A few days ago, the 2018 Mobile World Congress was opened in Barcelona, Spain. Foreign participants visited the booth of Chinese mobile phone brand Xiaomi.
People's vision
This year's government work report calls for promoting the development of the integrated circuit industry. The IC industry, commonly known as the 'chip' industry, can be described as 'industrial food'. As the world’s largest electronics manufacturing country and mass consumer market, in 2017, China's IC imports have reached more than 200 billion US dollars.
This kind of 'core-less' pain also exists in smartphones that are almost hand-stitched. In particular, with the development of domestic branded smartphones from mid- to low-end to mid-to-high-end, the resulting high-end component costs have increased. Industry profits have caused further squeeze.
Is it necessary to independently research and develop the chip? How does the independent chip break? These issues have become the focus of attention.
Apple's single mobile phone profit can reach 151 US dollars, which is nearly 14 times the average profit of Chinese mobile phone manufacturers.
The chip is the commanding point of information technology. Xiaomi's founder, chairman and chief executive officer Lei Jun, believes that 'the chip is only as big as a nail, but it may be the most complicated thing on the planet because it puts most of the components that the phone needs. Packed in, high stability requirements. '
According to experts, mobile phone chips are very important for R&D and manufacture of mobile phones. Especially now the performance of mobile phones is reflected by the difference in the performance of the chips. The functions of the 'cerebral center', communication, multimedia, and photographing of mobile phones depend on the underlying layers. Type chip to achieve. Most of the current mobile phone chipset is a highly integrated chipset.
China is the world's largest smart phone market and production country. In the fierce market competition, China's mobile phone manufacturers continue to rise, but when it comes to 'profit rate', some manufacturers tend to avoid talking.
According to relevant statistics, in 2017, Apple, Samsung took away 86% of the global smartphone profits, and the profit of Apple's mobile phones even reached 151 US dollars, which is nearly 14 times the profit of Chinese manufacturers on average for each mobile phone. Brand mobile phone profit of only a dozen yuan.
There are many reasons that influence the mobile phone's profit, such as brand and cost control. However, the factors of the mobile phone chip cannot be ignored. According to calculations, the cost of a chip's core components accounts for more than one-third of the smartphones priced at 1,000 yuan. At present, domestic mobile phones mostly use chips developed and produced by foreign companies. Excessive patent licensing fees have a large impact on the profits of domestic mobile phone manufacturers.
On the other hand, those mobile terminal manufacturers who can produce chips themselves have obvious advantages in combining hardware and software. After mastering the chip technology, the stability index and power consumption of mobile phones will increase by an order of magnitude. With regards to the shipment of millions of handsets, this means excellent mobile phone performance and a great user experience. It also means an increase in brand image and brand value, which can lead to greater profit margins. Currently, the world’s leading mobile phone manufacturers , Basically have their own chips, such as Apple, Samsung, Huawei, Xiaomi, etc. Have their own chips, become an important way to get rid of the homogenization competition.
'The chip is the commanding height of the technology of the mobile phone industry in the future. If you want to become a super player in this field, the technology at the top of the pyramid must be won.' Zhu Ling, CEO of Xiaogu’s pinecone electronics, believes that only companies with core technologies will be able to Will be in the future 'exam test', and other players to open the gap.
It takes time for domestic self-developed chips to catch up with foreign chips, but it is constantly making breakthroughs and moving towards high-end
Some experts believe that the current proportion of domestic mobile phones using independent chips is not high, mainly independent chips do not have corresponding capabilities.
A mobile phone contains a lot of chips, such as communication baseband master chip and WiFi, memory, fingerprint identification and other chips. Each chip currently has a market leader. For example, Qualcomm dominates the communication baseband, which occupies almost half of the baseband chip market, and Broadcom leads the company. WiFi and RF front-end chips, Samsung led memory chips, etc.
According to industry insiders, from the perspective of supply, in the Android mobile phone market, the supply of foreign chips accounts for more than 50% of the supply base chip. The domestic mobile phone brands such as Huawei, Xiaomi, OPPO, Vivo, etc., communicate with the baseband chip. Most of them use foreign chips. Among them, Huawei partially uses its own communication baseband chip. RF front-end chips, memory chips basically all use foreign chips.
In the face of strong independent chip demand, several powerful domestic manufacturers responded with practical actions. Ziguang Group successively merged and merged two chip design companies, Hexun and Rui Dike from 2013. Currently, Ziguang Zengrui has become China's shipment. The largest integrated circuit design company and the world’s third largest mobile phone chip design company. Huawei’s Hais Kirin chip shipments exceeded 100 million... Xiaomi released its own self-developed first mid-to-high end mobile phone chip at the end of February last year. 3. After Samsung, it was another mobile phone company with its own chip technology.
In the special mobile phone chip design enterprise like Qualcomm, Violet Zengrui is the third largest baseband communication chip company in the world. Its chips are adopted by more than 80% of domestic mobile phone brands, but at present, it is mainly at the middle and low-end models. The advantage is mainly reflected in the cost performance. The high-end models of the domestic brand mobile phone flagship still use foreign chips.
Experts believe that the development of China's telecommunications industry is relatively late to the developed countries, and there is still a gap between research and development capabilities, technology accumulation, patents, and foreign manufacturers. Therefore, domestic self-developed chips basically start from the low-end, and it takes time to catch up with foreign chips. However, it will take time. The national government supports and invests in policies and funds. Domestic chips are constantly making breakthroughs and moving toward the mid-to-high end.
The establishment of core technologies requires cycles and undergoes constant breakthroughs. Zhu Ling believes that Xiaomi’s self-developed chip was successfully mass-produced and successfully carried on mobile phones. This was a breakthrough that was almost unthinkable before. In addition, Huawei’s The mobile phone chip is expected to develop faster on 5G, domestic related companies have begun to start the development of memory chips, domestic fingerprint identification chips are gradually increasing market share.
5G is considered to be the key to catching up with China's own mobile phone chip
Lei Jun believes that with the gradual increase in the complexity of processes and technologies, the cost of chip R&D will continue to increase. There are still many ways to go in the future. The first-generation chip millet invested 1 billion yuan, gradually increasing the complexity of processes and technologies. , The future investment may need to increase to 1 billion yuan or even 2 billion yuan each year.
Industry experts believe that the constant accumulation and perfection of long-period chips required for chip R&D and huge investment are also important reasons why many domestic companies are daunting. Huawei's Hass chips can achieve breakthroughs, and Huawei's mobile phone support behind it is crucial.
At the same time, the accumulation of large-scale funds and talents does not represent an improvement in the level of technology. It still needs the guidance of the market behind. When the chips produced can be put into use and continue to improve iteratively, when the market moves into a virtuous circle In order to really make the industry work.
Taking domestic self-owned brand Ziguang Zengrui as its example, it is the only domestic mobile phone chip design company with its own embedded CPU core technology, which has positive significance for promoting chip safety and control. At the same time, Ziguang Zengrui’s chips gradually cover. In the high-end, has a certain degree of technical advantages, Lenovo, Huawei, Cool and other domestic brands mobile phones have used the baseband chip of Violet show sharp.
'With the improvement of independent innovation capability, the gap between us and foreign chips is gradually narrowing. ' Ziguang Group Chairman Zhao Weiguo said that on the one hand China has the world's largest chip market, on the other hand, the integrated circuit industry is the core of the entire information industry At the core, the country has given strategic support to the semiconductor and chip industries and expects to achieve catch-up in the 5G field.
5G is considered to be the key to China's own mobile phone chip catch-up. At present, Ziguang Zengrui, Huawei, and Xiaomi are making corresponding research and development for 5G technology, and they hope to achieve simultaneous deployment of 5G mobile network to market.
Industry experts believe that, driven by the market, China will not only be a gathering place for mobile phone R&D, but will also become a gathering place for the development of global integrated circuits. More and more international technology companies have shown strong intention to cooperate with Chinese companies. If it can lead the leading companies to play a leading role, it will provide a good opportunity for the development of China's semiconductor industry.
Zhao Weiguo believes that international cooperation is the way. Domestic companies have a foothold in independent innovation and master core technologies with independent intellectual property rights. 'Independent innovation + international cooperation' is a two-wheel drive that promotes the development of domestically-developed independent chips. Cooperation with international advanced companies It will help domestic companies to rapidly increase their technological strength, achieve complementary advantages, complete technology accumulation, and launch products that are more in line with market demand, thereby further enhancing their independent innovation capabilities. It is believed that in a further five to ten years, domestic mobile phone chips will have a series of core A major breakthrough in technology.