.
According to industry insiders, research and development in these areas actually includes two different types of direction, one focusing on the product level and the application technology. The other category focuses on basic research in the underlying technology. As far as the current level of technology accumulation is concerned, it is difficult to imagine that Xiaomi will achieve outstanding achievements in the basic research level, but this is precisely the place where it is the most deficient and most in need of reinforcement.
Jiarong analysts pointed out that the orientation of Xiaomi Exploration Lab is still correct, aiming at the two most promising applications. Robots and virtual reality products will become the most important data portals and platforms in the future of smart living, which is quite thoughtful for Xiaomi, who prefers entry resources. However, success depends on determination and commitment, and the feasibility path is to acquire the top R&D companies in the form of major bleeding. However, this is not only for the decision-maker Lei Jun, but also to solve the financing difficulties caused by high valuation at the company level, but also to overcome psychological barriers at the individual level.
Xiaomi robot should change the OEM tactics
Mental disorder
Some practitioners believe that Lei Jun is a software-born person. It should be said that he is not successful. He can even say that he lost very badly. Under the brilliant achievements of Xiaomi's mobile phone, the psychological shadow area of ​​Lei Jun's investment in technology research and development has been doubled.
Jiarong analysts said that there is an investment in research and development, and there will naturally be results. However, if the fruit that is produced does not belong to an excellent variety, the listing will only consume the circulation cost unnecessarily. In this case, the old farmer knows that it is better to let it rotten into the soil, and it is also a kind of fertilizer. As a lesson that has had a bloody lesson, Lei Jun not only understands more, but may have developed psychological barriers to investment in technology research and development.
What's more, one of Xiaomi's most important genes is light asset operation, and OEM is the form of expression. The investment in basic research often requires huge expenditures, and the benefits cannot be realized in the short term, which can be regarded as heavy asset management actions. How difficult it is to change genes requires self-revolution. Lei Jun prefers to torture other people's lives, because they have been hurt before, and they become scars that can never be completely healed. They are unwilling to be exposed, and they are even harder to start.
OEM tactics
Recently, the negative news about Xiaomi has been continuously related to OEM. The air purifier was first exposed to show falsification, and was sampled and found to have serious quality problems. The red rice series is the main sales force of Xiaomi mobile phone, and it has been troubled one after another: the latest model is said to have quality problems, and it has been reported by the media as a purely millet OEM product. Recently, it has encountered a lightning storm.
According to reports, the red rice series mobile phone is actually only an ODM product, that is, an OEM machine. From design and manufacture to product control, it is completed by the mobile phone foundry. The previous red rice mobile phone was mainly designed and produced by the mobile phone foundry Wentai, while the red rice note3 was taken over by the same name, Longqi. The design, manufacturing, and product control are all handed over to the foundry, causing the red rice mobile phone to be often spoiled with quality problems.
Jiarong analysts pointed out that Xiaomi builds an ecological circle through OEM rather than mergers and acquisitions, lacking protective thickness. Also keen on cross-border OEM, lack of investment in the upstream and downstream industries of the main products, the ecological circle is more than the width and the length is insufficient, easy to attack and defend. If the basic research investment is vigorously carried out, even if the ideal result is achieved, the process of industrialization is much more difficult than that of the enterprise with the entire industrial chain, and the risk is correspondingly doubled.
Or take the old road
According to industry insiders, the Xiaomi Discovery Lab is aimed at household robots such as Pepper, which can be quickly commercialized and suitable for Xiaomi to use its tactics to seize market share through price wars. The software system should still adopt the use of it and work with leading developers to obtain a license. Take advantage of the scale effect to get benefits from upstream and downstream suppliers and foundry companies, thus achieving cost advantages.
Some practitioners believe that the MIUI system, which is the cornerstone of Xiaomi's ecological circle, is in the face of the challenge of lightning software, which is only 14MB in size. It will be shocked to cope with the situation, and will not hesitate to put forward a desperate posture to know the technical foundation of Xiaomi. fragile. Jiarong analysts said that most of the research and development content in the field of robotics is a basic research topic, such as the exploration of artificial intelligence. If Xiaomi is still keen on pursuing short-term benefits, it will eventually take the old road of Xiaomi mobile phone.
Analysts further pointed out that despite the many side effects, domestic mobile phone manufacturers should thank the Xiaomi model for the changes brought about by the Chinese mobile phone industry, and grabbed the biggest piece of cake for domestic mobile phones. However, as a big man said, in the thousand yuan machine market, the 100-yuan spread can make the millet fans lose their stickiness. From this perspective, Xiaomi, which has no technical moat, is a volunteer in the domestic mobile phone industry. But this title is a crisis sign for companies.
Jiang Wei, chief commentator of Science and Technology Life Online, commented that the basic research results can be used as a moat, and can also be used as a bargaining chip for negotiations with competitors. If you rely too much on the application technology of the products without the moat, even if you get the glory of the moment, you will end up just marrying others.
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